Coalville MP In Heated Exchange With Piers Morgan On Good Morning Britain After Boris Johnson Address
Coalville MP Andrew Bridgen was involved in an angry exchange with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain today (Monday).
Mr Bridgen appeared on Good Morning Britain to answer questions about Prime Minister Boris Johnson's address to the nation on Sunday evening.
But both Morgan and the programme's co-presenter Susanna Reid grilled the MP for North West Leicestershire and accused him of going against the rulings the Prime Minister had announced the previous evening.
Mr Bridgen accused the programme of insulting people's intelligence and accused Morgan of launching a 'diatribe' against Prime Minister Johnson.
Morgan hit back at the MP, saying his answers were an insult to people's intelligence.
You can see the video of the interview above, but this is how it went in full.
Susanna Reid: "You as a Conservative backbenchers are here to do the Government's work for them, we are grateful for that. Andrew Bridgen, how come the Prime Minister said yesterday in his address that people could go back to work, but that instruction wasn't for today, it was for Wednesday. Is that example alone, proof of the confusion of the address?"
Andrew Bridgen: "That's why you've got clarity, the address was very clear. I think you're insulting the public's intelligence. It's clear that to deal with this virus, he's laid out the five tests. We've got the reproductive rate of the virus down below one, infection rates are reducing.
"To keep that going you also need to keep observing the social distancing rules. The government were criticised some weeks ago about not having a plan to lift the lockdown and get the economy moving again going forwards. They bring a plan out, with sufficient flexibility that, should any of the measures increase the infection rate above one, they will have to be reversed."
SR: "How come he mentioned nothing about meeting up with people outside of your own household at 2metres, for instance family and friends, but was briefed separately to political journalists afterwards to a point where, I said 'You could have a socially distanced meeting in the park', but people said that wasn't in the speech. But there was a separate political briefing, how is that supposed to let people know what they can now do?
AB: "It was very clear, 2m apart. Susannah you've worked it out, I'm sure the public can work it out"
SR: "I can work it out because I'm on social media and in touch with political journalists. The vast majority of people aren't on social media, they are watching an address by the Prime Minister. Who was supposed to tell them what they can do. People watching yesterday will think they still can't meet up with family or friends, even at a distance, and they were to go to work If they can't work from home, today"
AB: "I don't know what parallel universe you've been inhabiting, perhaps you don't have to go and do your shopping at the supermarket. When I go round the supermarket as the local MP in North West Leicestershire, there is social distancing, and people interacting with me from 2m and talking to me. They're asking me about the progress of the pandemic and the Government policy, I've been doing that for eight weeks."
SR: "Have you been meeting people outside of your own household? Who are family and friends, from 2m, has that been allowed in the rules?" AB: "From 2m there is no chance of infection, if somebody in the supermarket wants to ask me a question…." SR: "My question is, have you been meeting people, friends and family, outside of your own household.? Under the original rules." AB: "if I'm within 2m distance doing my shopping and saying hello to people I know, that's common sense. You're making something out of this where there is nothing. The clear message is that social distancing has got to be maintained, whether you're going to work, to the supermarket or going to the park" Piers Morgan: "Can I go to see my two sons who I haven't seen in 10 weeks? Can I go and see them today? While maintaining a 2m distance, yes or no? AB: " I do not speak for the government, but as far as I'm concerned as long as you maintain social distancing in what you do…" PM: "That's the problem, what you've just said is completely against the new rules are stated. So there you are, a Conservative Member of Parliament who thinks you know exactly what Boris Johnson has been saying - and yet you've just told me to do something but I'm not allowed to do. "So this is the problem, there is no clarity, it's a load of old flannel talking about controlling the virus, and you as a high-profile Conservative politician haven't got a clue about what these rules actually mean. And you are an MP, you are part of this." Andrew Bridgen: "I did hear your diatribe against the Prime Minister this morning." Piers Morgan: "When you say diatribe, let me tell you what my diatribe is, we have, according to the Government's own graphs, you can spin them anywhere you like, the second worst death toll in the world, and that's just the ones we are declaring at 31,000, the real figure according to the detailed analysis of the ONS figures is over 55,000 people. "It's an absolute national disgrace when you compare it to almost Any other country in the world. We've had no testing, the deputy chief medical officer said we didn't need testing, it wasn't appropriate. So we stopped doing it which was a total scandal. "There's been no PPE for the NHS frontline workers or care home workers, which is why 200 of them have died. It's an absolute national disgrace, and you come on and say 'I heard your diatribe against Boris Johnson.' "The diatribe is because so many people have died. Even now, Boris Johnson announces that we're going to bring in quarantine at the airports. Three months after other countries did this, why were we not doing it? "Why are we deciding that our experts seem to know so much more than everybody else's? So we can plan our own little lonely furrow and we end up with the second worst death toll in the world. "Don't tell me I'm launching a diatribe against Boris Johnson, I'm holding him to account for a shambles from start to finish" AB: "I'm sure there's going to be an enquiry as every government around the world has done to deal with this unprecedented global pandemic, but now is not the time for that, It's time for dealing with the issues which is what the Prime Minister is doing" PM: "Actually now is the time because we are still relying on the same experts, the Government still passes the buck every time they speak. They say we are following the expert advice, I would argue that our experts have been following very different advice. And giving it very differently to our government compare to most of the countries in the world, including airports, 90 per cent of the world's countries have taken far more Draconian measures than us, so I'm not really so convinced we should be blindly following our experts, given that they don't think we should've been shutting our airports down to 18million people for three months and bringing the virus to this country. I'm sorry." AB: "I have an airport in my constituency, East Midlands Airport it's a huge employment hub for the constituency, one of the biggest cargo handlers in the UK, that still operating a certain extent. But you have to remember Piers that we are a very densely populated country, and London is the No1 destination, for business, global business, and it is the most visited by foreign visitors." PM: "Stop making excuses." AB: "I'm giving you the facts." PM: "Germany has had a quarter of the deaths that we've had, Germany is a bigger country. They have 0 million more people. It's a load of flannel when you start talking about how well we are doing, please stop, you talk about insulting intelligence, this insults everybody's intelligence."
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