Piers Morgan asks if DUP politician is gay during heated Strictly Come Dancing debate
(ITV)
Piers Morgan called former DUP health minister Jim Wells an “old bigoted dinosaur” in a debate about Strictly Come Dancing, before then asking if Wells is gay.
Morgan and Susanna Reid clashed with the veteran DUP politician today, September 3, over the inclusion, slated for next year, of same-sex couples on the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Wells said that Strictly Come Dancing is “family viewing” and opposed the inclusion of same-sex dancing couples, saying he would be refusing to watch the programme because of them.
“You’ve had a busy week, you sit down with the family and you watch pure entertainment,” Wells said. “The last thing you want is to be challenged or to be asked deep intellectual questions.”
Wells, who is opposed to same-sex marriage, said he thinks couples of the same gender dancing together should only be shown on Strictly Come Dancing after the 9pm watershed.
Wells referred to Blind Date, which he said “went down the plughole” after it made the “radical” move of including gay and lesbian couples.
Morgan asked Wells: “What are you like at parties? Do you ever dance?”
When Wells said he rarely dances publicly, Morgan asked how he felt about dancing near other men: “When you danced and men came on the dance floor, how did you feel? At what point did you feel like a man entering your orbit became a problem for you?”
Reid also challenged Wells, asking: “Have you ever seen children dancing? They dance together, girls dance together, boys dance together, there’s nothing challenging about it.”
She added: “Your concern is only about seeing gay couples – it’s not about children.”
Morgan then called Wells an “old bigoted dinosaur”, adding, “you feel challenged because you don’t like the idea of scary gay people around you.”
“Most people who have this weirdly anti-gay sentiment at some stage in their life have had a ‘feeling’,” Morgan added.
He then said: “Are you gay?”
Well said that he was “absolutely not” gay and was “happily married”.
The BBC told The Sun that Strictly is an “inclusive show” and that they are “proud to have featured same-sex dancing amongst the professional dancers in group numbers in previous series”.
A spokesperson said: “We are completely open to the prospect of including same-sex pairings between our celebrities and professional dancers in the future, should the opportunity arise.”
