Dan Walker apologises to Susanna Reid for 'misreading her intentions' in 'rivalry' remarks

Dan Walker has publicly apologised to Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid after he 'misread' comments she made about him.

It comes after Reid wrote a column entitled "It's not women who are catty colleagues on TV- it's men" in the Daily Mail, using the rivalry between Walker and her colleague Piers Morgan as an example.

After pointing to the way they "sniped" at each other on Twitter, Reid said she "would never" speak about a co-worker in the same way.

The BBC Breakfast presenter shared the article on Twitter as he wrote: "Interesting. With the greatest respect @susannareid100 the insults that make you ‘shudder’ only really come one way. I enjoy the friendly competition with your programme. It keeps us all on our toes and normally stays within the bounds of gentle fun. See you soon."

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He went on: "I understand that columns for this newspaper need to be provocative but I humbly suggest you talk to @louiseminchin @BBCNaga @stephbreakfast @carolkirkwood @mikebreakfast @sallynugent - or anyone I work with - before suggesting I ever put colleagues down or am not supportive."

However, Reid stepped in to point out that Walker had appeared to misunderstand her.

"I didn’t for a moment suggest this," she tweeted in response. "My reference to you was solely in relation to how you and Piers speak to each other online."

The message subsequently led to Walker apologising to Reid on the social media site, while adding that he had also spoken to her in private.

"I greatly respect @susannareid100 & it appears I may have misread her intentions in this article & for that I apologise - as I have done privately too. Support of colleagues is a particularly sensitive issues at the moment and 1 I take seriously. I hope you all have a lovely day," he said.

Walker's comments regarding "support of colleagues" come in the wake of the BBC overturning the ruling on his co-worker Naga Munchetty. The ruling had originally stated that she breached impartiality rules with her comments about President of the United States Donald Trump, but the decision was later reversed.

The original complaint had also included reference to Walker who was on the sofa at the time Munchetty made the remarks as he asked for her thoughts on the President's controversial tweets about telling four US Congresswomen to "go back” to the “places from which they came".

BBC director general Lord Hall reversed the ruling, saying Munchetty's words were not "sufficient to merit a partial uphold" of the complaint.