Piers Morgan calls out BBC Breakfast’s ‘waffling’ Dan Walker for giving Matt Hancock an ‘easy ride’
‘You blew it!’ Piers Morgan calls out his ‘waffling’ BBC Breakfast rival Dan Walker for giving Matt Hancock an ‘easy ride’ over virus testing
- Piers, 55, accused TV rival Dan, 43, of giving Matt Hancock an ‘easy ride’ on Tuesday morning’s BBC Breakfast
- The Health Secretary appeared on the show to discuss the daily coronavirus testing figures
- Government ministers have been boycotting Good Morning Britain during the ongoing pandemic
- The pair’s dispute continued on Twitter later in the day, with Piers claiming Dan ‘blew’ his interview
By Rebecca Lawrence For Mailonline
Published: 10:12 EDT, 30 June 2020 | Updated: 11:18 EDT, 30 June 2020
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 coronavirus testing figures – which haven’t been released for 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!’
The spat later continued on Twitter, with Piers telling Dan, 43,: ‘Mate, you blew it.’
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
After Piers’ initial TV rant, his GMB co-host Susanna Reid jumped in and 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.’
The pair’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.
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!’
Co-hosts: Jumping in, Susanna Reid remarked: ‘Oh my goodness. Now you’re ranting at presenters on other programmes’
‘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.’
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’.
Piers fired back: ‘You get them because they know they’ll get an ready ride as we sadly saw today… [sic]’
‘You blew it!’: The pair’s dispute moved onto Twitter later in the day, with Dan defending his interview, as Piers hit out at his rival for giving ministers a ‘ready ride’
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 led 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