Good Morning Britain viewers outraged as guest's 'lie' goes unchallenged

23 November 2023 , 08:03

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Good Morning Britain viewers outraged as guest's 'lie' goes unchallenged

Good Morning Britain viewers were livid at the start of today's show as the latest budget from Jeremy Hunt was discussed.

Many ITV viewers accused one of the guests chatting about the Chancellor's economic plan for the country of lying about what the tax changes mean for working class people, with some taking issue with hosts Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid not challenging the commentator's implication poor people will be better off going forward.

The Labour Party responded to Hunt's budget yesterday by saying public services are "on their knees" and too many families "are struggling to make ends meet, following Hunt claiming the economy is "back on track" as he shared plans to cut taxes and push for business growth ahead of next year's General Election.

Hunt - who once spent £44,000 of tax-payer cash on a new toilet - announced a freeze on alcohol duty until August 2024, and revealed Universal Credit will be increased by 6.7% in line with September’s inflation figure. Many welfare recipients have since said the rise in line with inflation is "not enough" and called for a change to "degrading" fit to work assessments.

Quentin Letts didn't impress a lot of Good Morning Britain viewers during the discussion (ITV)

Guests Quentin Letts and Ayesha Hazarika joined Good Morning Britain hosts Ben and Susanna on the ITV show's sofa this morning to discuss what the budget actually means, with journalist Letts pushing the government's positive spin on the Chancellor's announcement - something that didn't go down to well with viewers.

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"#gmb Maybe stop repeating all lies and the bulls*** that the non-dom billionaires want you to read. They really don't have your best interests at heart," one viewer fumed on Twitter (X) as the discussion aired earlier this morning, with another sharing an image of The Times newspaper's latest front page and adding: "#gmb repeating the lie in The Times."

"SUSANNA REID: {direct question} "So is tax going up, or going down ?" NASTY LETTS: "It's 'going to' go down" (She let him off with that ! ) #gMB @GMB," a third fumed as they implied Susanna could have gone a little harder when questioning her guest. A similarly annoyed viewer tweeted: "#gmb Taxes aren't down. The tax burden will still rise @susannareid100"

The anger towards the government and the latest budget didn't stop there, with other tweets reading "#gmb typical Jeremy Hunt hit the poorest but don't bother with the zillions they swindled during the pandemic" and "#GMB The energy price cap increase on Monday will wipe out any reductions. Yesterdays statement from Jeremy Hunt is totally meaningless for 99% of the country #Tories are very bad for your family!"

*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV and ITVX from 6am

Zoe Delaney