A Good Morning Britain personality caused quite a stir last week by not wearing a poppy on the ITV broadcast. However, when he finally chose to wear one, the moment was eclipsed by a sharp on-air remark.

Kevin Maguire appeared with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls last Tuesday. Susanna, 54, Ed, 58, and Andrew Pierce from the Daily Mail all sported poppies, yet Kevin, 65, was conspicuously without one.

This choice led to an outcry among viewers, who criticized it as “disgraceful” and “disrespectful,” especially as the nation approached Remembrance Sunday on November 9 and Remembrance Day on November 11.

The Poppy Appeal, which commenced on October 23 this year, has seen most TV presenters wearing poppies to show their respect.

On Monday, Kevin returned to the program alongside hosts Susanna and Richard Madeley, this time wearing a poppy, which sparked mixed reactions from ITV viewers.

Some viewers were pleased to see the journalist, who was there to discuss current news, finally embracing the poppy. However, others felt it was a case of too little, too late.

One viewer celebrated on X, formerly Twitter: ‘At last,’ as a second penned: ‘Seeing Maguire is wearing a poppy…’

It wasn’t the poppy that caught the most attention from viewers, who watched as Kevin and host Richard, 69, went head to head in a battle about BBC director general Tim Davie resigning. 

Mr Davie, 58, resigned amid a row over the doctoring of a Donald Trump speech for a Panorama episode.

The corporation’s CEO of News, Deborah Turness, has also resigned following criticism that the BBC documentary misled viewers.

Discussing the news, Kevin was seen defending the edit scandal, after an internal dossier exposed a string of incidents that demonstrate serious apparent bias in the Corporation’s reporting, as a ‘mistake’.

As he furiously tried to defend his position on the events, Kevin was seen continuing to speak even when Richard asked to interject into the conversation. 

Tensions rising, Richard was seen hitting out at Kevin to ‘shut up’, as Kevin continued: ‘You’re rattled, you’re rattled!’ 

Viewers were shocked by Kevin’s hit back against the host, with one reacting: ‘He’s not rattled Kevin! He can’t get a word in cos of your great big mouth.’

As a second chimed in: ‘Shut up Kevin!’ as a third penned: ‘What doesn’t Kevin Maguire understand? Regardless of the subject matter, Panorama and the BBC lied.’

It follows on from Kevin’s appearance on the show last week, where he was seen without a poppy on the lapel of his suit.  

The symbol is typically worn in the weeks ahead of Armistice Day on November 11 to commemorate the armed forces who have died in conflicts – and the annual Poppy Appeal, dating back to 1921, raises funds for the Royal British Legion’s work supporting armed forces veterans.

Poppy Appeal sales hit a record £55million in 2018, then were £46.5million the following year, but plunged to £27.9million in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns.

They have since risen to £42.2million in 2021 then slipped to £39.3million in 2022, before improving to £41.9million in 2023 and £51.4million last year – with the latest sum being almost one third of the Legion’s annual £160.7million income. 

Over the years through numerous TV appearances, Kevin has been spotted without a poppy in the period before the week of Remembrance Sunday – including in 2022 when he was criticised after appearing on the Jeremy Vine show without a poppy. 

During an episode of Good Morning Britain last year, he explained that he did choose to wear a poppy – but only in the ‘week leading up to’ Remembrance Sunday, which this year fell on November 9. 

Maguire has previously said: ‘If I wear a poppy, I always make a donation. If I wear a poppy I’ll wear it in the week of Remembrance Sunday, not before.  

‘That’s what I do, it’s become elongated now and the “poppy police” every year go around pointing the finger.’

He added of other people’s decisions as to whether they wore a poppy at work: ‘It’s not because they’re disrespectful, it’s that they’ll have a different tradition of when they wear them or if they wear them.’

Kevin also defended his decision in an opinion piece published in the Mirror, where he hit out that the ‘poppy police should wind their necks in’.

And he suggested ‘policing’ people’s choice was ‘counterproductive’ to the efforts of the Royal British Legion. 

He wrote: ‘Every year around this time a British version of Saudi Arabia’s mutaween (Islamic religious police) springs up.

‘Confronting those they deem improperly dressed, the self-appointed guardians of public morality demand to see your poppy.

‘Basking in their self-righteousness, the Poppy Police adopts a superior moral tone when their arrogance is cheapening the very act of Remembrance itself.’

The political journalist described how he ‘wore his poppy with pride’ in the week of Remembrance Sunday, thinking of his ‘mother’s brother who drowned’ during the Second World War as well as his ‘grandfather wounded in the Somme’. 

And the pundit said he felt ‘poppy shaming is counterproductive’ to the efforts of the Royal British Legion, who raise money to support Armed Forces members and veterans. 

It comes after Loose Women host Charlene White defended her decision not to wear a poppy on screen ahead of Remembrance Sunday, while also sharing a tribute to her late father who served in the RAF. 

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, with their outrage, fans called for Charlene to be removed from the ITV daytime series after appearing without a poppy. 

One viewer posted after noticing the missing poppy: ‘Charlene shouldn’t be presenting as she doesn’t want to wear a poppy. No respect.’

