Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski in Twitter row with Piers Morgan

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski took to Twitter to question Good Morning Britain host Morgan's coverage of the pandemic, accusing him of 'pantomime bluster' over his confrontational interviews with government ministers.

Mr Kawczynski produced a letter from a constituent who said they had been forced to switch channels because of Morgan's aggressive style of questioning.

But outspoken ex-tabloid editor Morgan hit back, saying he would carry on scrutinising the Government as he saw fit.

In his opening message, Mr Kawczynski told Morgan: "If you want to retain support of Middle England, you need to focus on more effective scrutiny rather than pantomime bluster."

He then posted a copy of the letter adding: "This is a message from some of my sensible middle-of-road constituents in Shrewsbury."

The letter began by saying that the writer and their friends had previously enjoyed watching Morgan on the programme, adding that it did not have the same gravitas when he was not on the show.

But it added: "We are so distressed by the way that you are attacking the Government representatives over their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly PPE.

"Clearly, like the rest of the world, our Government has made mistakes, but we are in unchartered (sic) waters, and attacking them all the time is counter-productive."

The letter said Morgan's interviews sometimes seemed like personal attacks. The writer added: "Sadly, we have to turn the TV to watch BBC, who are not so aggressive and unpleasant."

Morgan responded to Mr Kawczynski's message by insisting that he would not be changing his style.

He wrote: "Thanks for the tip, Daniel. I’ll keep scrutinising the Government how I see fit, but I can understand why you as a Conservative MP would prefer me not to. For the record, everyone I have spoken to in ‘Middle England’ is right behind me."

The debate appeared to divide opinion among those who responded, with some voicing dislike of Morgan's interviewing style, but others saying that government officials should be capable of answering tough questions.

A poster giving his name only as 'Cameron' replied: "People apparently don't have the attention span for reasoned debate anymore, that is why idiots like Piers Morgan have gained prominence. His only debating strategy is to be the loudest in the room."

But Glen Hunt sided with Morgan. He said: "Someone needs to ask the tough questions, the daily press briefing questions are like a holiday."

Earlier in the day Mr Kawczynski criticised Dan Snow for being "silly and immature" after the historian asked the Government to "please, stop lying to us" while quoting a Sky News tweet which said Britain had only requested PPE from Turkey after a minister had said the shipment was already on its way to the UK.

Mr Kawczynski said it was "depressing and debilitating when someone who has had so many advantages & privileges in life looks down on others who are doing their best under extraordinarily difficult circumstances & accuses them of lying without a shred of evidence."