Good Morning Britain’s Ben Shephard’s clash with Rishi Sunak over financial support amid the coronavirus outbreak caused a flock of complaints to Ofcom.
Last Thursday, presenter Shephard and Susanna Reid grilled the Chancellor of the Exchequer over his new budget plans – including cuts to the foreign aid budget.
But 1,008 viewers weren’t happy with Shephard’s line of questioning towards the politician.
In the tense exchange, Shephard screened a tweet from Sunak that said: ‘You have not been forgotten. We will not leave you behind. We are all in this together.’
He then declared: ‘Unfortunately that’s not true, is it?
‘There are 2.9million people, nearly nine per cent of the workforce, that are currently excluded or forgotten about from all of these schemes.
‘For one reason or another they cannot get access to some of those schemes that you have put into place.’
Sunak defended his position and argued against the statistics that were used, and responded: ‘I don’t think that three million number is right as you’ve used it.
‘It includes 1.5million people who do not qualify for the support scheme because they are not majority self-employed.’
Viewers were split over who was correct, with some complaining that Sunak wasn’t taking into account self-employed members of the public, while others thinking that he ‘fumbled’ the interview.
Among the announcements at the time, it was revealed that joblessness could reach an all-time high next year.
This was amid a £400billion loan taken by the government in efforts to get the UK back in employment.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.
Credit: Original article published here.
The post Good Morning Britain receives over 1,000 Ofcom complaints over Ben Shephard clash with Rishi Sunak first appeared on My Celebrity Life.