Susanna Reid has said she is more competitive with her co-host Piers Morgan than the BBC’s rival breakfast show.

The presenter quit BBC Breakfast, which beats Reid’s show Good Morning Britain in the ratings, for ITV.

The 47-year-old told Radio Times magazine: “For me it’s not all about‘We’ve got to beat them’. I’m quite nervous of conflict, I don’t like it…

“I’m not looking at beating the BBC. There are people who want its presenting style in the morning. There’s something very reassuring and very likeable about it.

Louise Minchin/Dan Walker (BBC/Steve Schofield)
Louise Minchin and Dan Walker (BBC/Steve Schofield)

“No-one’s ever going to be offended by Dan (Walker) and Louise (Minchin). I know them personally, and they’re blinking lovely. You couldn’t describe Piers as lovable.”

She said: “I don’t think everybody necessarily wants a double espresso shot straight into their veins in the morning. Some people want a nice cup of tea. And there is absolutely a role for both.”

But Reid does have a “constant battle for airtime” with her own co-host Morgan, 53, because “sometimes I open my mouth to ask a question and hear Piers’s voice come out”.

Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid (Jonathan Ford/ITV)
Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid (Jonathan Ford/ITV)

Reid has previously said that her outspoken co-host “reduces me to tears”.

She has now told the magazine that when he joined the show “I was like … Arghhh! … sitting next to a hedgehog” and that she struggled with their relationship until early last year.

She said she “felt kind of responsible for what he thought” but now realises “he can say anything he likes. I don’t have to pick-up the pieces.”

Reid said she does not know how much Morgan, who is said to have a bigger salary, is paid.

But she said: “I have no reason to be complaining about my pay. I’m well paid.

“And also, I think, why is this question for us individuals? It should be for the bosses. Shouldn’t there just be a rate for the job, whoever does it? Perhaps that’s the answer.”

Reid, who quit the BBC for ITV when her “riskometer was set high” after taking part on Strictly Come Dancing, said she had not been “entirely single” since she separated from her long-term partner in 2014.

But as “life is dominated by kids and work … It’s just not the right time. Life is stupidly busy,” she said.

The full interview is in Radio Times magazine.