Piers Morgan slams BBC over 'homophobic' cartoon of him and Donald Trump

Piers Morgan has said the satirical cartoon of him and Donald Trump aired by the BBC was "homophobic". The TV presenter has asked people on Twitter if the publicly-funded broadcaster would have depicted two female personalities in the same manner as he was in the cartoon.

The cartoon, which was aired on BBC2's The Mash Report on Thursday (1 February) evening, showed Morgan with his nose up the US president's backside. The cartoon was aired a week after Morgan landed the first international interview with Trump.

"I wasn't upset by the cartoon, I merely asked if it would have been broadcast on publicly-funded BBC if it depicted a female president & interviewer. Or indeed a gay president & interviewer," he said on Twitter.

While questioning the gender equality standards of the BBC, Morgan said he was not embarrassed by the cartoon but was only highlighting the "shocking hypocrisy" of the broadcaster.

"If the BBC broadcast an image like this after a female journalist interviewed @theresa_may - all hell would break loose & people would be fired. Gender equality shouldn't just apply to pay - should it?" he said.

Morgan also said the BBC would be the first to call Trump a "sexist", "misogynist" and "homophobic" if the US president were to share a cartoon of a female interviewer with her nose up Hilary Clinton's backside.

When a user criticised him for retweeting the cartoon several times, Morgan said: "And you just did too. But would you have done if it depicted women?" Morgan asked another user: "Would you be so gleeful if the BBC had done it to two high profile women or two high profile gay men?"

Morgan told someone else: "I'm sure you are but if it depicted 2 high profile women you would lead the outrage" after the person said he was crying with laughter on reading the comments of other users over the cartoon.