GMB hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard were forced to bring a debate to an abrupt end today as a heated row erupted.
They were hosting a debate on cancel culture on today’s show before things started getting heated very, very quickly.
What happened on GMB today?
Kate and Ben welcomed Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and Leo Kearse onto Good Morning Britain today to discuss cancel culture.
The decision to host such a debate came following comments made by Davina McCall on Rylan Clark‘s podcast.
The 54-year-old said it was “weird” and “unforgiving” to cancel someone for comments they’d made in the past. She said that people can change, as can their opinions.
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Leo, a comedian, said that he had experienced cancel culture in the past. He claimed to have had shows pulled because of it.
He said it’s “terrible” and is usually down to “misunderstanding” on the part of the people doing the cancelling.
“If we’re cancelling people for things that they said 12 years ago because society changes and what’s acceptable changes, what are people saying now that’s gonna be unacceptable in 12 years’ time from now?” he asked.
What happened next?
Leo then went on to say that anyone “digging up tweets from 12 years ago clearly has an agenda to harm someone”.
However, Dr Shola argued that people being criticised for their offensive comments isn’t “cancellation”. She said it is just the consequence of their actions.
“Why is it so difficult for people to accept that in life consequences are, actually, a fact of life?” she argued. “It’s not cancellation.”
She then continued, saying: “Consequences existed long before the anti-woke mob decided to mischaracterize as cancel culture in order to maintain the status quo of social and racial injustice.”
She then said that the people getting cancelled being defended rather than the people who have suffered due to their comments or actions is reprehensible.
What happened next on GMB?
Things took a turn when the subject of Boris Johnson saying that Muslim women who wear the burqa look like “letterboxes” back in 2018 arose.
Leo said that Mr Johnson’s comment wasn’t hateful, it was a “visual gag”. Dr Shola was furious. “Leo, what the hell is wrong with you?” she asked.
“The only hate that I can see is from the people doing the cancelling,” Leo said, “who are destroying people’s lives based on little off-hand jokes and tweets from 12 years ago.”
“This is unacceptable!” Dr Shola said as Leo spoke. “Cancel culture is poisonous,” Leo argued.
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An argument then erupted, where both Dr Shola and Leo shouted over each other, leading to just a lot of incomprehensible noise.
As they carried on arguing, Kate and Ben were forced into bringing the segment to an end.
“Sorry, we’re going to have to take this off-air,” Kate said. “Unfortunately, we’re out of time,” Ben said as Leo and Dr. Shola’s volumes were turned down.
“Thank you for your thoughts this morning,” Ben said as Dr Shola and Leo disappeared. “It’s clearly a very, very emotive subject.”
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