Good Morning Britain and new host Paul Brand came under fire today (Thursday, March 5), with viewers accusing the show of “scaremongering”.
The complaints came as Paul clashed with an MP over the war in the Middle East.
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Britain criticised by Cyprus
As the war in the Middle East rages on, Cyprus has made clear it’s dissatisfaction with the UK.
The UK has military bases in Cyprus that are currently being used by the US Army. Earlier this week, a drone hit one of the bases, RAF Akrotiri. It caused minimal damage and there were no casualties. Other drone strikes were intercepted.
The UK is deploying the warship, HMS Dragon – which has air defence capabilities – to Cyprus following the attack. However, it will not set sail until next week – a fact that has drawn criticism from the Cypriot government. Speaking to NewsNight, the Cypriot High Commissioner to the UK Dr Kyriacos Kouros said: “Let’s say the people are disappointed, the people are scared, the people could expect more.”
He added that he would like to “thank [Starmer] for paying attention to our worries and I’d love to see more”.
Earlier today, Defence Secretary, John Healey, arrived in Cyprus to calm tensions.
Good Morning Britain host Paul Brand clashes with MP
Today saw new GMB host Paul and Kate Garraway speak to Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris to gain a deeper understanding of Labour’s approach to the ongoing conflict.
Paul didn’t hold back, as he immediately began grilling Mr Norris.
“This all adds up to a picture of chaos, doesn’t it? You’ve got this flight delay this morning, and you’ve got a warship that can’t get to Cyprus for another two weeks. Were we prepared for war, minister?” he asked.
“Paul, I don’t quite accept that. We’ve been building up our defensive capacity; we’ve been very clear that we’re going to defend Britain’s interests during this conflict. We’ve stood up, whether it’s our RADAR systems, our air defence systems, our F-35s. Your viewers will have seen the impact that has had in recent days in keeping our interests safe, whether that’s in the air or on targets on the ground,” Norris replied.
However, Paul was quick to point out that HMS Dragon is “stuck” in Portsmouth undergoing maintenance in the run-up to “what was quite an inevitable war”.
‘We knew it was coming’
“I mean, we knew it was coming, or we thought it was likely to come at least, given all the signals coming out of America and the issue with negotiating with Iran. It’s quite worrying, isn’t it, that at this moment of peril across the world we don’t have a warship that is battle-ready?” Paul continued.
However, the Labour MP hit back, arguing that Britain built the warships “ahead of time” and they can now “stand up important defensive capabilities”.
“We’ve stood those capabilities up in what is a volatile situation,” he said.
‘Scaremongering’
However, viewers were quick to slam Paul and GMB, accusing the programme of “scaremongering”.
“GMB, are you scaremongering this morning?” one viewer tweeted.
“Good old media scaremongering again!” another said.
“‘Prepared for war’? Is the UK at war with somebody? Have I missed something? Who have we declared war on?” a third wrote. “We are not at war!” another said.
Read more: GMB fury as Susanna Reid questions the government saving ‘tax-dodgers’ stuck in Dubai
GMB airs on weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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