Good Morning Britain viewers found themselves 'turning off' the latest edition of the show as a debate about being 'ashamed to be English' escalated. Susanna Reid and Ed Balls were back at the helm of the ITV news programme on Tuesday (April 25) when it was posed to viewers if they were proud to be English.
They welcomed guests Narinder Kaur and Thomas Skinner after the former The Apprentice star came under fire for his social media post on St George's Day on Sunday (April 23). The pair were on the programme to give then differing views in the debate but things quickly became heated.
Narinder argued that the England flag had been 'hijacked' and there was nothing to be proud of. But when Ed Balls disagreed, she branded him "ignorant".
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Narinder commented: "You know we should have national pride, I feel Englishmen and women should feel proud. But we can't feel proud when that flag has been hijacked by far right groups and what it actually represents is ideology that by some virtue of a piece of cloth, we are superior to other nations.
"We conveniently forget our history of slavery links, of colonisation and history of genocide and everything we've built up and most countries that celebrate independence day - and I've seen a lot of people on social media say well Ireland celebrated and America celebrated - they celebrate because they're celebrating coming out of tyranny or invasion."
Ed tried to cut in as he commented: "By the way, we did save Europe from fascism by defeating Hitler and pushing him back, with the help of others." But Narinder wasn't having any of it as she hit back: "It doesn't really work like that. It doesn't work like that because you're saying, 'Well we stopped that,' but that doesn't mean we didn't have slavery links.'"
As the debate became incredibly heated, Susanna stepped in to try and diffuse the building tension. "But Narinder, are you saying, and Thomas, sorry I know you're quietly sort of waving your St. George's flag," the presenter said ."Narinder are you saying because the UK, England, was responsible for things we should be ashamed, that we should be permanently ashamed?" Susanna then asked.
"Not permanently but I don't like this fingers in ears and blowing raspberries so what, we actually defeated fascism," she responded. "I don't like that." But Susanna pushed back: "No but clearly Ed is not putting his fingers in his ears."
Thomas was eventually able to have his say, saying he's 'proud' to be English. "I don't think just because a few wrong-uns... the majority of people should be allowed to be proud of where they've come from. We ain't letting them take that away from us," he said, referring to the argument about the England flag.
But as the debate unfolded, GMB viewers complained on social media. @Sal_A_Parker tweeted: "#GMB had to switch off, why is she shouting???" @jo0471 said: "Turning off #gmb." @ajhackwood posted: "When you have to shout to get your point across you know you’re on a losing streak #gmb." @morrison310 added: "Why do some people feel the only way they can get their point across on TV is to scream and shout? Someone get this woman off it’s too early #GMB."
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