Piers Morgan defends Susanna Reid against darts player who went on ‘poofs’ Twitter rant
Piers Morgan has defended Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid against a former champion darts player who was fired from his job with Sky Sports for a series of slurs against gay people and sex abuse victims.
Eric Bristow MBE, five time world darts champion, posted a series of abusive Tweets accusing footballers of being “wimps” and asking why alleged victims of sex abuse didn’t seek revenge.
In one Tweet, he appeared to compare being gay with being a paedophile.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain this morning, Bristow began addressing Reid as “darling”, saying “The abuse is rife, darlin’.”
Chiming in, Morgan said “Don’t call Susanna darlin’, she’s not your darlin’.”
During the segment, the pair questioned Bristow on the tweets, in which he referred to vicrims of child sex abuse as “wimps”.
He responded: “I apologise, it was a miswording… They are not wimps.”
The darts player has also lost a working relationship with Newcastle United Football Club due to the tweets, which have since been deleted.
A statement from NUFC reads: “In light of tweets made by the darts player Eric Bristow, Newcastle United has taken the decision today to withdraw him immediately from a scheduled appearance at an event taking place at St. James’ Park on 6th December.
“The club will not work with Eric Bristow in the future. For those who have already bought tickets for the event, current player Kevin Painter has this morning confirmed he will take part.”
The 59-year-old ‘joked’ that rugby players would not have been victims of child sex abuse like footballers, because “footballers wimps”.
The player, who was recognised with an MBE by the Queen in 1989 for services to sport, back peddled on his angry comments as the reaction mounted.
He wrote, “sorry meant paedo not poof” appearing to confirm he had confused being gay with being a paedophile.
13 hours after posting the series of abusive Tweets they had been removed from his account.
The rant comes days after Stonewall’s rainbow laces campaign saw a barrage of homophobic posts on social media.
Users wrote “football fur real man” and “who supports f***ing gays?” following the effort to tackle homophobia in sport, while others denied it existed.
