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ITV ‘vigorously’ defended Piers Morgan throughout Ofcom investigation, chief insists

Piers Morgan quit GMB earlier this year (Picture: Rex)

The chief executive of ITV has insisted the broadcaster ‘vigorously’ defended Piers Morgan during an Ofcom investigation into comments he made on Good Morning Britain.

Piers quit the breakfast programme in March after making comments that he didn’t believe Meghan Markle’s claims of feeling suicidal, which she made in her interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The former presenter’s remarks became the most complained about moment in the television watchdog’s history earlier this year. However, Good Morning Britain was cleared at the beginning of the month.

When asked about whether Piers could return to ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention he had resigned from the broadcaster.

‘I will just say that we vigorously defended both the programme and Piers to Ofcom, and the reason we didn’t get pulled up by them is because of the programme making,’ she said.

Dame Carolyn added there is ‘no way we wouldn’t be absolutely not just endorsing but championing freedom of speech and freedom of expression.’

Piers doesn’t want to return to GMB (Picture: ITV)

She also said she expects to see Piers ‘working on some global platform any day soon’.

Piers ruled out returning to Good Morning Britain earlier this month after Ofcom cleared the show of breaching broadcasting conduct and he joked about asking for his job back.

‘I put that post on social media asking if I’d get my job back to prove a point,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t go back, not without a public apology and I’m not going to get one.

More: Good Morning Britain

‘I’ve got much bigger things coming up. The future is exciting. The next project is global, it’s big.’

Piers added to Daily Mail: ‘I can’t say what but people are going to hear about it within the next few weeks.’

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.

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