Piers Morgan ended up in a fiery row with Ashley James on Wednesday's edition of This Morning. The broadcaster, 60, joined the ITV programme to debate the news with former Made In Chelsea star Ashley, as well as the show's main hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard -but it didn't take long before things descended into a huge row.
Ashley set about trying to explain to Piers her idea of 'woke,' and the former Good Morning Britain star instantly hit back at her and recalled that she made herself into a 'victim' the last time they spoke. She said: "What do you think woke is? Woke means being aware of social injustice. That's all woke means and it's been weaponised by people like you!"
Piers fumed: "Oh, Ashley, do me a favour. I'll give you an example, the last time I appeared with you here, you were a classic wokie. We had a robust exchange of views, we disagreed on stuff and then I watched your Instagram where for the next three days, you just played the most ridiculous, violin-laden victim, all these comments from your fans about how you survived the monster."
Ashely hit back: "And I've got to do it again!" Piers tried to call Ashley a 'strong woman' but on the topic of banter within the workplace, she continued: "Being woke doesn't make you weak! Caring about other people's lived experiences and back in the day, a lot of people went to work and felt uncomfortable with the jokes.
Continuing with her rant, she added: "We see this excuse of banter all the time and it creates this culture where more serious stuff gets brushed under the carpet."
But Piers refused to back down, and he said: "You're saying it's people like me fuelling this stuff, this culture war stuff, but what I'm trying to do is preserve what this country was built on.
"You can have jokes in the workplace, you can have romance in the workplace. 40% of marriages used to start in the workplace. How the hell do you do that now?! No one can even look at each other."
Ashley added: "Being woke and being professional in the workplace is for everyone, it's for women, men and everyone," but the pair continued to just talk over the top of each other.
Trying to have the final word, Piers said it should still be possible to have 'fun' at work, and Ashley reasoned: "Of course you can have fun but not if people are telling you they're uncomfortable, there's a line."
Piers continued: "The problem with the woke brigade is they feel uncomfortable about everything. Give them an orange and they're triggered because it's not an apple. It's all got so ridiculous. We've got this ridiculous snowflakey thing - stop it! Everyone should just chill, and have a bit of fun."
In the end, Ben called on viewers to get in touch with what they thought about the topic, and tried to rush the pair as a tightly timed advert break was coming.
Piers, who helmed Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid for a number of years but infamously stormed off the job live on air during a debate about Meghan Markle, said: "Oh, I used to ignore those!"
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