“Good Morning Britain” received 2,378 complaints on Oct. 17 after presenter Richard Madeley asked Member of Parliament Layla Moran, who has family living in Gaza, if there was “any word on the street” about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to U.K. 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 appeared caught off guard as she formulated a response, saying, “I think everyone, everyone has been surprised by, first of all, partly the timing, the sophistication [and] the way that it’s happened.”
The exchange sparked outrage on social media, with some calling for Madeley to be fired over the question. Madeley later issued an apology, saying via a “Good Morning Britain” spokesperson: “Richard is sorry that he has upset viewers with his question to Layla Moran. His intention was to understand the mood and atmosphere amongst the civilian population of Gaza immediately before the attacks. He did not mean to imply that she or her family might have had any prior knowledge of the attacks.”
In a Sky News interview the next day, Moran said she accepted his apology, as reported by The Guardian. “I didn’t feel and don’t feel that it came from a place of malice. I think it, frankly, 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 a 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 have accepted his apology. The main thing is that I don’t want it to distract from these big issues.”
“Good Morning Britain” did not immediately respond to PvNew‘s request for comment on the Ofcom complaints.
