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Presenter of ITV’s Loose Women Nadia Sawalha has threatened legal action against the broadcaster alleging she was removed from the popular panel show due to her vocal support for Palestine.
The 61-year-old television personality claims her departure followed an “escalating campaign and smears” aimed at securing her removal from the programme.
Alongside the lawsuit, Ms Sawalha has launched a petition demanding a public apology from ITV and her reinstatement. The petition has already garnered more than 20,000 signatures.
In a video shared on Instagram, she said: “I want to say how sad I am that it’s got to this. Believe me, I have appealed to ITV’s hearts and minds, but to no avail.
“After I began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in December 2023, I became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women.”
The panellist said she was removed from the programme in July 2026 and accused ITV of “forever changing the goalposts”.
She said: “They couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t take me off again, as it would depend on what was said, even though I’m hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I’ve never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show.
“This is the tip of the iceberg of what’s been happening.”
The panellist said she was removed from the programme in July 2026 (Channel 5)
The presenter launched a petition with the aim of showing there are “many more people with us than against us”.
She added: “It’s not just me that has been targeted like this from my beliefs. There are the teachers, doctors, nurses, charity and supermarket workers, and students who have also spoken according to their conscience and have suffered a similar fate as me.
“Enough is enough.
“We need to send a clear message to ITV and other groups and corporations that we won’t be scared into silence, and no-one should be bullied out of their job for following their conscience and speaking out against brutal oppression.”
ITV has been contacted for comment.
Sawalha joined the ITV show in 1999 as one of the original panellists alongside Kaye Adams, Jane Moore and Karren Brady.
She took a maternity break in 2002 and returned to the programme in 2013.
She is also known for playing Annie Palmer on EastEnders in the late 1990s.
