Suffolk Coastal MP and cabinet minister Therese Coffey cut off presenter Piers Morgan in a heated discussion on Good Morning Britain as she was grilled on the coronavirus death rate.

After Dr Coffey, who is work and pensions secretary, said the age of those who had caught the disease and the obesity in the population needed to be recognised, Mr Morgan said: "So are you saying the reason for us having the worst death rate in the world is the public: that they're too old and too fat?"

Dr Coffey said that was a very insulting thing to say and that there were a variety of factors.

After they then talked across each other, Dr Coffey said: "Unfortunately I have to go to other interviews."

Mr Morgan reminded her that government ministers had boycotted his ITV programme for many months last year.

As he said: "You're not going to explain why you think I was insulting . . ." Dr Coffey turned off her Zoom feed, saying: "You've already had 20 minutes of my time, I appreciate it's 20 minutes of your time. Thank you, bye bye."

Dr Coffey later posted a tweet saying that her interview had been delayed and she told GMB that she had to leave by 8.30am because of a further interview booked with the BBC.

However, her departure did cause a great number of comments on social media.