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Graham Norton defends Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield over queue-gate

Sam Moore
Updated ·2-min read
Graham Norton defended Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. (BBC)
Graham Norton defended Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. (BBC)

Graham Norton has come to the defence of Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield after the This Morning presenters were accused of jumping the queue to see the Queen lying in state.

Since the incident, Willoughby and Schofield have been heavily criticised by members of the public with a petition to have them removed from This Morning receiving tens of thousands of signatures.

Appearing on Nihal Arthanayake’s BBC Radio 5 Live programme, Norton revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to jump the public queue.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were criticised for appearing to jump the queue to see the Queen's coffin. (ITV)
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were criticised for appearing to jump the queue to see the Queen's coffin. (ITV)

He said: “There was a two-tier system. You could queue jump. Now, I got offered a queue jump ticket by a friend of mine.

"He’s an MP and he said, ‘Do you want to come?’ And I didn’t say 'yes' because I thought if anybody sees me I’ll get it in the neck. And that was what I thought."

Read more: Petition to axe This Morning's Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield reaches 73k signatures

Watch: Piers Morgan defends Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield over 'jump the queue' controversy

The chat show host and author then addressed the backlash to Willoughby and Schofield: “So I suppose what Phil and Holly got wrong was they thought people wouldn’t care. I guess that’s their crime.

"The actual queue jumping? They did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. But foolish of them to not think that people would be annoyed.”

'This Morning' was also recently criticised for its Spin to Win competition. (ITV)
'This Morning' was also recently criticised for its Spin to Win competition. (ITV)

Willoughby has defended herself during a segment on the daytime TV show, saying: “Please know that we would never jump a queue.”

The Labour party's deputy leader Angela Rayner has also expressed concern over the backlash the two TV presenters have received: “I’ve been worried about them because even though they are celebrities… they are human beings and I just think ‘wow’.”

Read more: David Beckham on why it was important for him to see Queen lying in state

Around 250,000 people are thought to have queued to see the Queen lying in state.

Famous faces such as David Beckham, actor Daniel Mays and Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid queued with the public.