'Good Morning Britain' receives 2,000-plus complaints over 'unvaccinated friends' debate

Good Morning Britain has been hit with more than 2,000 complaints after a debate about ditching friends who haven’t had the COVID vaccine.

The 1 June instalment of the ITV show saw hosts Adil Ray and Ranvir Singh joined by political commentator Dominique Samuels and The Apprentice star Nick Hewer.

The group butted heads with Samuels during a discussion about whether it was acceptable to cut off friends who were not getting the jab.

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The debate sparked a flurry of complaints, with some viewers posting messages on Twitter saying it was a “divisive” conversation.

Ofcom has now said it received 2,077 complaints about the episode of the show.

The broadcasting watchdog confirmed to Yahoo that the majority of complaints objected to negative references to unvaccinated people and a poll on the theme, ‘Time to ditch unvaccinated friends?’

During the debate, Hewer talked about whether he would invite someone to his home if they hadn’t had the vaccine and Ray shared his concerns about arranging a social event that included a friend who was not vaccinated and another friend who may be vulnerable in some way.

"You have a responsibility, don’t you?" he asked. "You can’t just favour one person over the other. You have to be quite open and honest in these situations don’t you?”

However, Samuels replied: “No, I think that you just don’t need to be psychotic and try to control other people’s life choices.”

She went on: “I just think it reeks of middle-class snobbery - ‘I am having a dinner party but I shall not invite the unvaccinated’.

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“I think that most people will be worrying about clawing their businesses and their mental health back from the depths of hell.

"Not whether or not they are going to segregate someone from a dinner party.”

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