Dog Goes From Having 108 Instagram Followers To 65,000 After Good Morning Britain Appearance

A dog gained an army of fans in just a matter of minutes this morning.

Alan is the resident pooch at The George pub in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, and was a guest on Good Morning Britain earlier today (22 December).

And he ended up turning what was quite a serious and thought-provoking segment about the current financial struggles facing many hospitality businesses up and down the country into something a little more positive.

When it was mentioned that Alan had his very own Instagram account, but only 108 followers, presenter Richard Bacon decided to try and make him famous.

He said: "I am going to really enjoy this until Alan has more Instagram followers than me.

"I've got an idea, let's set ourselves a target of getting Alan beyond 50,000 followers by the end of the show!"

"Really? Are we gonna get there? Can we get there?" said co-presenter Charlotte Hawkins.

"God, this is like the Blue Peter totaliser, but about a dog!" joked Richard.

To which Charlotte replied: "Is it bringing back memories for you?"

But while it started off as a bit of early morning fun and games, the appeal really took off, with thousands of people logging on and following Alan's account.

By the end of the show, he had a whopping 60,000 followers, which has only grown since.

At the time of writing, Alan has 65,000 followers on his page... make that 65,001.

If you want to check out Alan's Insta (and why wouldn't you?), you can do so here.

This comes after Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pledged £1 billion of support for the hospitality industry, which has been hit by a fall in trade as a result of recent government guidance.

With concerns over the Omicron variant, Boris Johnson urged people to be cautious over the coming days and weeks and reduce unnecessary gatherings and events.

However, with pubs and bars still allowed to remain open due to no official restrictions coming into place to prevent them from doing so, businesses are suffering.

The support scheme is made up of four parts:

• Grants for hospitality and leisure businesses in England, which are worth up to £6,000 per premise, with the Treasury has set aside £683 million to meet demand. The payments are expected to be made in the coming weeks through local authorities.
• A further £102m has been promised in grants for the most desperate of businesses in England.
• The statutory sick pay rebate scheme has also resumed, reimbursing employers in the UK with fewer than 250 workers for the cost sick pay due to Covid-related absences up to two weeks per employee.
• And and extra £30m has also been pledged to arts organisations.

Some people in the industry, however, have criticised the scheme, saying it just isn't enough.

Tim Rumney, the chief executive of the Best Western hotel giant, told The Guardian: "It’s just so disappointing and underwhelming in every sense.

"It doesn’t go far enough in our opinion, it doesn’t go deep enough and it’s too little too late."