Piers Morgan accused TV rival Dan Walker of ‘waffling’ and giving Matt Hancock an ‘easy ride’ after the Health Secretary appeared on Tuesday’s BBC Breakfast.
The Good Morning Britain host, 55, has long criticised government ministers for boycotting his ITV show amid the pandemic, and was left incredulous after watching Hancock discuss the daily coronavirus testing figures – which haven’t been released to the public for the 39 days.
Watching the BBC interview as he presented GMB, Piers said: ‘Get in there Walker, for goodness sake man. He’s talking complete nonsense!’
Hitting out: Piers Morgan accused TV rival Dan Walker of ‘waffling’ and giving Matt Hancock an ‘easy ride’ after the Health Secretary appeared on Tuesday’s BBC Breakfast
Jumping in, Susanna Reid remarked: ‘Oh my goodness. Now you’re ranting at presenters on other programmes.’
Yet Piers reasoned: ‘Because he’s [Walker] getting the interviews because he won’t jump in and say, “What are you talking about Health Secretary?”
‘What could be a more important bit of data than how many people are being tested? What could possibly be more important?
‘And yet you pretend it’s meaningless.’
Rival: Piers watched Dan’s interview with the Health Secretary and narrated, ‘Get in there Walker, for goodness sake man. He’s talking complete nonsense!’
Piers and Dan’s dispute moved onto Twitter later in the day, with Dan defending his interview.
He posted: ‘It is essential that politicians are allowed to speak. The idea (from some) that we, and others, don’t challenge ministers is completely untrue.
‘Important to ask questions. Important to press. Important to let you listen. Thanks for watching #BBCBreakfast’.
Yet Piers was quick to hit back: ‘Mate, you blew it. Calm down.’
Co-hosts: Jumping in, Susanna Reid remarked: ‘Oh my goodness. Now you’re ranting at presenters on other programmes’
In response, Dan penned: ‘Good to see you were watching #BBCBreakfast today… again.
‘Maybe, if you didn’t make every interview about you, you might get a few decent political guests’.
However, Piers fired back: ‘You get them because they know they’ll get an ready ride as we sadly saw today… [sic]’
He went on to goad Dan further by sharing a fan’s tweet that read: ‘I don’t always agree with Mr Morgan, but he is totally right about this. There seems to be a genuine fear by the BBC to ask any difficult questions. I’m guessing it’s policy?’
Piers and Dan’s long running TV rivalry has lead to several friendly jibes in the past as they compare their breakfast news shows ratings and guests.
The Life Stories host previously dubbed Dan, ‘the dullest, most excruciatingly virtue-signalling, tediously opinion-devoid, toe-curlingly snivelling sycophant on TV’ in a row over Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
Feuding: Piers and Dan’s long running TV rivalry has lead to several friendly jibes in the past as they compare their breakfast news shows ratings and guests
Dan got his own back last week as he took to Twitter to reveal his programme was ranked the ‘number 1 breakfast show on TV’ ‘by some distance’, beating out his opponent’s ITV broadcast.
Taunting Dan’s win, Piers joked: ‘Factcheck: a much smaller distance than when Dan joined… In fact, this week we closed the gap to the smallest distance ever. Please don’t get fired mate!’
Eamonn Holmes even found himself wading into their feud last week, when he discussed the pair’s very different presenting styles.
Ouch: The Life Stories host previously dubbed Dan, ‘the dullest, most excruciatingly virtue-signalling, tediously opinion-devoid, toe-curlingly snivelling sycophant on TV’
He said on the Human Nature podcast: ‘I think on BBC in the morning, Dan Walker is a very very good presenter, probably more in the mould of what I… I’m somewhere in between Dan Walker and Piers Morgan to be quite truthful.
‘But I think it takes all sorts, and I think we should have a choice as to what to watch and if you don’t like it there’s another channel so switch over.
‘But I think Piers has been the saviour of Breakfast television, yes.’
Jumping in: Eamonn Holmes even found himself wading into their feud last week, when he discussed the pair’s very different presenting styles