GB News presenter Dan Wootton has been criticised on social media after sharing a video in which he could be seen laying a floral tribute at Buckingham Palace. It comes in the wake of the palace announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral on Thursday (September 8).
In the 16-second clip, the journalist can be seen wearing sunglasses and dark clothing as he walks forward to lay a bouquet of flowers against the rails of Buckingham Palace, alongside the many other tributes left by members of the public. In the caption, he wrote: "I wanted to return to Buckingham Palace today for some quiet reflection and lay my own tribute.
"Crowds young, old, from all ethnicities and backgrounds. Truly the best of British doing her justice." Since being shared to his social media on Saturday (September 10), it has received more than 18,000 comments on Twitter.
Many Twitter users have been calling the presenter a "hypocrite" and were quick to retweet the video and refer back to previous comments from the journalist. One in particular that was being shared, was a tweet showing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visiting the Los Angeles National Cemetery back in 2020 laying flowers, to which Dan had commented: "How lucky that a photographer happened to be here to capture this deeply personal moment."
Moog tweeted: "Great piece of performative mourning from Dan Wootton, returning to Buckingham Palace for some “quiet reflection”…with his camera crew." Andy Newton posted: "How lucky that a camera happened to be here to capture this deeply personal moment."
Kerry added: "And conveniently had it filmed isn’t that what you keep accusing #HarryandMegan of doing pot kettle much." Sheila McKenzie said: "'How lucky that a photographer happened to be here to capture this deeply personal moment’ Eh Dan".
Whilst Shenin Amara tweeted: "You couldn't make it up if you tried." alongside a screenshot of Wootton's previous tweet. Mary said: "So you filmed it for Twitter? That’s not quiet reflection, that’s a show. Quiet reflection is lighting a candle in the church or at home , writing a letter of condolence or doing what you did without filming yourself doing it."
One reply, which has currently received more than 65k likes and 12k retweets, was from Andy McCarroll, who claimed he'd seen the journalist do "four takes" of the video. He tweeted: "Hi Dan, I was beside you there today. Nothing says "quiet reflection" like doing four takes of that video. Then directing your friend to "make sure you get the shot of me praying after I lay the flowers" and checking the video after each effort."
Responding to some of the comments, Mr Wootton said it was his boyfriend filming him and he expected some negative reaction in his line of work.
