Don’t listen to Piers Morgan and pay attention to the government, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Piers Morgan appears on ITV's Good Morning Britain. Photograph: ITV. - Credit: Archant

Jacob Rees-Mogg has advised Britons to stop paying attention to Piers Morgan and listen to the government.

Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid appear on Good Morning Britain to talk about the coronavirus. Photograph: ITV. – Credit: Archant

The Tory MP and House of Commons leadr had been asked about the role of the media in delivering information to concerned viewers, listeners and readers.

Responding to suggestions that Morgan, a host on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, has been making ‘irresponsible comments on a daily basis’, Rees-Mogg said people do not have to believe everything said by ‘controversialists’.

Morgan has been critical of the government’s response to the virus outbreak, accusing prime minister Boris Johnson of ‘bottling the big decisions that most other countries have taken’.

He also tweeted: ‘As we saw when we were asked to name a boat, the British public cannot be trusted to make sensible decisions in ordinary times let alone during a global crisis. The prime minister must lock this country down NOW, and then urgently work out how to pay for all the fallout.’

MORE: Expert asks Piers Morgan to provide ‘his masters in public health’ over coronavirus claims

Rees-Mogg said: ‘Commentators and the media, Michael Crick is indeed brilliant, I hear a chunter from the opposition benches, and somebody I particularly admire, one of the best journalists at keeping people to account.

‘But one does not have to take every utterance from controversialists as wholly writ.

‘Piers Morgan enjoys causing a row and I think frankly it’d be better to pay less attention to him rather than more and listen to the government advisers.

‘But free speech is very precious and if people want to say silly things and look foolish, that will be a matter for them.’


Have your say
 Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. Find your nearest stockist here or subscribe to a print or digital edition for just £13. You can also join our readers' Facebook group to keep the discussion and debate going with thousands of fellow pro-Europeans.