Piers Morgan got caught up in a messy clash with a Just Stop Oil protester on Wednesday night, as they slung insults at each other live on air.
The TalkTV host, known for riling up guests and adding drama to his interviews, was speaking to two climate activists about how their campaign (to end fossil fuels) results in a protest at the Snooker World Championship earlier this week.
While Piers claimed he does care about climate change, he was pretty furious over the tactics used by James Skeet and Donnachadh McCarthy’s campaign group – and a very tense interview followed.
Towards the start of their uncomfortable exchange, Piers told the activists: “You’ve been brought on [the show] because your idiot friends have been once again wrecking things for people.”
James replied: “The fact of the matter is, the only real leverage that normal people have is disruptive tactics, right?
“The nurses know it, the train drivers know it, the junior doctors know it.”
Piers cut in and asked: “Why don’t you go where the real polluters are? Why don’t you go to Beijing? Why don’t you go to Russia?”
He suggested that this is because they’re “moral cowards” and “it’s easier to go ruin an old granny’s day at the Crucible” than stand up to other countries.
But James said the UK needed to “get our own house in order” before demanding action from the rest of the world.
Donnachadh then tried to call on Piers to act on climate change himself, saying:“You use your amazing role that you’ve got, you could be courageous.”
Piers just told him that it is “not your show”, and soon returned to his question about why the pair did not try to protest in China.
He offered: “I’ll fly you to Beijing. I’ll put you on a plane, tomorrow, to Beijing. I’ll pay. Are you going to go and protest?”
James cut in: “Piers, stop being such a gammon-y windbag, and listen.”
“I’m not being a gammon-y windbag,” the presenter said. “I just think you guys are honestly moronic.”
There was also a row over whether or not the climate activists wanted people not to have pets anymore – Piers insisted that the environmentalists did say that, they said otherwise – before James laid into Piers’ personal life.
He said: “You’re a multi-millionaire, you don’t care, you don’t care about the British people, you don’t care about the working class. You care about the rich, you care about being a shill for Rupert Murdoch don’t you?”
Piers ignored that slight about the media mogul who owns TalkTV, and hit back: “What you’re doing is what you silly little boys do.”
James replied: “You’re calling me a silly little boy? Pathetic gammon-y man baby, honestly.”
Piers spoke over him and said: “You do your silly little sound bites for Twitter, and they goes ‘oh look at my little hero’, while the rest of the public go ‘who is this little brat?’”
Environmentalists are upping the pressure on the government at the moment, with huge protests set to start between Friday and Monday – which they promise will not disrupt the London Marathon.
More than 200 organisations are support this protest, led by Extinction Rebellion.
It also comes after activists from Animal Rising, a group who want to reduce the impact of animal agriculture on climate change, disrupted the Grand National at the weekend.