Good Morning Britain's Ofcom complaint count has increased following an interview on the programme last week. Ranvir Singh and Richard Madeley were joined on the news show on April 11 by a Just Stop Oil protestor.
Activist Miranda Whelehan appeared live in the GMB studio alongside journalist Lowri Turner to speak about the effectiveness of the Just Stop Oil protests, with the debate coming just after activists dug an underground tunnel to block fuel tankers and forced a petrol station in the south to close.
The discussion quickly got heated when Miranda attempted to defend the actions of the campaign group, who are demanding the ceasing of all new oil licenses in the UK. At one point Richard told Miranda: "This Just Stop Oil slogan is very playground-ish, isn’t it? Very Vicky Pollard. It’s quite childish."
GMB viewers were soon accusing Richard of 'patronising' Miranda as he turned to criticizing her clothes. Reading out a viewer's tweet, he said: "Everything these Stop Oil protesters wear or buy or eat is delivered or manufactured using oil and that includes the glue they use to stick themselves to the road with.
"What they're saying is that your protests by definition are massively imperfect. The clothes that you're wearing to some extent owe their existence to oil because they were taken in a car or a truck or a van to a shop. There are so many ways that oil impacts on your life as a protestor but you don't acknowledge that."
Responding to Richard, Miranda said: "We’re talking about crop failure by 2030, we’re talking about people in this country right now in fuel poverty because of the prices of oil, and you’re talking about the clothes that I’m wearing? This is so serious."
The ITV programme last week received 59 complaints as a result of the interview, but Ofcom have announced that this has now increased to 147, the Mirror reports.
The latest increase in the complaints comes after Richard spoke about his future on the show. The 65-year-old sat down with Kate Thornton's on her podcast White Wine Question Time and said: "But in terms of what I do on my own, which at the moment is Good Morning Britain, although who knows how long that'll go on for.
"I'm doing it month to month at the moment and I'm very happy to. I quite like operating at that level, I've had my main career curve. I'm not seeking some huge career arc, we'll see what happens. But I enjoy it, I enjoy doing it."
