Piers Morgan and Trevor Noah are bickering over whether or not the Daily Show host called Britain a racist country after comments he made as Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister (Picture: TalkTV / Backgrid / Reuters)
Piers Morgan and Trevor Noah have found themselves in a Twitter spat after the US talk show host said there was ‘racist backlash’ in the UK to Rishi Sunak becoming Prime Minister.
In a recent episode of The Daily Show, aired as Mr Sunak became Prime Minister after Penny Mordaunt dropped out following Liz Truss’ 45 days as leader, host Noah questioned the ‘backlash’ he had apparently seen.
‘Seeing the backlash is one of the more telling things about how people view the role that they – or their people – have played in history,’ he told audiences.
‘You hear a lot of people saying: “Oh they’re taking over, Indians are going to take over Great Britain and what’s next?”, and I’ve always found myself going: “So what? What are you afraid of?”
His comments didn’t go down too well in the UK, with some accusing him of ‘inventing’ racial backlash towards Mr Sunak, and Uncensored host Morgan among those voicing his frustration.
Writing on Twitter this week, he said: ‘There’s been no such backlash against Sunak, you race-baiting twerps. Why does US media keep falsely portraying Britain as a racist country?’
Now Noah has responded to the dig, saying he thought Morgan was ‘smarter than that.’
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‘I wasn’t saying “The entire U.K. is racist”, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race,’ he said. ‘That’s why I said. “Some people”.’
The US presenter asked why people were afraid of ‘another gender or race’ getting into power (Picture: Invision/AP)
The former Good Morning Britain presenter was having none of it however, hitting back: ‘No, you c’mon Trevor.
‘There was no ‘backlash’ in UK to@RishiSunak becoming PM because of his heritage. You made that up to create a racism narrative that simply didn’t happe’
He also, shockingly, used the opportunity to apparently slam Megan Markle, adding: ‘We Brits are bored of US media (& disingenuous duchesses) making us out to be a bunch of racists.’
Uncensored host Morgan had labeled Noah a ‘race-baiting twerp’ (Picture: TalkTV)
In the Daily Show segment which started the argument, Noah had said: ‘You see people in the UK, you see people like [Fox News star] Tucker Carlson all the time saying: “You know what they’re trying to do… they won’t stop until Black people and women are in positions of power” … So what?’
‘Why are you so afraid? I think it’s because the quiet part a lot of people don’t realize they are saying is: “We don’t want these people, who were previously oppressed, to get into power because then they may do to us what we did to them.” Which, ironically, is not true.
He went on: ‘What do you think is going to happen? You’re just giving yourself away. It’s amazing when people say the quiet part out loud. You expose yourself. Why do you care? Why are you afraid of power shifting to another gender or to another race?’’
A Downing Street spokesperson for Mr Sunak was later asked if the Prime Minister believed Britain was a racist country, to which they responded: ‘No, he doesn’t.’
Mr Sunak was named Prime Minister after his only competitor, Penny Mordaunt, dropped out of the leadership race (Picture: Sopa Images/Shutterstock)
Many took issue with Noah’s comments, accusing him of making up racist backlash against the PM, with one Twitter user calling it ‘completely fake outrage.’
However, Noah’s comments came days after LBC host Sangita Myska powerfully shut down a racist caller last week – before Mr Sunak was elected as PM – after they claimed that Mr Sunak ‘isn’t even British’.
A man known as ‘Jerry’ – who claimed to be part of the Tory party – voiced his fury that the politician was in the running to lead the government, alleging that he ‘doesn’t love England’ and ‘isn’t even British in most people’s opinion’.
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‘Rishi’s not going to win it. Rishi’s not even British, in most people’s opinion,’ he claimed. ‘He’s got American allegiance, his family’s American. They’re Indian businesspeople. He’ll go and live in America no doubt.’
After a back-and-forth, the host replied: ‘Is the problem Jerry that Rishi Sunak is a brown man and you don’t trust him at the top of this country?’
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Morgan had branded Noah a ‘race-baiting twerp’.