Niall Boylan (right) made bizarre, unsubstantiated claims about vegans (Photo: Good Morning Britain)

A guest on UK breakfast show Good Morning Britain launched into a bizarre anti-vegan rant this morning during a segment called 'do people hate vegans?'.

The debate follows the furore surrounding William Sitwell - the editor of Waitrose Food Magazine who resigned today after an email he sent to a vegan journalist, joking about 'killing vegans one by one' was shared publicly.

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Recently converted TV Presenter Adrian Chiles (who describes himself as 'more or less vegan') and Irish presenter Niall Boylan debated whether or not vegans are 'irritating'.

Vegan

"I think this poor guy wrote this personal email to somebody, it was a bit of dark humor, and she went a bit over the top, she was looking for a reaction and she got a reaction," said Boylan.

"I don't think he was genuinely going to start chopping people up, that would be a bit sinister, but I think the backlash he's getting is completely out of hand, from these annoying people....veganism has become a trend.

"You can't invite them out, you can't go anywhere with them, they're moaning at the waiter...there's a trend, vegans normally move on to gluten as well."

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The pair discussed the issue of veganism

Vegan and gluten-free

Host Susanna Reid asked: "What evidence have you got that vegans move on to gluten?"

"They do," replied Boylan. "The average vegan starts at 16-years of age, usually because their mate is doing it, 60 percent of them back out of it, it's true, it's a fact...I know loads of vegans, they're strange people.

"They drop out after three months of this diet. It's not even a diet, a diet sets a target. Vegans want to be vegan for life. "

Vegan ethos

Adrian Chiles added: "From my point of view I was making a documentary about religion. I was in Istanbul for Eid, I'd been a fanatical meat-eater for all my life. Loved cooking it, loved eating it.

"I had to take this lamb to be slaughtered, and I was with this lamb, and I saw the look in [their] eyes as [they] were joining the queue to be slaughtered and then I saw the moment [they] died. Seeing the moment [they] died then, I thought 'well...I don't think any animal has got to die to feed me'.

"We can't base the way we behave on the behavior of animals. Dogs go round sniffing each others' bottoms...I assume you don't do that. We're more highly evolved than animals which is why we shouldn't have to kill and eat them."

You can watch the full segment on YouTube here