Piers Morgan has savaged a Scottish politician in a furious TV debate after he described Sir Winston Churchill as a ‘white supremacist mass murderer’.
The Good Morning Britain host, 53, told Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer, 24: ‘If it wasn’t for Winston Churchill you would be speaking German and goose-stepping your way to Holyrood.’
Piers branded Mr Greer a ‘nasty, sneering young man’ and accused him of offering ‘no balance, perspective or any sense that what Winston Churchill did for this country was good.’
In response the young MSP said Piers’s version of events were ‘wildly ahistorical’.
When the presenter blasted him on a point about the Bengali famine, Mr Greer said: ‘You’re getting into a tantrum Piers, that’s very snowflake of you.’
Mr Greer, Europe spokesman for the Scottish Greens, sparked outrage with his Twitter rant about Britain’s great wartime Prime Minister on January 25.
His controversial tweet generated thousands of responses, including several from Piers Morgan who branded him a ‘thick ginger turd’.
After a heated exchange Piers challenged Mr Greer to a TV debate.
Speaking on the show this morning, he demanded to know why Mr Greer had written the inflammatory tweet.
Mr Greer said Churchill was a ‘racist because he hated Indians with a passion and branded them a beastly people with a beastly religion’.
He also claimed the former PM ‘advocated using poison gas against uncivilised tribes in Africa’ as well as using hateful rhetoric against people in Afghanistan and Kurdistan.
But when he accused the late, great Churchill of being ‘responsible for the Bengali famine of 1943’, Piers was unable to control his emotions.
MSP Ross Greer (pictured right, today) appeared on Good Morning Britain live from Glasgow alongside presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid (left)
He said: ‘That is a complete and utter lie.
‘In the middle of the Second World War Churchill is seen in the papers to be very concerned about the famine in Bengal, going to Canada, Australia and Franklin D. Roosevelt in America, beseeching world leaders to help the Bengalis.
‘What you’re saying isn’t just offensive, it’s a downright lie.
‘I get enraged by this, because if it wasn’t for WC you would be speaking German and goose-stepping your way to Holyrood.’
Mr Greer was responding to a Conservative party tweet from January 24 marking the anniversary of Churchill’s death calling him ‘the greatest Briton to have ever lived’.
Greer, who at 24 is Scotland’s youngest MSP, was accused of ‘attention seeking’ after saying: ‘Once again for the old people at the back: Churchill was a white supremacist mass murderer’.
Piers Morgan (pictured today) branded Green MSP Ross Greer ‘a thick ginger turd’ after he called Churchill a ‘white supremacist mass murderer’
He caused further controversy by describing anyone who admires the Second World War leader – credited with helping save Britain from Nazi Germany – as ‘crass and simple minded’.
Mr Greer also spoke to Bob Seely MP, whose great, great uncle served alongside Churchill.
Mr Seely said Mr Greer’s argument was just ‘trite infantile smearing’ and ‘eloquent stupidity’.
The Isle of Wight MP highlighted that by branding Churchill a racist, Mr Greer is saying he was no better than Adolf Hitler.
Piers added: ‘I know he was a flawed character, but Winston Churchill single-handedly took this country out of the abyss.
‘You are saying the man who saved us from the Nazis is actually no better than a Nazi himself.’
Ross Greer smiled as he battled Piers Morgan in an early morning TV debate. The presenter accused him of ‘laughing, smirking and sneering’ throughout
Piers was among many to blast him – his message (above) generated more than 5,000 retweets and caused a row that raged online throughout the weekend
Throughout the debate Piers told Mr Greer to ‘stop laughing, smirking and sneering’ because ‘the people who lived through the war are not laughing’.
Exasperated, he ended the interview by saying: ‘You denigrate this great national icon. Well, do you know who I find revolting? You.’
Yesterday afternoon he confirmed a Tuesday-morning breakfast-television clash for which some of Piers’s followers promised to set their televisions to ‘record’.
Mr Morgan tweeted: ‘UPDATE: The thick ginger turd MSP @Ross_Greer who said Churchill is a ‘white supremacist mass murderer’ will be appearing live on @GMB tomorrow’.
Mr Greer, elected in 2016 aged 21, was defiant over the row.
He said: ‘This is the real, verified history of Churchill and the one known throughout much of the world’.
Greer said that his critics were uneducated about Churchill’s ‘shameful history
He added: ‘If that’s uncomfortable to some here, it’s just a sign of how uneducated Britain is of our own shameful history.’
His Twitter attack came the day after the rest of the UK, including Prime Minister Theresa May, marked the anniversary of Sir Winston’s death on January 24, 1965, aged 90.
Lee Pollock, of the International Churchill Society, said: ‘It seems to me this young man’s not as important as he would like, so he has found the biggest target he can in order to get the most attention with a radical point of view. It’s a cheap trick.’
Mr Greer’s comments highlighted Sir Winston’s pre-war activity and his involvement in colonial rule of India.
However, he faced a backlash, with critics telling him to ‘do his research’.
Afghanistan veteran Colonel Richard Kemp tweeted: ‘If Churchill hadn’t saved our country from the Germans, you wouldn’t be a so-called ‘Green MSP’, whatever that is. Y
‘You’d probably just about have made it to Oberrottenführer in the West Schottland Hitler Youth.’
Other Scottish politicians jumped to Sir Winston’s defence on Monday.
Scottish Tory whip Maurice Golden said: ‘Sir Winston Churchill is one of the defining figures of western democracy… seeking to diminish him is a disservice to the millions of men and women who fought to preserve our freedom.’