Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has defended tweeting a poll asking people if they had stockpiled two weeks of food because of the COVID-19 coronavirus, after he was accused of potentially sparking panic.
The poll, shared this morning, asked: "Have you stockpiled a fortnight+ worth of food in case of #COVID19 home quarantine?".
It currently shows stockpiling food "had not even crossed the mind" had more than 85 per cent of respondents.
Martin then retweeted a tweet criticising his poll, which accused Mr Lewis of spreading panic.
The tweet original tweet has since been deleted.
The retweet by Mr Lewis read: "To you and others saying similar. I understand your point but this is a poll testing attitudes.
"The papers have been covering stories of people stocking up for days. This isn't a new concept. I'm testing to see how widespread an action it is."
Many on Twitter came to Martin's defence. Damien Hellewell tweeted: "The government have been saying they might have to close cities down but it's a Martin Lewis poll that's going to cause a panic? Right."
The Racking Inspector commented: "I think it's an interesting poll and if you think it's going to start mass panic, then you're obviously not looking what the current government is doing or you'd already be apoplectic."
Mr Lewis tweeted the poll as Public Health England's emeritus medical director warned that coronavirus will soon be widespread in UK "fairly soon" - possibly within the next few days
