Graham Norton has said that Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield are "foolish" as he had his say on the queue jump row. Last week, This Morning presenters Holly, 41, and Phil, 60, received backlash after being accused of skipping the large queue to see the Queen lying-in-state at Westminster Hall.
After the criticism, the pair later addressed the accusations saying they were representing the media to report on the event for the "millions of people in the UK who haven't been able to visit Westminster in person", writes The Mirror.
Graham, 59, revealed that he too was offered to skip the queue by an MP but decided against it as he thought he would "get in the neck" from those who had waited hours in line to pay their respects. Speaking on Radio 5 Live on Monday, Nihal Arthanayake asked him: "You do read the room, right? You’d be very good at that. Without question, you would go: 'What are the optics of this?'.
To which the BBC presenter replied: "Well, for instance, okay recently, Phil and Holly…. The Queue. So, as far as I’m concerned, they did nothing wrong. "There was a two-tier system. You could queue jump! Yeah. Now I got offered a queue jump ticket by a friend of mine – he’s an MP and he said “do you wanna come?” And I didn’t say yes – because I thought if anybody sees me I’ll get it in the neck."
Graham said while he thinks they did nothing wrong, the pair were naïve to think they wouldn't get backlash from appearing to skip the queue. He added: "I suppose what Phil and Holly got wrong was they thought people wouldn’t care.
"I guess that 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." Speaking on their daytime show on Tuesday, the duo issued a lengthy statement about the pictures of them at Westminster Hall.
"We were given official permission to access the hall, it was strictly for reporting on the event for millions of people in the UK who haven't been able to visit Westminster in person," Holly said in a pre-recorded voice over. She added: "The rules were, that we would be quickly escorted around the edges to a platform at the back."
"In contrast, those paying respect stood on a carpeted area beside the coffin and were given time to pause. None of the broadcasters or journalists there took anyone's place in the queue and no one filed past the Queen." Holly admitted they understood the backlash surrounding them being at the lying in state.
"We, of course, respected those rules. However, we realised it may have looked like something else and therefore totally understand the reaction. Please know we would never jump the queue," Holly concluded.
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