Defiant Loose Women star Saira Khan has told her critics she's "paid to be feisty" after a heated debate with co-star Gloria Hunniford over the upcoming second lockdown sparked a backlash.
The two panellists went head to head on Monday's show with their differing opinions on Prime Minister Boris Johnson putting the country into lockdown again for a month.
Both Saira and Gloria refused to back down from their stance on the issue, with Gloria saying: "This is a world issue and no-one has the ultimate answer.
"Saira, I respect you a lot in terns of your business and everything..."
After Saira interrupted to say: "It's not just about business Gloria," Gloria added: "No, no, hang on. I understand why people are upset about businesses closing again but you or nobody else has the ultimate answer to this, it's a huge problem across the world.
"What do you do?"
Saira responded: "I'm not saying I have the answer, I'm saying there has to be a balance.
"And I'm sorry but charities are losing money, domestic abuse is up, child abuse is up, suicide rates are through the roof, people are not getting the cancer treatment they need.
"We have to protect essentials that make our life worth living and lockdown does not provide that!"
Some Loose Women viewers accused Saira of being "too aggressive" towards Gloria but hitting back at criticism on her Instagram story, Saira said: "We are paid to be feisty, to be passionate about our view as that's what makes good telly.
"So can people stop going 'oh you talked over Gloria'...yeah that's what happens when you have a debate, when you get passionate. It doesn't happen all the time, this was feisty debate. Get over yourself!"
Saira then posted about the support she'd had over her point of view and reassuring followers she hadn't been targeted by gtrolls on Twitter as she doesn't have an account on the social media platform.
She also posted: "A woman with an opinion and not afraid to speak her mind. It takes BALL! Be that woman" and then uploaded a list of adjectives for men and women, captioning it 'As a woman I'm aggressive, as a man he's assertive."
