ITV viewers tuned in to a tense episode of Good Morning Britain on Friday.
Hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard were forced to halt their guests when a heated debate on cancel culture broke out between comedian Leo Kearse and Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.
As the Mirror reports, the Good Morning Britain presenters were forced to intervene and end the debate after Leo made a comment in reference to Boris Johnson's column while a journalist.
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The Prime Minister has been called out for Islamophobia after he wrote that Muslim women wearing burkas 'look like letterboxes'.
Leo Kearse said on Good Morning Britain that he doesn't see "off-hand comments" or "jokes that are misconstrued" as hateful.
The comedian said: "Boris Johnson said he thought women in burkas look like letterboxes - that’s not an expression of hate, it’s just a visual gag, because they look a bit like letterboxes.
"It’s not a hateful thing. The only hate I can see are from the people doing the cancelling - destroying people’s lives over off-hand jokes from 12 years ago like a public execution."
Activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu appeared remotely on the ITV programme alongside the comedian as he made these comments and she began to repeat "that is unacceptable" in response.
Meanwhile, Leo continued to interrupt, saying: "It’s like Lawrence Fox and his entire acting career destroyed over expressing a perfectly reasonable opinion. Cancel culture is poisonous."
In an attempt to take control of the interview, Ben Shephard was forced to cut in, saying: "Leo, let's just let Dr Shola respond."
Shola replied saying: "Your words are utterly reprehensible.
"That you have the audacity to come on national TV and reinforce the ugly word said by Lawrence Fox, the ugly word said by Boris Johnson, acting like the lives of those Muslim women are less important than a privileged man.
"Understand that the experiences of Muslim women were wrong - they were abused on the streets, they were attacked - and you sit there with the audacity to say that is okay.”
Leo cut in, speaking over Shola and said: “I don’t believe that Britain is the cesspool of hatred and racism you’re painting it as.”
The doctor replied: “That is why you are part of the problem, Leo.”
As the guests continued to debate, ITV’s Good Morning Britain gradually silenced the pair’s remote connections.
The camera returned to hosts Ben and Kate in the studio, as Ben said: “Unfortunately we are out of time. We have strict break restrictions at this stage, but thank you very much for your thoughts. It’s clearly a very, very emotive subject.”
Shocked viewers quickly took to Twitter, accusing Leo of racism and others requested GMB to apologise.
One person asked: "Who was the racist on ITV’s GMB (Leo) today? #GMB"
"Leo, did he really just say that on National TV? He said they really do look like letterboxes, he really should of stayed in bed this morning and watched from afar", a second viewer suggested.
Others called for the show to apologise for having him on in the first place.
A third viewer was gobsmacked that he was even allowed on air: "Wow!! How you can let Leo come on here and agree with Boris and say what he did about Muslims women! #gmb need to apologise for having him on."
"Bigoted comments by Leo are disgusting. Glad someone had the courage and intelligence to call him out — but it’s shameful for your whole team that that had to be a guest". A fourth said.
