Even after receiving criticism for his difficult interview with RMT chief Mick Lynch a month ago, Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley has reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining the same tone in his coverage.
Throughout the month of December, Madeley was conducting an interview with a trade unionist about the train strikes that were taking place during the Christmas time. During the course of the conversation, the two of them butted heads regarding the precise beginning of the holiday season.
Madeley was told by Lynch, who is the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, that he was “ranting,” but the GMB host told his interviewee that he wasn’t going to “let you get away with nonsense.” Madeley is a member of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
It prompted a vigorous reaction from viewers, who criticised Madeley for talking over Lynch, and some of them even complained to Ofcom about it.
Consequently, when it came time for a second interview between the two of them on Tuesday morning, Madeley opted to discuss what occurred during the last encounter, but he made it quite plain that he was not going to back down.
‘When [interviewees] don’t answer the question, therefore you have to interrupt them, because they haven’t answered your question,’ he explained.
‘They accuse me of interrupting them and not letting them finish, but they’ve already started off on the wrong path.’
‘What he was saying there was that they weren’t Christmas strikes that we all saw in December because in his books Christmas didn’t begin until Christmas Eve, which I’ve already said is clearly nonsense.’
He added: ‘You have to interrupt people sometimes, and by no means talking over them, and I don’t like doing that because it’s not good to watch is it, but sometimes you just have to do it. That’s the job.’
When it came to talking again though, things didn’t fare much better.
When Madeley brought up a point he made in their last chat about the impact of his strikes on the hospitality industry and how recent figures had estimated they had cost £1.5 billion in December and impacted business and jobs, he added: ‘It looks like I was kind of right, doesn’t it?’
Lynch didn’t take any time responding, stating: ‘Well Richard you’re always right as everybody in the country knows.’
Later in the interview Madeley also added that he would ‘personally try and keep any sort of personal abuse out of this’ when addressing Lynch.
During their interview last month, Madeley repeatedly interrupted Lynch and ultimately told him to ‘jog on’, after a debate on when the ‘real’ start of the festive season was
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.