Piers Morgan: Susanna Reid wouldn’t mind if I was paid more - I’ve reinvented breakfast TV

Piers Morgan has claimed that Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid wouldn’t mind if he was paid more than her — because he has “slightly” reinvented breakfast television.

The presenter and journalist defended his salary by saying his combative style helped to create “theatre”.

In an interview with ES Magazine, published tomorrow, Morgan, 52, said: “They pay me what I’m worth ... a lot. I have no idea what she’s [Reid] paid. I don’t think it would matter to her, even if she found that I was being paid more, because she, I think, would be the first to accept that I’ve slightly redone the wheel here. I bring a completely different kind of feel.”

He added: “I think she’s brilliant, worth every penny ITV gives her ...But I don’t know what that is.”

Morgan described himself as a feminist, despite criticising a women’s demonstration this year. “I think I’m an absolute feminist,” he said.

“I’ve only had battles with the more radical end of feminists over stuff like the Women’s March, which wasn’t a genuine march for equality but just Trump-bashing.”

The US president is someone Morgan considers a “friend” but “I wouldn’t have voted for him”. He said: “I don’t like Hillary [Clinton]. [Former Democratic vice-president] Joe Biden’s my kind of politics.”

Morgan, who was sacked as editor of the Daily Mirror in 2004, had his CNN show in the US cancelled a decade later. He said: “Trump ... I do like him personally. He was very loyal to me when I left CNN. He rang me a few times just to check I was OK.” He added: “I’ve got family who are far more Right-wing. It doesn’t mean I disown them.”

ITV said it did not comment on “contractual matters”.