The media watchdog Ofcom said it may investigate Kay Burley blasting an empty chair as she accused Tory chairman James Cleverly of refusing to attend an interview with her.

The watchdog has received numerous complaints regarding the Sky News presenter's actions.

Ms Burley, who has more minutes on live TV than any other presenter, said Mr Cleverly was meant to be in the seat but had not turned up.

She said: "I've got an empty chair here. It was supposed to be filled by the chairman of the Conservative Party."

© Provided by Independent Digital News & Media Limited Tory chairman James Cleverly was criticised by Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain (GMB)

Mr Cleverly, who faced grillings elsewhere this morning on a "doctored" clip shared by the Tories, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg's Grenfell Tower comments, said he was being interviewed by Talkradio when Ms Burley made the remarks. He said he was not due to appear on her show.

The empty chair "interview" conducted by Ms Burley, who addressed a vacant seat with planned questions for the Tory politician, has so far promoted 23 official complaints to Ofcom.

The complaints are understood to relate to Ms Burley's claims and the empty chair gesture.

© Provided by Independent Digital News & Media Limited

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "We are assessing these against our broadcasting rules before deciding whether or not to investigate."

Sitting next to a vacant seat which she said was "supposed to be filled" by the politician, Ms Burley said: "Where is he? He's probably 15ft away from where I'm standing just at the moment.

"I've been in to see him during the break, he said he wasn't due to come and talk to us today, although they had said that they would talk to us."

My morning. Pre-booked back to back interviews. I wasn’t booked in to do @SkyNews this morning. https://t.co/w0Fgd9aLo1 pic.twitter.com/YJhYUkB2Ox — James Cleverly (@JamesCleverly) November 6, 2019

Mr Burley then listed a number of topics she had hoped to discuss with Mr Cleverly, including Mr Rees-Mogg as well as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's comparison of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to Joseph Stalin.

"I know that Number 10, Downing Street watch our show," Ms Burley said. "I know that the spin doctors at Number 10, Downing Street had absolutely reassured me via text that when politicians were doing the rounds in the morning, they would be doing this programme. And yet, we have an empty chair."

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Mr Cleverly responded to Ms Burley's claims during a Talkradio interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer.

"We hadn't booked in to go on her show," he said. "And I was sitting in this studio preparing to talk to you, as I'm now doing, and she said: 'I want you to come on my show now.'

"I like to think I'm a pretty decent multi-tasker, but I cannot physically be in two places at the same time."

Ms Burley later tweeted: "He ducked us on the media round but then said yes to my team when we tracked him down."

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