Piers Morgan attacks Greens MSP Ross Greer over anti-Winston Churchill tweet

PIERS Morgan has lashed out at Greens MSP Ross Greer, labelling Scotland’s youngest politician a “thick ginger turd”, over comments he made about Winston Churchill.

MSP Ross Greer has been attacked by Piers Morgan over a disparaging remark about the late Sir Winston Churchill. Pictures: Contributed/PA/TSPL

The West Scotland MSP courted controversy on Friday after branding the late Sir Winston Churchill a “white supremacist mass murderer” in response to a Conservatives tweet paying tribute on the 54th anniversary of the former prime minister’s death in 1965 aged 90.

“For many, the greatest Briton to have ever lived,” read the Conservatives tweet, which prompted 24-year-old Greer to reply: “Once again for the people in the back: Churchill was a white supremacist mass murderer”.

The controversial remark about the wartime leader sparked a strong response across social media, attracting the ire of TV host and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan who took aim at Greer, tweeting: “And you’re a thick ginger turd who’d be spewing this filth in German if it wasn’t for Churchill”.

Greer then replied: “Honey-glazed gammon speaks”, to which Mr Morgan offered cloaked penance. The Good Morning Britain presenter tweeted: “I’d like to apologise to any other gingers, thick people or turds offended by association with @Ross_Greer”.

As of Monday afternoon, Mr Greer’s anti-Churchill tweet has been retweeted more than 6,000 times with in excess of 21,000 people hitting ‘like’.

But Piers Morgan was not the only individual to slam the MSP over his comments, @odekul wrote: “It’s actually the fact your ilk are so wilfully blind to the context of Churchill and what he did achieve against those who were far, far worse in order to be divisive”.

And pro-green @Peem_Broon tweeted: “Seriously Ross, as a left leaning environmentalist I promise you, you are hurting the cause”.

Despite the furore from some quarters, Mr Greer has moved to justify his initial tweet, writing: “He (Churchill) consciously chose to starve 3 million Indians or death by taking food away, he used poison gas against Russians in the 20s, he believed in eugenics & the superiority of the white race, which to him justified the slaughter of Native Americans, Aborigines etc.”

In a separate tweet, the MSP added: “To deal with its murdrous history, Britain needs to start by learning it”.