Anthea Turner calls 'GMTV' "intensely hostile environment" in wake of Kelly McVey 'feud'

Anthea Turner has called GMTV an “intensely hostile environment” where she was made to feel inferior.

The former Blue Peter presenter left the children’s TV show to work on the nineties breakfast programme and confessed she use to go to work feeling physically sick every morning.

Turner told Best magazine: “When I arrived at GMTV, it was a terrible shock, because I’d come from Blue Peter – where everyone was nice to everyone! It was an intensely hostile environment.

“I used to feel physically sick some mornings – really nauseous at the idea of going in there.

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“I was made to feel inferior, and was openly sneered.”

Her comments come a week after it emerged there was tension between aspiring Tory leader Esther McVey and TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, who used to work together on GMTV.

Turner, 59, recalled being mocked about reading a broadsheet newspaper while working on the show.

She said: “One day, I was sat on the sofa ready to go on air and The Telegraph newspaper was on the coffee table in front of me.

“A colleague walked past and picked it up, and she said, ‘Sorry, Anthea, were you reading this? Oh no, you don’t read the big ones, do you?’”

Turner made it clear she was not referring to either Kelly or McVey.

Last week Kelly was put on the spot during a live TV link-up on Good Morning Britain. Asked if she remembered McVey, the usually smiley presenter nodded, tight-lipped before replying abruptly: "Yeah. Yes I do.”

McVey later claimed Kelly may have resented her because she was promoted above Kelly on the show to be paired with Eamonn Holmes. Kelly and Fiona Phillips both refuted this claim, pointing out that McVey was simply Phillips maternity cover and Kelly worked on a different part of the show.

Read more: Esther McVey reportedly blames 'cabal of leftie presenters' for Lorraine Kelly feud

Kelly eventually admitted any problem she had with McVey was political.

She revealed: "I strongly disagree with her on LGBT rights and I just felt like I've had enough of this, we've had two-and-a-half years of going round in circles over Brexit and now we've got people at each other's throats and its got to stop."

McVey has drawn criticism for saying that parents of primary school age children should have the right to withdraw their children from lessons about LGBT awareness.