Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid halted Wednesday’s show to deliver ‘breaking news’.
During the latest instalment of the ITV chat show, Susanna, 54, and co-host Ed Balls announced breaking news, revealing that inflation has dropped to 2.5%.
Susanna said: “So our breaking news this morning is on the economy and the rate at which prices are rising, official figures released in the last few minutes show that the inflation rate fell to 2.5% in December, down from 2.6% in November. So that is better news than city analysts had expected.”
To which Ed, 57, added: “It comes at a time when the pound has plummeted and the cost of government borrowing has soared.”
The rate of Consumer Prices Index inflation fell to 2.5% in December from 2.6% in November, the Office for National Statistics said.
Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid halted Wednesday’s show to deliver ‘breaking news’ -Credit:ITV
READ MORE: Good Morning Britain faces backlash over ‘excruciating’ deepfake scam interview
READ MORE: Good Morning Britain halted by Ranvir Singh for urgent ‘breaking news’ announcement
Most analysts had been expecting the inflation rate to remain unchanged at 2.6% last month.
December’s headline figure nevertheless remains above the Bank of England’s 2% target level which has raised concern for economists and policymakers amid stagnant economic growth.
Grant Fitzner, the ONS’s chief economist, said: “Inflation eased very slightly as hotel prices dipped this month, but rose a year ago.
“The cost of tobacco was another downward driver, as prices increased by less than this time last year.
“This was partly offset by the cost of fuel and also second-hand cars, which saw their first annual growth since July 2023.”
Susanna, 54, and co-host Ed Balls announced breaking news, revealing that inflation has dropped to 2.5% -Credit:ITV
It comes as Good Morning Britain faced backlash on Tuesday’s episode during a deepfake scam interview.
During the episode, hosts Susanna and Ed spoke to guest Nikki MacLeod, 77, live from Edinburgh after she was scammed out of £17,000 by someone pretending to be a woman named ‘Alla Morgan’, who claimed to be working on an oil rig in the North Sea.
She met the scammer in an online chat group. ‘Alla Morgan’ sent Nikki personal messages using convincing AI-generated videos and Nikki appeared on Tuesday’s Good Morning Britain to raise awareness of sophisticated scammers.
However, despite being an important topic, viewers were left confused during the chat as Ed kept repeatedly trying to ask Nikki questions as she chatted over him.
At various stages during the interview, the duo were talking on top of each other, leading some viewers to claim the interview was ‘excruciating’ to watch, and eventually the show had to interrupt the chat short.
The rate of Consumer Prices Index inflation fell to 2.5% in December from 2.6% in November -Credit:ITV
Taking to Twitter, now X, one person said: “That was excruciating #GMB”, a different account put: “Ed can’t get a word in edgeways”, another put: “Think Ed wants to end the interview #gmb” while another added: “She’s totally ignoring Ed!”
Yet following the chat, Susanna, 54, explained that there had been a technical blunder as Nikki’s earpiece had fallen out, meaning she couldn’t hear Ed and hadn’t realised she was talking over him.
Susanna said: “We apologise to Nikki because unfortunately she lost her earpiece which meant she couldn’t hear what you were saying, Ed, that’s why we had to just interrupt her.”
Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on both ITV and ITV X.