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David Tennant couldn’t resist a dig at Eamonn Holmes while he guest hosted this week’s episode of Have I Got News For You.
On Thursday night, the former Doctor Who star presented the latest special edition of the topical panel show, which sees comedians commenting on the week’s news from home, due to lockdown restrictions.
During a discussion about coronavirus contact tracing apps, and some people’s fears that they could be misused, David quipped: “There are some fears that the contract tracing app could help the government to harvest our personal data. ‘Doesn’t bother me,’ said Eamonn Holmes from the safety of his recently-constructed tin foil bungalow.”
The guest presenter was, of course, referring to the backlash Eamonn faced last month, when he appeared to defend a debunked conspiracy theory linking the coronavirus outbreak with 5G.
“What I don’t accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true, when they don’t know it’s not true,” Eamonn said live on This Morning.
“No one should attack or damage [5G masts] or do anything like that, but it’s very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative. That’s all I would say as someone with an inquiring mind.”
The day after his divisive comments, Eamonn read out a statement live on This Morning, claiming his comments “may have” been “misinterpreted”.
“I want to clarify some comments that some of you may have misinterpreted from me yesterday, around conspiracy theories and coronavirus and this involved the roll out of 5G,” he began.
“Both Alice Beer and myself agreed in a discussion on this very programme on fake news that it is not true that there is a connection between the present national health emergency and 5G and to suggest otherwise would be wrong and indeed it could be possibly dangerous. Every theory relating to such a connection has been proven to be false and we would like to emphasise that.”
He continued: “However, many people are rightly concerned and are looking for answers, and that’s simply what I was trying to impart yesterday but for the avoidance of any doubt I want to make it clear there’s no scientific evidence to substantiate any of those 5G theories.”
This isn’t the first time the incident was referenced on Have I Got News For You, with panellist Ian Hislop previously saying: “One of the giveaways [that the conspiracy theory isn’t true] is that Eamonn Holmes said it might be.
“It’s always worth having those key indicators flashing and Eamonn Holmes is certainly one of them.”