Clive Myrie has spoken out after being criticised for a comment he made that people thought ‘belittled the struggles of millions with their bills’ as the news broke of the Queen’s faltering health.
On Thursday September 8, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died at the age of 96 at her Balmoral estate.
Before the monarch’s death was confirmed, the Palace released an earlier statement explaining that doctors had become concerned for her health and she was being kept under medical supervision.
At this point of the day, before the news broke of the Queen’s death, Myrie was presenting BBC News when he made a comment about the energy bills crisis that he later acknowledged was ‘a poor choice of word perhaps’.
‘You’re watching this BBC News special, on concerns, significant health concerns of a team of doctors who are taking care of the Queen at Balmoral,’ he said during the broadcast.
Turning to his colleague Damian Grammaticas, who was reporting from Buckingham Palace, Myrie continued: ‘Damian, the news a little bit earlier on today that the doctors in Scotland were concerned about the Queen’s health, coming as Liz Truss was making a rather important statement concerning the future of energy bills. That of course, insignificant now given the gravity of the situation we seem to be experiencing with Her Majesty.’
Grammaticas agreed that the Prime Minister’s speech was ‘certainly overshadowed by that announcement from the Palace’.
Some people felt angered by Myrie’s comment, interpreting it as the presenter saying that the energy bills crisis was ‘insignificant’ and calling the moment ‘appalling’.
However, he has since addressed the backlash by explaining the word was a reference to Truss’ speech itself, rather than what was being said.
‘Let me clear something up, particularly for those who seemed to relish the suggestion that I would be INSENSITIVE enough to belittle the struggles of millions with their bills. I was referring to the speech Liz Truss was giving, not the CONTENTS of that speech,’ he said in a tweet.
In a second message, he continued: ‘It was a poor choice of word perhaps but that’s live broadcasting. But the vitriolic ‘pile on’ hasn’t been particularly edifying either. But that’s Twitter for you! Cheers.’
‘Several people expressed support for Myrie, with one Twitter user telling him to ‘ignore the haters’.
You did a good job on a difficult day. Ignore the scolds,’ another person said.
