What is the ‘Piers Morgan petition’ and how many people have signed it?
PIERS Morgan’s shock exit has seen people both feel relief at his absence from Good Morning Britain, and feel frustrated.
People in the latter camp have started a petition to get him back on the show.
What is the ‘Keep Piers Morgan on GMB’ petition?
In light of Piers Morgan leaving, a petition has been restarted to get him back on Good Morning Britain.
It is not a new petition, having been originally posted a year ago and gained thousands of signatures at the time.
This comes after a heated on-air row over Meghan Markle which saw him storm off set after Alex Beresford calmly challenged Piers.
Many of Piers’ supporters have cited ‘free speech’ in defense of the language he has used when discussing Meghan – though others have deemed it to be highly offensive and dismissive of mental health issues.
Ofcom received over 41,000 complaints on the morning show’s segment.
The petition aims to have him rejoin the show, despite him handing in his resignation and ITV accepting it.
Elsewhere, a hashtag called #BringBackPiers took an unexpected turn on Twitter as people reclaimed the tag and started sharing pictures of literal piers in seaside towns.
One person, upon realising how the hashtag had been hijacked, said: “Oh Twitter, you are so good at collective mischief. Love the shots on #bringbackpiers!”
Another wrote: “When you see #bringbackpiers is trending and you’re getting ready to give up on the UK and then you find it’s just loads of people posting pictures of victorian seaside infrastructure. Beautiful Twitter.”
How many people have signed the petition?
At the time of writing, nearly 112,000 have signed it.
The petition has set a goal of 150,000 signatures.
One person commented: “I’m signing this petition because Piers Morgan is a breath of fresh air to breakfast television, as well being a straight-forward man, who stands up up to ridiculous PC-world we unfortunately now live in. KEEP HIM ON!”
A year ago there were already 40,000 signatures on the petition, so it’s not a brand new one.
Rather, it’s been picked up again in response to this week’s events.
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How can you sign the petition?
The petition is titled: “Keep Piers Morgan on GMB for his common sense approach to life.”
It’s description reads: “He’s also funny!! He’s not afraid to speak out and says what a lot of us are thinking.”
It can be viewed on change.org, a website filled with other campaigns.