Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley has sparked a major backlash after asking a British-Palestinian MP if she knew about Hamas’s terror attack on Israel before it happened.
Layla Moran, whose family are trapped in Gaza as Israel prepare a land invasion, was seemingly taken aback by Madeley’s question and GMB viewers are calling for the presenter to be ‘pulled off air’ as they lodge complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.
Referencing the barbaric attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, Madeley asked the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon: ‘With your family connections in Gaza, did you have any indication of what was going to happen ten days ago, two weeks ago? Was there there any word on the street?’
Stunned by the question, Ms Moran – whose father is a British diplomat, and mother a Christian Palestinian from Jerusalem – replied: ‘Not this, not this. I think everyone, everyone has been surprised first of all by the timing and sophistication and the way that it’s happened.’
As the first British-Palestinian MP, she added: ‘What I will say is that I’ve been warning, and others have in Parliament as well for a number of years now, that if we don’t find a way… People say ‘go back to the negotiating table’.’
‘The fact of the matter is there has not been a table, let alone to go back to a negotiating table for at least ten years now.
This is a cycle of violence. Every time there is a cycle of violence, my worry now is that this is radicalising another generation on all sides. We have to stop this hatred. We have to bring people together and find a way through… Peace is harder than war.’
Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented attack on Israel ten days ago, killing more than 1,400 people and taking scores of hostages including grandmothers, women and children.
Fellow MP Florence Eshalomi said: ‘I just saw the clip from @GMB interviews this morning. Richard Madeley is actually disgraceful. I was in the chamber yesterday but sadly I didn’t get an opportunity to speak in the statement.
