Holly Willoughby shares 'favourite thing about herself' during 'savage' Matt Hancock interview

Holly Willoughby has discussed her 'favourite thing about herself' during an interview with Matt Hancock.

The presenter was interviewing the former health secretary alongside co-host Phillip Schofield on Tuesday's This Morning.

Mr Hancock, who resigned in June after admitting to breaching Covid-19 restrictions, appeared on the ITV programme before introducing a Dyslexia Screening Bill in the House of Commons.

He is calling for all children to be screened for dyslexia before they leave primary school.

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Mr Hancock also called for those who had become successful despite their dyslexia to openly discuss their experiences.

Holly, who has spoken about her dyslexia in the past, said that she is "proud of being dyslexic."

"I think it's one of my favourite things about me because I think it brings a unique skill set, I really do," Holly said on the show.

"I've always felt like that, my mum used to say to me, 'you're sending that Christmas card, it's all spelt wrong, you can't send it out!'

"I'd be like, 'to be honest, mum, it's the communication, it's what I'm trying to say, that's the important thing, not how it's all spelt.' So, I've always been quite proud of it in a way."

Mr Hancock replied: "That's wonderful, and that's great that you're talking about it, but not everyone does.

"After university, I went for twenty years before I started talking about it.

"I was explaining to one of my civil servants when I was in the cabinet, 'One of the things you've got to do is write short notes on top of the long documents because I'll read the long documents, but I need to choose which ones I need to read slowly."

Holly, 40, went on to explain how her dyslexia diagnosis affected her.

She continued: "I got diagnosed just before my GCSEs which was brilliant and helped me then.

"I do wonder if I had an earlier diagnosis, I could have had my learning tailored, which may have helped me.

"Later on, once I knew, I got tailored support which was a huge difference to me. Things were put in place, learning support, and I think that is why I am probably OK reading the autocue now, and I have the job I do now."

The interview, however, did take a 'savage' turn when Phillip questioned whether Mr Hancock broke social distancing rules because of his dyslexia.

"Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing rules?" Phillip, 59, asked.

He replied: "No, I can’t blame that on dyslexia or anything else. In fact, I am not asking for any special favours because I am dyslexic.

"In politics I have got some things to offer. In that case, that was a mistake and I have apologised for it.

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

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