In the latest anti-cycling gaffe to grace British daytime television, Good Morning Britain presenters Richard Madeley and Ranvir Singh repeatedly claimed during today’s programme that cyclists in the Netherlands are legally required to have registration plates and insurance – only for Chris Boardman to point out, live on air, that is not in fact the case.
This bizarre, albeit not entirely surprising, bout of misinformation occurred during a segment discussing new research, first reported in the Times today, which found that the number of fines issued by the police to cyclists dropped to its lowest level in five years in 2025.
The Times story, based on a Freedom of Information request unearthing data from roughly two-thirds of the UK’s police forces, also revealed that several forces have not fined a single cyclist in the last five years.
Discussing the figures with panellists Kevin Maguire and Gillian Keegan, Madeley shared a suggestion, seemingly made by a viewer, that cyclists in the UK could be subject to registration and insurance requirements, like “they do in Holland”.
“We have had so many people getting in touch to say, why don’t we do what they do in Holland, and insist that cyclists have registration plates on their bikes and that they’re insured to use the road?” Madeley asked.
Unfortunately for Madeley, and Good Morning Britain’s fact checkers, cyclists in the Netherlands are not required to fit registration plates to their bikes or take out insurance. Those requirements are reserved for pedelecs, effectively high-speed electric bikes, which are legally classed in the same bracket as motorbikes and mopeds.
In the UK, similar machines – which do not fit the description of a electrically assisted pedal cycle (EAPC) and whose electric motors do not cut off at legal limit of 15.5mph – are also subject to registration and insurance requirements, as well as mandatory helmet laws.
In any case, Maguire, a columnist at the Daily Mirror, where he was a former associate editor, acknowledged that such a law change would be “difficult to enforce”, saying: “It would be regrettable to go down that road, but we might have to if Lycra louts are knocking people over.”
Madeley then continued: “If a fixed camera sees a cyclist cycling extremely dangerously and going through red lights and maybe hitting somebody or just missing somebody, and all you can see is their back from the camera, if you have a registration plate on them, you can trace and prosecute them.”
“I think we may end up going that way,” Keegan, a former Conservative education secretary, noted, before repeating Madeley’s erroneous Dutch claim.
“And the reason Holland probably did end up going that way because they have tonnes of cyclists. Of course it’s only a minority, a very tiny few, who knock people over and break the rules.
“But if that starts to happen, people do get very angry about it. Because every single one of us crosses the road many times a day, it could happen. And the last thing you need to worry about as well as cars, which you can see, is these bikes zipping around. And they’re very heavy and very fast.”
After the break, these incorrect assertions were repeated by Madeley and his co-host Singh as they spoke to Annette Collins, a pedestrian who is campaigning for tougher action on cyclists after she was struck by a hit-and-run Lime bike rider on a zebra crossing.
After speaking to Annette, Singh said: “She is definitely calling on tougher regulation, like we’ve said what happens in Holland, registration and insurance.”
At that point, Madeley – who also described red light jumping by cyclists in London as “universal” – jumped into argue that cyclists should also be forced to pay ‘road tax’, despite it being abolished in the 1930s.
“And tax, as well. A lot of you are saying bikes have the facility to use the road… why aren’t they paying road tax, like vans and lorry drivers have to?” Madeley asked.
With a couple of minutes left before it was time for Lorraine, the programme then turned to Chris Boardman, England’s active travel commissioner, to ask him for his thoughts on the Times’ findings and Annette’s story.
“It’s appalling… people breaking the law should be prosecuted,” the Tour de France stage winner and former Olympic champion, standing freezing in the Cairngorms, told the hosts.
“We want everyone using our roads to obey the law, including cyclists. What we’re looking at here is a capacity problem, the police don’t have the capacity to prosecute all crime.”
Singh then told Boardman: “A lot of our viewers have got in touch quite wisely with ideas and saying let’s follow what they do in Holland, where cyclists have registration, let’s have insurance.”
