GOOD Morning Britain has received 2400 complaints after Richard Madeley asked a British lawmaker with family in Gaza if there was "word on the street" before Hamas attacked Israel.
Ofcom has revealed that the exchange between Madeley and LibDem MP Layla Moran on October 17 attracted 2378 complaints, making it the show's second-most complained about episode of 2023.
Madeley asked Moran: "With your family connections in Gaza, did you have any indication of what was going to happen 10 days ago, two weeks ago? Was there there any word on the street?”
Moran replied: “Not this, not this. I think everyone… everyone has been surprised by, first of all, partly the timing, the sophistication [and] the way that it’s happened.”
The interview went viral and Madeley apologised if he “upset viewers” with his interrogation of Moran.
“His intention was to understand the mood and atmosphere amongst the civilian population of Gaza immediately before the attacks,” a Good Morning Britain spokesperson said.
“He did not mean to imply that she or her family might have had any prior knowledge of the attacks.”
Moran said she accepted the apology after looking "pretty flummoxed" on TV.
She said: "The conversation as a whole over the 15-minute interview was an important one. We were looking at how we got here, where we go. I didn’t feel and don’t feel that it came from a place of malice. I think it, frankly, came from a place of, perhaps, ignorance.”
