TV & Film
Good Morning Britain hit with more than 800 complaints over Richard Madeley comments
The host was discussing death threats made against Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer
ITV’s Good Morning Britain has been hit with more than 800 complaints after comments made by Richard Madeley.
The TV presenter has returned as a regular host alongside Susanna Reid, but came under fire last week for comments made about Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
During an episode last week on February 16th, Richard and his then co-host Ranvir Singh spoke about the death threats which had reportedly been sent to Starmer following Boris Johnson’s false claims about his role in the conviction of Jimmy Savile.
The hosts were joined by Kevin Maguire, associate editor at the Daily Mirror, and Andrew Pierce, consultant editor of the Daily Mail, who remarked that ‘politicians get that [death threats] all the time’.
This led Richard to say: “Well I was going to say, actually, is it that big a deal?”
His comment sparked an instant social media backlash, with many people quickly pointing out the murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess, both of whom were inundated with death threats before they died.
One person wrote: “I always knew that Richard Madeley was a stupid t**t, but to suggest that Keir Starmer receiving death threats is ‘not that big a deal’ is incredibly dangerous.”
Another commented: “I am sure the families of Jo Cox and David Amess are thrilled to hear their murders are not ‘that big a deal'”.
ITV
Following the backlash, Richard addressed his comments the next morning, saying: “It was a really busy show yesterday, we had so much to do. I want to say one thing very quickly at the top here.
“I tried to pose a question on one of our early discussions on the programme about how prolific online death threats are. I didn’t actually quite press it properly, I didn’t go into it enough.
“I just want to reiterate the obvious statement that death threats clearly are never acceptable.”
Despite his explanation, however, Ofcom has confirmed to the Manchester Evening News that it received precisely 855 complaints relating to Richard’s comments.