“Well, they don’t have registration in Holland,” an incredulous Boardman swiftly replied.
“They don’t?” a clearly bemused Singh asked. “Well, somebody said that they did. Go on, tell us.”
Boardman continued: “They have it for pedelecs, which are a form of motorbike which can do 45mph. E-bikes in the UK are capped at 15mph.
“Anything above that is actually classed as a motorbike and we already have the laws to enforce against that. So no, in Holland, it’s pedelecs which have a form of registration.”
Madeley then interjected: “Alright, setting Holland aside then, let’s take the idea in its pure form. Do you think it would be a good idea to have cyclists identifiable by a registration plate on the front and the back, and that they should pay insurance and should pay road tax?”
Boardman responded: “It has been tried all over the world and the only place that does it now is North Korea. Switzerland has tried it and abandoned it. Essentially it is a question of benefit, reward.
“There are 30,000 people killed or seriously injured every year on our roads and everyone of those is preventable. That’s one person killed or seriously injured every 17 minutes. 99 point something per cent of that is with a motor vehicle, so understandably we focus on that.
“If we actually introduce licences and registration, then there will be a negative impact on people riding bikes, people who are trying to save money on fuel or just getting to work or kids getting to school. So we have to weigh the two things against each other. The rest of the world has decided that the benefits aren’t there.”
Speaking to road.cc on Tuesday afternoon, former West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner Adam Tranter criticised the anti-cycling rhetoric and misinformation being spread on Good Morning Britain.
“The claims on Good Morning Britain shows how quickly TV discussions on reducing road danger can go down an incoherent rabbit hole,” Tranter said.
“This distraction starves genuine discussion and scrutiny on the real causes of road harm, which does us all a disservice, regardless of which mode of transport you choose.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Richard Madeley or Good Morning Britain have indulged in some questionable cycling-themed debate.
In 2017, the Partridgesque presenter sparred with Cycling UK spokesperson Duncan Dollimore in a segment about proposals for a ‘dangerous cycling’ law, resisting Dollimore’s attempts to highlight the broader lack of accountability on the roads by repeatedly making references to insurance.
And in June 2023, he ‘chaired’ a GMB debate on bike registration plates with Timmy Mallett and Fair Fuel UK founder Howard Cox, allowing Cox to share several classic anti-cycling tropes, including about 35mph e-bike riders, red light jumpers, cycling on pavements, and road tax.
Later that year, Madeley also admitted in an Express column that he almost killed a cyclist by driving into them from behind – before rolling down his window to call them a “f***ing idiot” for not having lights on their bike.
22 thoughts on “Good Morning Britain hosts repeatedly (and wrongly) claim Dutch cyclists are required to have licence plates and insurance… only to be corrected by Chris Boardman minutes later”
Richard Madeley is vile.
He’ll make any old rubbish to justify his anti-cycling stance. It doesn’t matter to him, he’s just looking for an acceptable victim to rile up his audience. Vile man.
@lio Is it coz I is black?
(if you are old enough to remember that particular Madeley incident?)
@lio He’s worse than that. A lot worse.
As are the programme producers for allowing such nonsense to be presented as fact.
Slow news day was it? Struggling for engagement?
So just wheel out the old “bloody cyclists eh?” piece.
Good to see that ITV is keeping up their attacks on cyclists, so that the BBC don’t feel lonely. Mind you, I suppose that they’ve also got almost the entire print media, and the radio, and the internet on their side, so is there any form of media which isn’t anti-cyclist?
As for the asinine inaccuracies, those ‘journalists’ should be hanging their heads in shame and be forced to ride a bike until they have the faintest idea what they’re talking about. Could take some time, they are incredibly dumb.
Have they been reported to Ofcom? Not that Ofcom is anything more than a toothless cuddly toy tiger.
