Good Morning Britain presenter Alex Beresford's cousin killed in London knife attack

Good Morning Britain presenter Alex Beresford and his family have been dealt a heartbreaking blow, as it has been confirmed that his cousin, Nathaniel Armstrong, was the victim of a deadly stabbing in west London.

Nathaniel, who was just 29, was killed in the early hours of Saturday morning, on the same Fulham street where reporter Jill Dando was shot in 1999. He was thought to be just 100 metres from his home.

Alex's agent confirmed that Nathaniel was the Good Morning Britain weatherman's cousin over the weekend.

And Alex, who also competed in Dancing on Ice last year, shared a heartbreaking message on his social media on Sunday, writing, 'Nobody wins! Everybody loses!💔'.

His GMB co-stars took to Twitter to send their condolences, with Susanna Reid writing, 'I am at a loss for words. All our love Alex', while Laura Tobin simply said, '😥x'.

The tragic death actually comes just weeks after Alex himself delivered an impassioned plea against knife crime in the UK.

While the GMB panel was discussing whether more prisons were a way to tackle the situation, Alex interrupted from off-camera, insisting that that wasn't the solution.

He said, "Prison doesn't work though. It does not work. I've grown up in some of these communities you guys are talking about. Some of these boys don't fear prison.

"If we don’t change the environment we won’t change anything. This has been happening for years, years, and it’s not always in the media.

"Yes, policing is one thing, but if you don’t change these boys’ environment...if you don’t show these boys a different environment, you won’t change anything."

Nathaniel's friend, named only as George, remembered him as "super friendly, a BFG".

He went on, saying, "He looked super scary - six foot seven, big beard - but super friendly. It would shock you how friendly he was."

Alex Beresford this morning revealed he couldn't be on GMB today as he was attending a family funeral.

He wrote, 'I would have liked to have been on @GMB this morning but wasn’t able to be there because of a family funeral. Praise to @akalamusic for putting it into an understandable perspective. Most are blinded by and judge on what they see in the media.'

Rapper, author, and activist Akala spoke to Piers Morgan and Susanna Susanna about the prevalence of knife crime in the UK today, explaining that it isn't an issue that can be defined by race.