Piers Morgan under fire for trying to hug Susanna Reid while making Me Too joke

Morgan’s remarks were fiercely criticised and viewers have urged the controversial presenter to apologise

Piers Morgan has mocked the Me Too movement while attempting to cajole co-host Susanna Reid into hugging him on Good Morning Britain.

Morgan made the crass remark after reading out a tweet from actor Bradley Walsh who quipped the dynamic between Morgan and Reid was reminiscent of that between Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd’s characters in American TV series Moonlighting.

The ABC series revolved around cases investigated by the Blue Moon Detective Agency and the sexual tension between its two partners Madelyn "Maddie" Hayes – played by Shepherd - and David Addison Jr – played by Willis.

After an image of the actors hugging appeared on the screen, Morgan urged Reid to act out the scene for viewers back home.

“Come on, come on, you know you want to,” the controversial Mail Online columnist and presenter said.

“Come on, dangle a little arm around me, you know you want to. We’ve got to try and recreate it, come on.”

Morgan continued: “You’re allowed to. I’m not going to ‘Me Too’ you! Come on. You’re allowed to touch me in the workplace, come on.”

Looking visibly shocked, Reid replied: “It’s about whether I want to, not whether you allow me to. I don’t want to put my arm around you.”

But unprepared to back down from his point, Morgan said: “Of course you want to. You couldn’t have made your feelings any clearer".

Morgan’s remarks have been fiercely criticised on social media and viewers have urged him to apologise. One critic even called for him to be fired for poking fun at the Me Too movement which endeavours to raise awareness of sexual assault and harassment.

"Piers Morgan has the cheek to call himself a feminist and then made that vile #MeToo joke. Disgusting. GMB he should apologise live on air for that," said Twitter user, Peter Harrison.

The Me Too hashtag was created by Tarana Burke a decade ago in an attempt to support sexual assault survivors in disadvantaged communities but exploded after the Harvey Weinstein allegations.

Since the allegations against Weinstein emerged in October, a stream of similar allegations have been made against powerful men across the globe. Social media has also been inundated with millions using the “me too” hashtag to share their own stories of sexual misconduct and denounce such acts.