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Piers Morgan apologises as Ofcom issues him message after thousands of complaints

Piers was accused of 'bullying' MP Helen Whately

TV’s Piers Morgan has been issued a message from Ofcom after thousands of complaints were made about him.

The presenter has come under fire for his interviews with Care Minister Helen Whately on Good Morning Britain.

Almost 2,000 people complained over an interview last week in which Piers grilled her on the number of care home residents who have died from coronavirus.

Piers Morgan on GMB
Piers Morgan divided fans over his interviews with Helen Whately (Credit: ITV)

Read more: Piers Morgan tears strips off MP Helen Whately in second ‘car crash’ GMB interview

During that interview, Piers also accused her of laughing during the serious matter – something she denied.

Meanwhile, Ms Whately appeared on the daytime show for the second time on April 22.

Piers lashed out at Ms Whately again for still not knowing the figures of care home residents who have died.

He accused her of “waffling” and raged over the decrease of the number of coronavirus tests being handed out.

Piers, 55, was accused of “bullying” Ms Whately, however, he hit back on Twitter and denied the accusations.

Piers Morgan on GMB
Piers Morgan has been issued a message from Ofcom (Credit: ITV)

The show has since been hit with a further 966 complaints following the fiery interview.

Piers later discussed the complaints on Twitter and told fans to support him.

What did he say?

He wrote: “Apparently nearly 2000 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, Ofcom responded to Piers’ tweet and asked him to stop asking his followers to contact the watchdog.

The Ofcom Twitter account wrote: “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 elderly.”

Another tweet read: “So could you please help us out and go easy on the mentions? Any help appreciated. Thanks, Ofcom.”

Piers then apologised, writing: “My apologies… I underestimated the scale of public support.”

Earlier this week, Piers ripped into Ms Whately on the show over her not knowing the number of care home residents who’ve died.

Piers rips into Helen Whately

He said: “At what point will you come back and have an answer?

We’re struggling to keep up after you asked your followers to contact us.

“This is your job to know this stuff. These are elderly vulnerable people dying of COVID-19 and you are not taking their deaths seriously enough.”

Ms Whately hit back: “That’s an incredibly unreasonable accusation. I take every single death extremely seriously…” as Piers started interrupting her.

She asked: “Can I finish my sentence? The problem is you just keep on interrupting me and I can’t explain what we’re doing.”

Read more: Piers Morgan slams claims he ‘bullied’ MP Helen Whately on GMB as Ofcom complaints rise

Piers hit back: “You don’t have any answers, you just waffle.”

The star recently denied he “bullied” Ms Whately on Good Morning Britain.

He said on Twitter this week: “It’s not ‘bullying’ or ‘hounding’ or ‘unfair’ to push a Care minister hard on how many care home residents & workers have died from COVID-19.

“The Govt is grossly understating the real number, I suspect for political reasons.”

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Rebecca Carter
Associate Editor (News)