The Ofcom complaints made about an incident involving Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain this week – which led to accusations of racism from many viewers – have tripled in the space of 24 hours.
The presenter sparked a huge backlash after he made noises live on air during Monday’s broadcast, in what was apparently an imitation of a Chinese advert featuring the Queen’s grandson, Peter Phillips.
He then requested the ad be played again, after which he declared: “Ching chang cho jo”, again trying to repeat what was said in the advert.
The following day, a representative for Ofcom told HuffPost UK that they’d received 297 complaints about Piers’ behaviour, a number which has since almost tripled.
On Thursday, Digital Spy reported that 841 viewers had now complained to the media regulator, who will assess the complaints before deciding whether to take the matter any further and potentially launch an investigation.
During the episode, Piers’ co-host Susanna Reid told him that “taking the mickey out of foreign languages is rather 1970s”, to which he loudly hit back: “Surely you can take the mickey out of it! He’s using ‘ching chang chong’ milk from the Chinese state – that’s what they said in the advert!
“I can’t repeat what they’re saying in the advert… I’m trying to mimic the wording of that advertisement.”
Piers made no mention of the matter during Tuesday or Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain, having previously insisted on Twitter that he wasn’t “mocking Chinese people”, but was instead mocking a ““a member of the British royal family appearing in an advert for Chinese state milk”.
Representatives for ITV did not respond after HuffPost UK contacted them for comment.
Good Morning Britain airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.