The Canterbury Hub

Latest news from CCCU's Journalism course

CoronavirusNews

Piers Morgan apologises to Ofcom after uproar with Faversham MP

Piers Morgan has apologised to Ofcom in the latest instalment of his ongoing row with Faversham and Mid-Kent MP Helen Whately.

The Good Morning Britain presenter has now racked up just over 2,000 complaints from fans of the show due to his intense interviews with the MP that took place on air.

In the first interview on GMB, he wrongly accused the Tory care minister of laughing during questioning about coronavirus deaths in care homes. The interview was described as a ”train wreck” because the MP wasn’t able to give the right figures for testing when asked by the presenter.

Shortly after the incident, Whately appeared on the show again to discuss coronavirus testing numbers.

With another 966 complaints added to the previous ones, meaning that both the times he has interviewed the care minister he has had a total of nearly 3,000 complaints.

Morgan had called on his fans to back him after he was hit with the Ofcom complaints accusing him of ‘bullying’ the Conservative MP.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: ”Apparently nearly 2,000 people have now complained to @Ofcom about me grilling Care Minister Helen Whateley too ‘unfairly’ when she couldn’t answer even basic questions.

”If you think I should continue grilling ministers in the way I’ve been doing, please tell @OFCOM. Thanks.”

However, shortly after Piers’ tweet to call for his fans to help him, it quickly left the broadcasting regulators overwhelmed.

Ofcom replied to the tweet from Piers’ urging him to stop what he was doing.

They tweeted back to Piers with the following:

”Dear Piers, We’re usually happy with you keeping us busy. But right now we’re struggling to keep up after you asked your followers to contact us. This means we may fail to help the people that need us most- such as the vulnerable or the elderly.

”So could you please help us out and go easy on the mentions? Any help appreciated.”

Shortly after Piers took to Twitter to apologise to Ofcom: