Piers Morgan did not look happy about a Good Morning Britain poll that shows people want him to be fired.
Morgan is embroiled in another row about his comments on gender identity. In short, the TV presenter has been mocking people who are transgender or non-binary by claiming that he “identifies” as a penguin.
Those comments have caused some people, particularly LGBT+ people, to call for him to leave his job.
The main issue is that gender dysphoria is a real condition, recognised by the NHS, where people feel discomfort or distress due to a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. According to LGBT charity Stonewall, transgender people face heightened levels of harassment and discrimination.
However, wanting to “identify as a penguin” is (of course) not a serious issue.
As Good Morning Britain can never turn down the chance to capitalise on controversy, the ITV show is running a poll to ask Twitter users if Morgan should be fired.
It wasn’t going well for Piers at the start of the day…
'We cannot let the snowflakes win!' @piersmorgan isn't too happy that the poll isn't going in his favour 😅 #GMB https://t.co/Cty3RdOdul— Good Morning Britain (@Good Morning Britain) 1571117158
In response, he sent out a rallying call to his fans:
We cannot let the snowflakes win… we need you to get voting.
Let’s get these numbers up, let’s get the vote back on track and let’s put the snowflakes firmly back in their box.
It briefly worked too - as the hashtag “SavePiers” began trending on Twitter and apparently Morgan started to pull ahead in the poll.
UPDATE: 155k votes.. pulling ahead. Sorry, snowflakes! https://t.co/aJKWVRlwVa— Piers Morgan (@Piers Morgan) 1571077419
However, the surge was soon counted by a rival ‘FirePiers’ hashtag…
aight cult #FIREPIERS let’s go https://t.co/HG0ndAMzcb— elijah daniel (@elijah daniel) 1571127645
As of midday, the GMB poll was 58-42 in favour of firing Morgan - but with 18 hours to go, it’s all still to play for.
There are calls for @piersmorgan to be fired over his views on gender. Should he stay or should he go?— Good Morning Britain (@Good Morning Britain) 1571030419
But before you make up your mind on how to vote, let’s have a look at who’s on each side.
For Team Save Piers, you have:
Don’t be ridiculous. Of course @piersmorgan should stay. https://t.co/udSqz8uiK8— Adam Boulton (@Adam Boulton) 1571087708
And for Team Fire Piers:
I turned on my TV this morning & @GMB (Good Morning Britain) was on. @piersmorgan & his cronies remind me of school… https://t.co/W6DhJeFwBU— Andrew Keates (@Andrew Keates) 1571124259
@GMB & @Ofcom I am appalled by @piersmorgan mocking Benjamin by mimicking his voice in such an offensive, homophobi… https://t.co/dYhTWxMvIn— Jason Gardiner (@Jason Gardiner) 1571126975
piers morgan on live tv finding out that we took over the poll to fire him is.....truly beautiful https://t.co/s9WFlhOJlU— elijah daniel (@elijah daniel) 1571119219
Meanwhile, Morgan seemed to be pretty happy with the attention as usual - although it’s not clear if he knows that this isn’t a real Winston Churchill quote…
https://t.co/YFpyUULife— Piers Morgan (@Piers Morgan) 1571133840