News of controversial former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott receiving a knighthood divided the panellists on Loose Women today, with Janet Street-Porter branding Saira Khan “over-sensitive”.
Introducing the debate on today’s (11.09.19) show, host Andrea McLean said: “Theresa May has been criticised for awarding former England cricket captain Geoffrey Boycott a knighthood in her resignation honours list. That’s despite him having been convicted of assaulting his girlfriend 20 years ago. This is a claim that he still denies.”
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The programme then aired a clip of Boycott speaking to BBC Radio 4 presenter Martha Kearney.
In a chat about him making the honours list, the host started to ask about criticism from Women’s Aid, in light of his assault conviction, and he responded: “I don’t give a toss about her, love. It was 25 years ago so you can take your political nature and do whatever you want with it.”
Loose Women’s Saira Khan admitted she was “shocked” when she heard Boycott’s Radio 4 interview.
She said: “I have to say, I was shocked. I just stopped and thought, have I just heard that? Am I in 1975 or is this 2019? It was just one of those moments.
“This man has been given a knighthood. He was convicted of beating his girlfriend in 1998. That is a fact. For me, it was a lack of remorse, a lack of respect… and the language that is acceptable in a public forum.”
As Saira asked Andrea if she could use a certain word to describe Boycott, Janet cut her off, telling her: “I think you’re being over sensitive.”
Saira exploded: “Janet! Over sensitive? About domestic abuse?”
Janet clarified: “I’m not taking you up on the domestic abuse thing, where I completely agree with you. But I am saying that his language to that woman is common throughout a lot of the United Kingdom.”
Saira then argued, shouting over Janet: “But this language was about a subject… what was the subject he was talking about, Janet? She asked him a question about domestic abuse and that is not the language that you reply back with, I’m sorry.”
Janet continued: “That is the language that a lot of men of a certain age use and yes, it’s not appropriate.”
But Saira clapped back: “My father in law is 84 and he would never use that language.”
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Elsewhere on today’s Loose Women, Jonathan Ross revealed his regret at not seeing his mum right before she passed away from cancer.
The 58-year-old presenter, whose mum Martha died in January at the age of 79, admitted he didn’t go to see her on the day of her passing, telling the panellists: “I feel bad because everyone said, ‘We’ll all go and see her’ and I said, ‘Let’s not all go and see her today because then there’s no one going to see her tomorrow. We’ll spread it out over the week.’
The talk show host continued: “Only two could go that day and then she died that day so that last day when I would’ve seen her [I didn’t].”
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