Have your say by voting in our poll after Rylan Clark’s rant about small boat crossings on ITV’s This Morning sparked furious backlash?
This Morning: Rylan Clark shares his thoughts on immigration
Rylan Clark has faced angry backlash after his migrant rant on This Morning. The TV star has since rolled back on his claims, but we want to know whether you think ITV should have pushed back on his comments.
During a Wednesday appearance on ITV, Rylan, 36, claimed there was “something wrong” with how small boat arrivals were handled. He claimed that a myth surrounds the welcome and enter into which people who cross the Channel are told.
He made the remarks after he claimed that immigration is a big factor in the country and praised overseas medical professionals who had treated his mother. He continued, saying that while people were risking their lives on the dangerous journey, they were “absolutely insane.”
The This Morning host remarked, “Legal immigration: Many of the nurses and doctors who saved my mother’s life have come here from abroad. They are contributing to the prosperity of this country by paying into this tax system, living in a great way, and contributing to the growth of this country.
He continued, “I find it absolutely insane that all these people are crossing the Channel putting their lives on the line.” And when they arrive, it seems like there is something wrong, and that’s why many Labour voters are also saying, “Welcome, come on in!” That is the narrative being presented to us.
“Here’s the iPad. Here’s the NHS in reception of your hotel. Here’s three meals a day. Here’s a games room in the hotel. Have a lovely time and welcome.” If you can’t see the poll, click here.
Hours later, Rylan took to his Instagram where he wrote: “You can be pro immigration and against illegal routes. You can support trans people and have the utmost respect for women.
“You can support gay rights while also being heterosexual. The list keeps growing. Stop putting everyone in a box exercise and start talking on Twitter without getting angry.
The Mirror has since fact-checked Rylan’s comments, with many of the points – surrounding iPads, NHS in hotel receptions, ratings of hotels and claims about being handed three meals a day – being proven wrong. Rylan’s comments come as a swarm of anti-immigration protests have spread across the UK over the asylum hotels row.
Writing in the Mirror, Assistant Editor Darren Lewis slammed ITV, saying the broadcaster should be ‘ashamed’. He wrote: “Rylan is a symptom of the poisonous rhetoric infecting the broadcast narrative around asylum seekers and refugees.
“This Morning has questions to answer for green-lighting and amplifying an ill-informed perspective for which a Premier League footballer would have been vilified.
“ITV is the channel that normalised Nigel Farage on its flagship reality TV show, I’m A Celebrity. Now this, an outburst seized upon and clipped up on social media by Far Right racists as a badge of honour.”
What do you think? Should ITV have pushed back on Rylan’s migrant comments? Take our poll above and have your say in the comments below.
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Source: Mirror
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