BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay brought the show to a sudden pause as he shared some “shocking” news. During today’s edition of the hit BBC show, host Jon, 55, and Sarah Champball made a return to our TV screens as they delivered the latest news from across the UK and around the world from the iconic red sofa.

However, the atmosphere in the studio took a sudden turn as Jon shared the “shocking” number of deaths due to homelessness. Speaking to viewers at home, he said, “Now these are some shocking figures to give you. Deaths among the homeless rose to almost nine percent last year. That’s according to an organisation that monitors homelessness in the UK.” Sarah continued: “The Museum of Homelessness says that at least 1,600 people died in 2024. That’s up from around 1,400 in 2023.”

Jon Kay and Sarah Champball presented BBC Breakfast together on Wednesday morning (Image: BBC)

Jon then revealed: “Of those people, 11 were children, four of which were babies under the age of one.”

Sarah jumped in: “Despite the overall rise across the UK, the numbers of homeless people dying in Scotland and Wales actually fell in 2024.”

The duo were joined by co-founder of the Museum of Homeless Matt Turtle, who admitted that he is “not shocked” by the findings.

He explained: “We have been carrying out these investigations for several years now and every year we are reporting rises. For many viewers they will find it shocking because we are talking about some of the hardest stories our society can create.”

Matt continued: “I know the things that are happening and so I have to remind myself. The thing that really does shock me is when we are going through some of the human stories and seeing what people are experiencing in towns and cities around the UK, that’s what really breaks my heart.”

Museum of Homeless co-founder Matt Turtle (Image: BBC)

Jon asked: “Do you think the actual figure could actually be higher than what you have come up with?”

Matt admitted: “Oh absolutely, they are definitely higher. We know they are higher because not all councils give us information. So much information we get is anonymized because the council is returning a number to us in a form of a freedom of information request.

“So we don’t even get to remember people by their name a lot of the time so we know because not all the councils submit to us, we know the figure is higher and that has brought out another research as well.”