ITV viewers praised Susanna Reid after she defended Rylan Clark during a heated debate on Good Morning Britain today (September 2).
Last week, Rylan faced major backlash after sharing his thoughts on the UK’s immigration policies while presenting This Morning alongside Josie Gibson.
While hosting Tuesday’s GMB with co-host Ed Balls, the pair were joined by regular reporters Kevin Maguire and Andrew Pierce, who discussed the latest surrounding immigration.
Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid defends Rylan Clark’s views
After Rylan’s views were met with backlash, he issued a statement urging his followers stop putting people in boxes and to have conversations with each other about the crisis instead of shouting on Twitter.
However, during today’s GMB, Kevin was unsatisfied with his response and hit out at the former X Factor star.
“All these terrible myths that Rylan Clark regurgitated, spouted most of them,” he said.
Rylan’s message struck a chord with a lot of people.
Immediately, Susanna was quick to come to Rylan’s defence. She declared: “Hang on. He pointed out that this country is built on immigration, and he was grateful to all of the migrants who have come to the NHS for helping support his mum.
Susanna continued: “He was actually concerned, though, that we’ve got a sort of welcome to the UK, and we don’t know who all of these people are. I have to say, Kevin, it is the duty of government, as the government itself would acknowledge, that we control borders and we do not just welcome everybody if we don’t know who they are. And I think Rylan’s message struck a chord with a lot of people… He did not want it to be an anti-migration message.”
Kevin responded: “He also regurgitated a load of myths and lies. Let’s not ignore that… Myths and lies have gone mainstream, and we’ve got to challenge that, we’ve got to push back on that.”
Susanna concluded: “Rylan also pointed out that we also have a homelessness problem, the government itself acknowledges that there’s not enough housing. So, I just think that to say that what Rylan said was outrageous, regurgitating propaganda [was wrong].”
‘Respect to her’
Following the political debate, many praised Susanna for defending Rylan.
“@susannareid100 deserves a knighthood for the way she just annihilated the vile, delusional Kevin Maguire for totally misquoting @Rylan Slayed!” one user wrote on X.
“Respect to her,” another person shared. “For once I agree with her,” a third remarked.
“She’s stating the obvious tho and 100% correct,” a fourth insisted.
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‘So disappointing!’
Meanwhile, many didn’t agree with Susanna’s views and slammed her.
“What a horrible woman,” one viewer expressed. “So disappointing from her this morning,” another shared.
“It is time for her to go. Can’t stand her views,” a third said. “Susanna Reid is clearly as ignorant and no better than Rylan Clark,” a fourth wrote.
Read more: Rylan Clark ‘makes thinly-veiled digs’ on This Morning after airing controversial immigration views
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