ITV presenter Chris Ship forced to swear during News at Ten
The journalist was on the desk for ITV News at Ten on Thursday night when he introduced a segment by warning viewers they were about to get an earful.
‘Finally from me, a word we wouldn’t usually use anywhere in the bulletin but we will following a charity auction in New Zealand,’ he explained.
‘The money was raised after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an Opposition politician, and these are her words not mine, an “arrogant p***k”.
As Ship explained, Arden was caught on microphone hurling the insult last week.
However after she issued an apology, she and ACT Party Leader David Seymour signed the official record of the exchange and decided to auction it for charity.
The gaffe ended up grabbing so much attention that the document was sold for £52,000, with the money going towards a prostate cancer charity.
Ending the segment with admitting they had to ‘write that one very carefully’, Ship later shared the clip to Twitter, joking that ‘it’s not everyday you end up saying the words “arrogant p***k” on the news’.
His post picked up plenty of replies, including one where someone pointed out it was ‘surprising given you’re a royal correspondent’.
Since 2017, Ship has been the Royal Editor for ITV News.
Others commended his effort to the cause.
Another pointed out that they were impressed they managed to get it on air, a feat other broadcasters would probably struggle to do.
Last week Ardern was caught using the colourful language during question time when Seymour was grilling her.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden got herself in a bit of trouble for swearing
He asked her to give an example of her ‘making a mistake, apologising for it properly, and fixing it’, according to parliament’s official transcript, Hansard.
Her microphone was still on at the time as the speaker of the house Adrian Riarawhe called for the next question and she made the comment.
While it was barely audible on the Parliament TV and was missed by many MP’s, Arden did later say sorry, however Seymour did publicly declare he had been ‘shocked and astonished at her use of language’.