Jeremy Vine slammed for ‘absolutely shameful’ redefinition of the term woke: ‘I almost fell off my chair’

Jeremy Vine has come under fire for completely altering the meaning of the word ‘woke’.

The 57-year-old presenter insisted the actual dictionary definition of the term, which is ‘being aware of social issues’ according to Collins, was wrong.

The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant instead falsely claimed that woke has ‘come to mean something else’ while hosting his Channel 5 show on Friday.

The Eggheads presenter’s controversial comments were made when he was asked by his guest, author and campaigner Natasha Devon, for his definition of work.

He responded: ‘Well, woke is, you know, you kind of read The Guardian and this and that, yeah.’

Jeremy continued: ‘I’m woke about three or four days a week, to be fair.’

Jeremy’s remarks were branded ‘absolutely shameful’ (Picture: Channel 5)

‘I love that for you,’ Natasha said, before explaining that woke is an African-American term meaning to be ‘awake to injustice in society.’

She added: ‘It just means you’re not racist, homophobic or misogynist, so I’d say you’re a woke person.’

Jeremy said: ‘Well it does in your definition it means that, but not to everyone.’

Correcting him, Natasha said: ‘Well that’s the dictionary [definition],’ but Jeremy interrupted: ‘No, no, not to everyone. It’s come to mean something else.’

‘Leave that aside,’ he desperately tried to change the topic of conversation.

Viewers rushed to Twitter to slam Jeremy’s ‘definition’, including comedian Kathy Burke, who wrote: ‘“It’s come to mean something else” from Vine there. No it hasn’t, it’s just been hijacked by thickos and patronising old white men.’

Kathy Burke was shocked by Jeremy’s take (Picture: Getty)

‘He gives a really wishy-washy example of what he thinks it means and then completely dismisses her when she tells him what it actually means,’ one of her followers replied.

Another shocked viewer added: ‘I almost fell off my chair when I heard this. Absolutely shameful display.’

Many others agreed with Katy, describing her observation as ‘spot on.’

It comes the week after Jeremy’s daytime show was hit with more than two thousand Ofcom complaints over comments made about junior doctors.

‘These are the first few years, where I won’t call them trainees, but they’re very much finding their feet. They’re very much junior doctors here or foundation job doctors we call them,’ he said.

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In a TikTok explaining the situation, one person said: ‘You use foundation doctor and junior doctor interchangeably there, that’s not how it works. If you were a doctor you would know that.’

Jeremy Vine airs weekdays on Channel 5 from 9.15am.

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Kathy Burke was among those blasting the presenter.