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‘How on earth would you know?’ - Lisa Nandy puts Piers Morgan in his place over Meghan Markle comments

Lisa Nandy speaks to Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain. Photograph: ITV. Archant

Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy has slapped down Piers Morgan for his comments about Meghan Markle after he insisted she was not a victim of racism.

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The Good Morning Britain host used the interview with the Labour MP to dominate the conversation by continuing his verbal assaults on the Duchess of Sussex.

Nandy said the whole situation "has not shown the British media in its best light" as Morgan continued to rant about the former royal.

"I thought that letter was ridiculous. I thought it didn't bear any relation to the reality, which is that Meghan Markle's had exactly the same level of treatment as someone like Kate Middleton, for example. Good and bad in equal measures.

"If you're a member of the royal family, you get acres of press coverage. I would say 70% of the Meghan coverage has been positive, 30% has been negative.

"And she just doesn't like the negative stuff. It's got nothing to do with her skin colour, nothing to do with her gender. It's just they've done stuff that the public, and the media reflect British public opinion most of the time, thought was wrong."

But his comments caused Nandy to hit back at Morgan, which even momentarily left him silenced.

"If you don't mind me saying, how on earth would you know?" she asked.

"As someone who's never had to deal with ingrained prejudice, you're not in a position to understand people who have.

"And I think there were a lot of people who signed that letter who have."

She added: "I think Britain is a much more decent country than some sections of the media would have us believe.

"The way Meghan Markle was treated, I didn't like it at all."

Morgan, however, tried to find outrage in her remarks. He continued: "This idea that somehow we're all a bunch of racists but the coverage of that wedding was completely the opposite. It embraced everything that Meghan Markle could bring to the monarchy so, I just don't accept this narrative because she then got criticised for significant missteps."

But Nandy held her nerve. She continued: "I don't know who you're pushing back against in this sort of interview. Because I said exactly the opposite. I said it was a real shame that some sections of the media had treated this in the way they did.

"Because most of the media, including many local papers, are allies in the face against racism and discrimination in Britain. I would much rather their voices were heard."

Nandy added: "I don't think the media is one entity. I think there are different parts of the media who do different things."

The Labour leadership contender had a similar put down for Katie Hopkins after she appeared to back her to replace Jeremy Corbyn.