'I don't give a damn what you think!' - Piers Morgan launches bitter attack on Michael Gove over Grenfell Tower tragedy
2 min read
TV star Piers Morgan tore into Michael Gove this morning over the Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
The Good Morning Britain host shouted “I don’t give a damn what you think!” as the beleaguered Environment Secretary urged him to “look cooly” at the tragedy.
“You can stick your coolness where the sun don’t shine. I don’t feel very cool about this situation,” Mr Morgan shot back during the tense exchange.
Some 58 people have now been confirmed dead after the West London high rise went up in flames last Wednesday - with police expecting the death toll to rise.
The Government has announced a £5m support package for survivors, but the response has been criticised as too slow, with criticism levelled at Theresa May’s approach in particular.
On GMB this morning Mr Morgan said residents had a right to feel “outraged” after being “fobbed off” by ministers and the local Kensington council.
Mr Gove insisted he was just as “distraught” and “angry” as the visibly furious presenter and noted that he had lived close to the site of the tragedy until very recently.
“I feel absolutely distraught at what’s happened, and I also think you’re right that people not just need this money,” he said.
“They need reassurance that their lives are going to be put back together as quickly as possible.”
But Mr Morgan fumed: "There has been a sense of absolutely no command or central control whatsoever. That is on your government’s head. Your prime minister, your Cabinet your government.
"And I don’t think anything like enough has been done for these desperate people...
"There are people down in that area who are absolutely grief stricken, [who have] lost family members, lost friends, lost everything and they are getting fobbed off with excuse after excuse.
"Why is the government not just absolutely besieging that area with people to help them?"
But Mr Gove accused Mr Morgan of "showboating" and of being "theatrical", adding: “You have a responsibility to look cooly at this situation."
"What you’re doing is deliberately seeking to heighten the temperature rather than seeking to reason and to think about what we need to do," Mr Gove argued.
Watch the video below.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
