‘I’m losing my touch’: Piers Morgan mocks report about 85 complaints to Ofcom over combative Hancock interview

Good Morning Britain was hit with dozens of Ofcom complaints over this week’s eviscerating interview with the health secretary, the Sun reported. The host joked that the double-digit number was too small for his taste.

Piers Morgan pulled no punches with Matt Hancock on Monday, when the cabinet member broke a lengthy government boycott of ITV and agreed to an interview. Morgan read out a laundry list of Covid-19 response blunders before asking why after leading the UK into accumulating the worst coronavirus death toll in Europe Hancock has still not resigned.

The spectacle of Morgan holding the secretary’s feet to fire was praised by the British public, but apparently 85 viewers found it inappropriate and filed complaints with the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, as the tabloid the Sun reported on Wednesday. A further 41 were unhappy with an episode last week in which Good Morning Britain (GMB) reporter Nick Dixon intercepted Hancock outside the BBC studio and asked him when the boycott would be lifted.

The news about the complaints was laughed off by Morgan, who said he must be losing his touch judging by the small number. Which is understandable, considering other interviews of his have scored much higher on that metric. In April, he had Social Care Minister Helen Whately on the program and pressured her in a way that resulted in almost 2,000 complaints to Ofcom, which the Sun duly reported at the time.

The veteran GMB host is renowned for his combative attitude towards both guests and people who are easily offended by what they see on TV. This week, for example, he lampooned the 39 people who contacted the regulator over an episode of the show I’m A Celebrity. It showed BBC Radio 1 presenter Jordan North throwing up after facing his fear of heights and abseiling the side of a cliff.

“Who does that?” Pierce wondered before continuing in a mocking voice: “Who says, ‘I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to make a formal complaint to a television regulator that somebody vomited on television?’” Co-host Susanna Reid responded: “Same people who complain in their thousands about you, Piers.”

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