@eburtthebike I totally agree. I remember the good old days when all BBC news presenters (and some on ITV as well) were passionate about news, current affairs, politics etc and had most of the relevant facts at their fingertips and news was factual. Nowadays many seem to be lazy and rely on briefings from ignorant equally lazy researchers. And all of this while earning huge salaries.
Much of the news today seems to feature sensationalist personal angles.
“And we’re about to hear from Sharon near Wittering. The recent surprise Russian thermonuclear strike has vaporised all beauty salons within a 30 mile radius and Sharon is struggling to find somewhere to do her hair and nails in time for a Halloween party this weekend. She wants to know how the government are planning to resolve this crisis.”
“Weapons of mass destruction. Are they a good or bad thing? Text us and let us know what you think.”
If the reporting is correct and complete, nobody picked up on Moron Madeley’s reference to road tax- we all know that hasn’t existed for several decades, but it appears that is too short a time for Driver Decayed Brain (and Hyper-Junk TV Presenter Slow Brain) to register the fact. BF64 TGE shows that drivers get away with not paying it for years anyway, despite DVLA being informed about the evasion for years, a letter from my MP and the laughable assertion by former DfT Minister Lilian Greenwood that “DVLA makes VED easy to pay and difficult to avoid”.
@wtjs There’s a huge luxury SUV near me, VED expired in December 2020. Despite a local reporting it more times than he cares to remember. He’s spoken to the police who weren’t remotely interested. It’s still driving around on the roads.
@wtjs They cling on to the outdated term ‘Road Tax’ to perpetuate the lie that VED is a hypothecated tax.
@wtjs Abolished in the 1930s. I think it was 1937.
Madeley – “I drive around London a lot”
There’s your problem mate. Stop doing that. London has an amazing public transport network.
@Accessibility for all yup – driving around a heavily built-up area (which has great public and active travel networks) shouldn’t be seen as a status-enhancing activity, but boorish posing and/or a stupid thing to do.
Richard Madeley channeling the pumpkin Fürer vibe with that tupé, fake tan and foaming at the mouth, dementia induced, self entitled right wing sentiment.
@2wheelsRbetterThan4 – toupeé, (or maybe touché?)
Bellends
Reminds one of Peter Cook’s tour de force as PM in Whoops Apocalypse, where he explained to the cabinet that Britain was being overrun by pixies, “And you know the worst ones, don’t you? [produces empty glass bell jar] It’s the invisible ones!”
When oh when will the government step in to address this problem of invisible cyclists?
@Rendel Harris Gillian Keegan is one of those Tories who was seemingly well-regarded despite the fact she frequently made statements that made you wonder which planet she was on. Her advantage was that, in comparison to many of her contemporaries in the party, she didn’t appear to be a complete sociopath.
Still, I was hoping we’d heard the last of her after 2024. Sadly, this is not the first time recently I’ve had the displeasure of hearing from her. it appears her dim-wittery is something of a flame to which TV moths are attracted.
@Rendel Harris that’s the thing about cycling; I’m always in the way, blocking up the roads, yet no one can see me.
@Rome73 don’t forget being a constant existential threat to pedestrians – whilst cycling on the road at lower speeds than motorists.
Plus startling people by appearing “out of nowhere” while as inconspicuous as a lighthouse.
(TBF many / most first “look with their ears”, and cyclists on cycles neither sound nor indeed look like motor vehicles).
@chrisonabike Shouldn’t that be ‘most first “look with their phones”‘?
Poor old Tricky Dicky Madeley, you can’t expect him to remember all the laws of the land. Why, he innocently forgot the law that says you have to pay for your booze before leaving the supermarket once…
Just to prove that the measures we’re spouting about against cyclists will be completely effective, here is Annette Collins, whose case demonstrates why none of those measures would have made a blind bit of difference. Just to make sure, Richard emphasises the point that what we’re looking at is representative of a “villain on a bike”, not a “cyclist”.