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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jasmine Allday

Good Morning Britain hit with over 800 Ofcom complaints over Richard Madeley comments

Good Morning Britain has been hit with over 800 Ofcom complaints after Richard Madeley's comments last week.

The ITV television presenter was heavily criticised after he appeared to 'play down' the death threats sent to Sir Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the false allegation that Keir had failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Discussing the threats, journalist Andrew said "politicians get that all the time", to which Richard replied: "Well I was going to say, actually, is that that big a deal?"

Richard was slammed by fans over his comments, and the next day he apologised for his error.

Richard is a regular host on Good Morning Britain (ITV)

"It was a really busy show yesterday, we had so much to do. I want to say one thing very quickly at the top here," Richard said as he appeared on the show the next day.

"I tried to pose a question on one of our early discussions on the programme about how prolific online death threats are. I didn’t actually quite press it properly, I didn’t go into it enough."

He added: "I just want to reiterate the obvious statement that death threats clearly are never acceptable."

The Mirror have reached out to a representative for ITV for comment.

Sir Keir Starmer was subjected to death threats after Boris Johnson's mistake (SKY)

Fans of the ITV show have since demanded that Richard should be axed from the programme following his comments.

"Please, please get rid of Richard Madeley. His insincere apology this morning illustrates his vanity and self obsession," one wrote on Twitter, with another adding: "This is not an apology or a retraction, it's a p**s poor excuse."

A third penned: "WHY do you continue to employ #richardmadeley after his crass and incendiary comments regarding @Keir_Starmer‘s death threats?" as a fourth slated his apology.

""#MadeleyOut 'apology' was rubbish - Richard Madeley didn't even start today's prog with it, he slipped it in quickly after talking about his own family then 'apologised' with all the enthusiasm of an 8 yr old boy made to say sorry to his bro for thumping him," the scathing tweet from one viewer read.

Richard's comment didn't go down well with viewers (ITV)

One viewer said they had complained to Ofcom for the first time over the comments.

"Complained to Ofcom for the first time in my life earlier," the fuming viewer tweeted.

"Caught up with Richard Madeley's comments to his Tory-leaning guest yesterday about death threats being sent to Keir Starmer and other MPs not being that big a deal. Sackable offence."

Elsewhere, Saturday Night Takeaway received 71 complaints after hosts Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly dressed up in drag for a special end of the show show, whilst the Meena gun showdown in Emmerdale saw the show get 76 complaints.

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