Piers Morgan defends Fiona Bruce from virtue-signalling wolves

Fiona Bruce announced she is stepping down from her role with Refuge after she was accused of trivialising domestic violence following a comment she made about Stanley Johnson on Question Time. Fiona has since stated that she was legally obliged to “contextualise a question” about Boris Johnson’s father, and that her words were “absolutely not” an expression of her own opinions.

In a statement, on Monday Refuge accepted Fiona’s offer to stand down from her role and criticised her for “minimising the seriousness of domestic abuse”.

Piers Morgan has since furiously defended her, fuming to his 8.4 million followers that Refuge’s attitude has been “shameful”.

Taking to Twitter following the announcement, he raged: “What a shameful cowardly way to treat someone who did so much to promote your charity.

“Fiona Bruce is a thoroughly decent woman who deserves more than being tossed to the virtue-signalling wolves over something she was directed to say in the heat of live TV.”

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Not all Twitter users were convinced, with one suggesting: “Her situation was akin to being both a Lung Cancer Charity spokesperson and Tobacco company spokesperson at the same time.”

However, @Julie_Frew defended: “I think her comment has been taken out of context… as it is an alleged event she contractually had to say what she did.”

Question Time presenter Fiona had made the controversial remarks during a heated discussion on the show, in which Yasmin Alibhai-Brown had described Stanley Johnson as a “wife-beater… on record”.

Stanley’s ex-wife – the late artist Charlotte Wahl – had previously told Boris Johnson’s biographer, Tom Bower, that her former husband had broken her nose and she had ended up in hospital as a result.

Fiona interjected: “I’m not disputing what you’re saying”, but then added: “Stanley Johnson has not commented on that.”

She added: “Friends of his have said it did happen, it was a one-off”, only for Yasmin to insist: “Yes, but it did happen.”

Later, Fiona suggested that she made the comments due to legal concerns about framing the issue that way on TV.

However, after she was accused of “trivialising” domestic violence, she had to make the tough decision to step down from her role as Refuge’s ambassador.

In a statement, she added that her comments had been “mischaracterised” and that she had received troll attacks in the aftermath of them.

“I have been a passionate advocate and campaigner for all survivors of domestic abuse, and have used my privileged position as a woman in the public eye to bring this issue to the fore, notably in my work for over 25 years with Refuge,” she clarified.

“But following the events of last week, I have faced a social media storm, much of which mischaracterised what I said and took the form of personal abuse directed at me.”

She continued: “The only people that matter in all this are the survivors, they are my priority.

“The last thing in the world that I would want is that this issue in any way creates a distraction from Refuge’s critical work on their behalf, and therefore I think the right thing to do is to step back from my role with Refuge.”

In conclusion, she added: “This has been a hard decision for me as I feel so strongly about promoting their work and advancing awareness of this issue.”

Meanwhile, Fiona assured fans: “I will continue to be an active supporter, albeit from the sidelines for now.”

Refuge issued its own statement, confirming that it had accepted Fiona’s decision.

The charity wrote: “Refuge’s position was, and remains, clear – domestic abuse is never a ‘one-off’, it is a pattern of behaviour that can manifest in a number of ways, including but not limited to physical abuse. Domestic abuse is never acceptable.”

The BBC also defended Fiona’s comments, which were made on Question Time last week, insisting: “Domestic abuse is abhorrent, and we would never wish to suggest otherwise.

“When serious allegations are made on air against people or organisations, it is the job of BBC presenters to ensure that the context of those allegations – and any right of reply from the person or organisation – is given to the audience, and this is what Fiona Bruce was doing. She was not expressing any personal opinion about the situation.”

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