'Disrespectful!' Phillip Schofield's interview with Matt Hancock slammed over 'savage' dig

Matt Hancock, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at university, joined Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning to discuss his call for all primary children to receive dyslexia

screening. Willoughby, who has spoken openly about being dyslexic, shared her support for the bill but This Morning viewers were left stunned when Schofield hit out at the former Health

Secretary. 

Schofield said: “For many children up and down the land this will be a very important bill.

“It will mean every child will know if they’re dyslexic before they leave primary school so they can be taught to how their mind works. 

“Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread social distancing rules?”

“No,” Hancock replied. “I can’t blame that on dyslexia or anything else.

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“In fact, I’m not asking for any special favours because I’m dyslexic and in politics, I’ve got some things to offer in that case that was a mistake and I apologise for it.”

“It was a failure of leadership because I came on shows like this and asked people to do things and then I didn’t follow those rules myself.”

Schofield interjected: “At that time we were all in it together we were here, you were there.

“We gave you a hard time about what we considered were major issues and problems and mistakes – the care homes, those sort of things. 

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“Do you regret the fact that you’re not there when we start to come out at the other end of this?”

“Well I think Sajid Javid who’s doing the job now is doing an excellent job,” he replied.

“Better than you?” Schofield asked and Hancock said: “Well who knows? Because there’s so many uncertainties and new things hitting us like the new Omicron variant but I think he’s doing a

great job.

“In those jobs the pressures are big but that’s no excuse it was a failure of leadership on my part and I’ve apologised for that.”

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This Morning viewers were divided over Phillip’s question and took to Twitter to comment. 

Hannah Cowell added: “So Matt Hancock was talking about dyslexia and then instead of focusing on dyslexia you talk about him breaking the rules….. everyone knows he broke the rules and he

resigned so get over it #ThisMorning.”

@The_GLL_house wrote: “’Was it your dyslexia that made you break the covid rules?'...Really Phillip?...Really? 

“Say what you like about Matt Hancock but that question was incredibly disrespectful to anyone with dyslexia! #ThisMorning #phillipschofield.”

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Joely shared: “LISTEN I don’t like Matt Hancock but what Philip just said to him was rude.

“He’s come on to talk about his dyslexia and Philip has said, ‘So is your dyslexia why you misread the social distancing rules’ so out of line to bring his learning difficulty into it.”

Karen Hendy tweeted: “@KarenHendy90 Oh my god, @Schofe is savage #thismorning.”

ZOE remarked: “When Phil asked Matt Hancock ‘was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing rules’ on #ThisMorning just now let me tell you I CHOKED.”

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