Piers Morgan lays into Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley and Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin

Piers Morgan has promised to pay parking tickets for NHS workers as it emerges medics are being fined at hospital car parks during the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Mr Morgan asked why traffic wardens – who he said were ‘top of [his] list’ for non-essential workers – are operating when the Government has ordered a lockdown across the country with only a few key workers exempt.

‘A friend of mine sent me a parking ticket, given to a friend of hers delivering food to the elderly on an estate,’ Mr Morgan said.

‘Two parking wardens in plain clothes in a white car, no mask, going around giving people tickets. A few of them were doing deliveries to the elderly and the vulnerable.’

He questioned if it was the case that wardens were acting in ‘the national interest right now’ by ‘nicking people as they deliver goods to the elderly and vulnerable.’  

Mr Morgan said he had witnessed ‘people at hospitals, nurses and doctors, who are getting parking tickets for overstaying their stay’, and asked why crucial health workers were not yet exempt from car park fees.  

He then pledged to cover the costs of parking fines for health workers as the Covid-19 crisis carries on – and pledged to ‘go to the government and have the battle’ on their behalf.

‘I will say now to any health worker during the future of this crisis, however long it lasts, if any of you get a parking ticket at a hospital where you’re working, I will pay it for you,’ he said.

‘I will pay it and I will then go to the government and have the battle, you don’t get involved.

‘Send it in to Good Morning Britain and I will pay the parking ticket if that is what it takes.’

Kirstie Allsopp, known as co-presenter of Channel 4 property shows including Location, Location, Location, was appearing as a guest on the show and said she would ‘go halves’ with Mr Morgan. 

The pledge comes after a medical director was given a parking ticket while helping in the battle against COVID-19.

Dr Mehdi Veisi was shocked to finish work to find a fine notice placed on the windscreen of his car – right next to his NHS emergency badge.

The medical director for Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust took his complaint to Twitter where he told others he doesn’t have the time to fight the ticket and so will have to pay.

In a sarcastic message to the Haringey Council he said: ‘Thank you Haringey Council for giving me a ticket whilst I’m fighting COVID-19.

‘You could see my NHS emergency badge too. Nicely done. Instead of saving patients, now I need to appeal a ticket. Get your priorities right for NHS staff.’

Earlier in the programme Mr Morgan hit out at Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley and Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin for their actions during the Covid-19 crisis.

An investigation by the PA news agency revealed that Mr Ashley’s Sports Direct hiked prices by more than 50% on some sports equipment on Tuesday in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Piers Morgan asked ‘What is it about Sports Direct that they don’t get that doing something for your country doesn’t mean fleecing people?’ 

And earlier this week, Wetherspoon CEO Tim Martin sparked fury as he said closing pubs was ‘over the top’ in spite of warnings from the government’s chief scientific adviser that they are a breeding ground for the virus.

Mr Martin said that a ‘sensible balance’ was for pubs to implement ‘social distancing’ measures, like no standing at the bar, using cards and sitting at separate tables. 

Speaking about the Wetherspoon boss, Piers Morgan said: ‘Why don’t you just shut up as well? We’ve had enough of you telling everyone to go to the pub.

‘It makes me puke, these multi-millionaires treating their customers and their staff in this derisory way.’  

Mr Morgan added: ‘We will remember the companies which stepped up, took care of their employees and their customers, and we’ll remember the ones who abused their employees, made them work when they weren’t essential and who abused their customers with this kind of outrageous fleecing.

‘And I don’t want to hear from Sports Direct about any explanation that justifies this. 

‘We know what you did, you’ve been exposed, and you should just shut your stores, and frankly, if after this you’re still doing business, well good luck to the customers that forgive you for this because I won’t, I think that’s disgusting.’

Wetherspoons closed all its pubs on Friday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered sites to shut until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Martin sent a video to all staff on Monday evening, telling them he will pay employees until the pubs last opened, but there will be no further payments until the Government fulfils its promise to cover 80% of the wages of workers affected.

An anonymous student who worked part time for the company said: ‘It’s absolutely outrageous.

‘The thing with Tim Martin is that bad press doesn’t make him change his tune as he knows that people will always go to Wetherspoons because of the low prices.

‘I do think though that people need to see that he has contacted his staff and not once mentioned staying safe or our health.’