Controversialist-for-hire Piers Morgan has attacked Stormzy for telling schoolchildren that Boris Johnson is a “bad man”.
The British rapper was talking to pupils at his old primary school in Thornton Heath, south London, when he was asked by one child why he didn’t like the prime minister. He replied that Johnson was “a very, very bad man”.
Stormzy, who backed Jeremy Corbyn and Labour in the run-up to the general election, compared the prime minister to the “big, bad wolf”.
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Morgan tweeted: “He shouldn’t have done this, and shouldn’t have been allowed to do this.”
In a separate tweet, he told the rapper: “You’re a hugely influential role model now to so many youngsters. Wield that power more carefully.”
Stormzy replied: “They asked me a question and I answered it truthfully and with jest… I gave em my opinion. They’ll grow up and be able to make their own. This ain’t a shocking incident pal sorry lol.”
Morgan is known for his Twitter spats. Here’s the rest of his top five:
Gary Lineker
One of Morgan’s most frequent targets for debate is former England striker, Match of the Day host and Walkers crisps salesman Gary Lineker.
Morgan tweeted in 2015 that Lineker “wasn’t a ‘striker’ – he was a ‘goal-hanger’”. Lineker hit back with “Better to be a goal-hanger than a phone-hacker.”
Ariana Grande
Morgan got into hot water with Ariana Grande and her family after criticising the band Little Mix for “stealing” a photo idea.
Grande’s mother Joan called Morgan out for his criticism of Little Mix, to which he responded that he would prefer the band “use their talent to sell records rather than their nudity”.
The argument ended when Grande’s supporters circulated a sultry ad Morgan had done for fast-food chain Burger King in 2009.
Enough to put you off your Whopper.
JK Rowling
Morgan’s sucking up to Donald Trump didn’t impress the Harry Potter author JK Rowling. She tweeted: “If you’d only read Harry Potter, you’d know that the downside of sucking up to the biggest bully in school is getting burned alive,” she said.
After Morgan said he’d never read “a word” of Harry Potter, Rowling shared a screenshot of an article that waxed lyrical about the magical wizarding world she had created. “Could the writer let me know who he is? I’d love to thank him.”
The writer? Piers Morgan.
Sophie Turner
After the actor Beverley Callard said celebrities were trying to make mental health problems “fashionable”, Morgan took it upon himself to tweet his support, saying it was “100% true”.
But Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner disagreed, saying speaking out helped remove the stigma from mental illness. She summed up by directing a four-letter expletive at Morgan.
