Piers Morgan didn’t hold back after a fiery exchange on BBC’s Question Time left viewers baffled and politicians scrambling. The outspoken broadcaster went straight for Labour MP Darren Jones, calling him out on social media after a moment on the show, many are now calling it completely misleading.
The heat kicked off during Thursday night’s edition of the political debate show, where Jones, a Treasury Minister for Labour, clashed with Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf. The back-and-forth centred around the sensitive issue of small boat crossings in the English Channel. While Yusuf argued that most of those arriving were men, Jones threw a curveball, claiming the majority he’d seen were “children, babies, and women.”
That alone sparked some raised eyebrows, but Jones went on to explain that he was basing this claim on a personal visit to Border Security Command in Dover, rather than any official numbers, according to the Express.
He told the audience: “Let me tell you, when you’re there on the site, seeing these dinghies put together by these organised criminal gangs, which are clearly not safe. And when you see that the majority of the people in these boats are children, babies and women… you have got to take note.”
While his remarks might have struck a chord emotionally, they quickly unraveled online, with critics jumping in to question the accuracy of his statement. In an attempt to smooth things over, Jones later posted on X to clarify what he meant.
“Of course the overall majority of people arriving illegally on small boats are men – but not ‘north of 90%’ as Reform claimed,” he wrote. “On @bbcquestiontime I shared a story from my visit to the Border Security Command about a dinghy that arrived mostly carrying women, children and babies who had suffered horrific burns.
“I’m happy to clarify this given how this is now being misrepresented. Labour committed new funding this week to secure our borders while Reform have voted against giving our police the powers needed to smash the gangs fuelling this vile trade.”
But that didn’t wash with Piers. Never one to mince his words, he quote-tweeted Jones’s post with his signature bluntness, saying: “If there’s one thing worse than telling such a brazen, absurd, instantly refutable whopper on Question Time, it’s then digging yourself into an ever deeper trench with your ‘clarifications’ ever since. Stop!”
And the numbers aren’t exactly on Jones’s side. According to the Home Office, 81% of those who arrived in the UK via small boats in the first three months of 2025 were men. Looking at last year as a whole, 76% were adult males. So while his personal experience might have involved more women and children in one particular dinghy, the broader statistics tell a very different story.
The clash has stirred up plenty of debate online, with viewers split between sympathy for the migrants and frustration at what some see as political spin. Meanwhile, Piers has once again proved he’s always ready to pounce when he smells what he considers nonsense on national television.
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