“Good Morning Britain received 2,378 complaints on 17 October after presenter Richard Madeley asked Layla Moran MP, who has family in Gaza, if there was “any word on the street” about Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel, according to the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom.
While discussing the Israel-Hamas war, Madeley asked Moran (via ITV News): “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 any word on the street?”
Moran seemed taken aback as she formulated an answer, saying, “I think everybody, everybody was surprised, first of all, partly by the timing, the sophistication [and] the way it’s happened.
The exchange sparked outrage on social media, with some calling for Madeley to be sacked over the question. Madeley later apologised, saying through a Good Morning Britain spokesperson: “Richard is sorry that he upset viewers with his question to Layla Moran. His intention was to understand the mood and atmosphere among civilians in Gaza immediately before the attacks. He did not mean to imply that she or her family may have had prior knowledge of the attacks.
In a Sky News interview the following day, Moran said she accepted his apology, according to The Guardian. “I didn’t feel and don’t feel that it came from a place of malice. I think, frankly, it came from a place of perhaps ignorance,” she said. “Perhaps it reminds us that in this conflict, which is complicated – this is not the slam dunk in the way that Russia-Ukraine was – this has a long history that needs to be understood and this has an important context in the wider region that needs to be understood. I accepted his apology. The important thing is that I don’t want it to distract from these big issues.
“Good Morning Britain did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment on the Ofcom complaints.