Another said: ‘I do think it’s disrespectful for Charlene not to wear a poppy. I know it gets mentioned every year.’  

And a third wrote: ‘Charlene why do you refuse to wear a Poppy? Every single person on the panel, in the audience, are wearing one, so why not you?’

Others defended the presenter, with one fan commenting: ‘In a democracy, you are supposed to be free to have your own views and opinions, not what the poppy police say you should do.’

A second mocked the angry viewers, saying: ‘Oops, the poppy police are out again.’

In an article she wrote for ITV last year, the TV presenter explained her decision stemmed only from impartiality rules concerning her other charity work. 

White wrote that it was ‘never an easy decision due to the racist and sexist abuse’ she receives on social media, and admitted she knew it ‘provoked a lot of anger’. 

However, she said that broadcasting regulations meant she was not permitted to visually support charities while presenting ITV’s news programming. 

Listing a number of charitable organisations of which she is a patron but cannot mention on screen, she concluded that it made her ‘feel uncomfortable supporting just one charity above all others, namely The Royal British Legion’.

Charlene clarified that she ‘fully supports colleagues who do choose to wear the poppy’ and that in her private life ‘it’s very different’ for the star, donating to the British Legion each year and wearing a poppy on Armistice Day. 

She also told how she had a ‘ceramic poppy from the Tower of London on her mantlepiece’, as she urged viewers not to presume she does not support the work of service personnel. 

She added: ‘Please don’t think that I don’t understand the sacrifices made by servicemen and women 100 years ago. I do. 

‘It is always important to remember what my family, your family, and millions of people over many generations have fought for: the right to choose, and the right of freedom of speech and expression.’

After the latest furious backlash from fans, she took to social media with a photo of her father in RAF uniform while discussing how he had recently taken his own life.

Charlene wrote: ‘My dad, in uniform during his years in the RAF. An immigrant from Jamaica, who signed up to join the British Armed Services when he was just a teenager.

‘I post this, as despite the fact I’m barely on the TV at the moment because I’m still grieving his shocking passing (and live TV is difficult for me at the moment) the hate, vitriol and racism aimed at me because of my personal decision not to wear a poppy *on air* has begun again.

‘I’ve also posted, for the first time, the support I’ve had from the start from the Royal British Legion, when all the abuse first begun back in 2013.

‘I support the charity, I donate to its work, I believe in its work, and I wear a Poppy off screen. But I believe in the impartiality rules which exist in broadcasting regarding charities. 

‘You may not agree with me, and I genuinely don’t expect everyone to, but disagreement does not legitimise the abuse.

‘It is not what my dad, my uncle, my close friends and millions of others served for.

‘And those who instigate and fan the flames of hate and racism, especially when they know full well I’m in the depths of trying navigate the world as a child of parental suicide, should honestly take a moment to think about their actions.’  

Charlene also shared a letter from the Royal British Legion in November 2023, after she was criticised for not wearing a poppy.

An RBL official wrote: ‘I was very saddened to hear that you were subjected to the most vile abuse on social media sites following your decision not to wear a poppy on air during this year’s Poppy Appeal.

‘The poppy is a universal symbol that represents sacrifices made in the defence of freedom; and so the decision to wear it must be a matter of personal choice. 

‘Millions of our Armed Forces personnel have defended, and given their lives for our right to live in a free and tolerant society. Those who bullied you go against these core values and should be ashamed of their behaviour.

‘The Royal British Legion fully supports your decision, and I would like to thank you for supporting us during this year’s Poppy Appeal.’

Meanwhile, Oscar-winning actor Sir Mark Rylance has backed the alternative white poppy movement which argues Remembrance Sunday should be ‘decolonised’.

Sir Mark, who featured in the World War II film Dunkirk, said next Sunday’s event should ‘refocus our every effort to avert war’.

The star, 65, has joined the Peace Pledge Union’s (PPU) campaign while agreeing to help launch its new project Every Casualty Counts, Memorial 2025.

In a social media post by the PPU, Sir Mark said: ‘Remembrance Day should be a day to remember and grieve the great losses caused by war, but it should also be a day to refocus our every effort to avert war with all our tools of peaceful reconciliation of conflict.

‘Too often in my life, Remembrance Day seems a kind of shoulder shrug that war is inevitable. I do not believe it is.’

He told the Telegraph he had ‘always deeply admired’ the meaning behind the white poppy, which he said focusses on the innocent lives that were killed at war, which ‘now far outnumber the tragic military casualties’.

Sir Mark insisted the white poppy was not worn in opposition to the traditional red version.

Wearers of the white poppy, which was introduced in 1933, say it acts as a symbol of remembrance of all victims of war, regardless of their nationalities. 

The Royal British Legion said: ‘The RBL defends the right to wear different poppies, and we welcome all conversations about the meaning of the poppy and the different ways people choose to remember.

‘Our charitable objects are to support those who have served in the British Armed Forces, and their families, and the RBL’s red poppy recognises their service and sacrifice in defence of peace, democracy, and freedom.’

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.