GOOD Morning Britain (GMB) host Richard Madeley is under fire following his bizarre warning on live TV that Vladimir Putin may “hack” British devices to blow them up.
The TV star’s comments came during a segment on yesterday morning’s show, discussing the hidden explosives detonated in thousands of pagers used by Islamist political party Hezbollah across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday.
Madeley described the attacks, presumed to have come from Israel, as “hacking” and suggested that the UK should be prepared for a threat of this kind.
The 68-year-old was corrected on his use of the term “hacking” – which implies a sort of digital infiltration of the devices, whereas the attack in question is presumed to involve a physical insertion of explosives – but bizarrely doubled down on his claims regardless.
A total of 32 people were killed in the attacks across Lebanon and Syria this week, and almost 2,500 were injured.
The attack is believed to have targeted members of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party, paramilitary group and ally of Hamas, who have been part of ongoing tensions on the Northern Israeli border.
During the segment, Madeley described the “extraordinary, unprecedented attack”, before adding: “I don’t think anyone this morning will have woken up and looked at their mobile phone in quite the same way again (sic).
“This is – as I say – unprecedented. If it can happen in Lebanon, it can happen anywhere.”
The former Richard & Judy co-host then went on to claim that some national papers have seen the attacks as “a green light for someone like Putin who could hack into our phones and explode them”.
Quick to seemingly try and relieve any immediate fears amongst viewers, co-host Susanna Reid then interrupted Madeley to say: “This isn’t about hacking though.
“This is about the allegation [which is] planting a small amount of explosives physically inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah, and then detonating them.”
Nevertheless, Madeley doubled down on his use of the term, oddly describing it as “analogue hacking”.
He later went on to comment on “speculation” regarding “hacking into lithium batteries”, which are used in a large number of widely available electronic devices.
One viewer shared the clip from the segment online yesterday, with the caption: “Richard Madeley explains to the nation that Putin could hack into all our mobile phones and make them explode.
“After Susanna Reid explains it’s not hacking, but planting explosives in pagers, he adds ‘it’s analogue hacking’.”
Referring to Steve Coogan’s tactless broadcasting character, the disgruntled Brit then added:
“Never go full Partridge.”
The clip has since received over 2,400 likes and more than 440 comments from users who branded Madeley’s claims as “moronity and ignorance”.
One user said: “Nothing like having a national audience to show the world how stupid you are.”
Another commented: “It’s beyond belief that Madeley is considered worthy of cleaning the ITV toilets, never mind being allowed to spout his bigoted dross on national TV.”
A third replied: “You lost me at ‘Richard Madeley explains…’”
Whilst a fourth joked: “Nurse, they’re out of bed again.”
And another pleaded: “Please stop this nonsense GMB. Just irresponsible and untrue comments that completely mislead viewers, and not for the first time. Is he briefed?”
It is not the first time that Madeley has sent shockwaves online for comments during the morning news show, fitting for the role previously held by Piers Morgan.
Just earlier this week, a post was shared showing him asking an 85-year-old woman if she felt she was losing her winter fuel allowance to pay off the UK’s train drivers.
The post gained over 11,000 likes and 300 comments as users saw it as “despicable” to pit “ordinary people and workers against each other” and applauded the woman for “putting the attention onto the profiteering energy companies instead”.
