Liberal MP Craig Kelly ‘wanted to defend PM on bushfires’

Craig Kelly has reappeared after two weeks of radio silence following his fiery confrontation on UK TV.

Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan ripped into Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a segment featuring MP Craig Kelly.

Federal Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly has reappeared after two weeks of radio silence following his fiery confrontation with British television hosts Piers Morgan and Laura Tobin on Good Morning Britain, saying he only did the interview to “defend our Prime Minister”.

Speaking to Sky News host Chris Smith on Monday night, Mr Kelly admonished the journalistic integrity of the popular UK breakfast show, said the Prime Minister warned the party room not to speak to international media about the bushfire crisis and made an equivalence between calling someone a climate denier and a holocaust denier.

“They didn’t want to listen to the facts, they wanted to bash the Prime Minister,” Mr Kelly said.

“I was there to defend our Prime Minister, to sit out the argument, to explain what was happening, particularly in NSW.

“It was obvious at that time that the international media weren’t interested in the facts.

“They just wanted to exploit the situation in Australia for their own political gain, for you know, two-bit television hosts to build up their own publicity.”

When questioned by Chris Smith as to whether Prime Ministerial adviser Yaron Finkelstein told him not to do any overseas interviews relating to the bushfire crisis, Mr Kelly said the Prime Minister told all Coalition MPs to “hold off” overseas interviews, but conceded the comments could have been directed towards him.

“Well, you know, when he said it I had a sort of little smile on the face, maybe he was talking about me,” Mr Kelly said.

“I don’t get signed off for these interviews.

“One of the great privileges of being an elected member of the liberal party, especially as a backbencher, is that we get to speak our minds individually.”

“That’s one of the big differences between our side of politics and the Labor side.”

Mr Kelly also responded to accusations from Piers Morgan that labelled him a “climate denier”.

“The use of the denier term, I find offensive,” Mr Kelly said.

“Because what it’s trying to do is equate you with a Holocaust denier and it’s trying to shut down the debate.”

Mr Kelly said he did not deny that the world was warming, only that the increased temperatures had little bearing on the fire season, as does Australia’s climate policy.

“Anything that we do here in emissions will have absolutely no effect here on fires. Absolutely none,” he said.

Mr Kelly’s comments came after he apologised to Laura Tobin, who is a meteorologist, for calling her an “ignorant Pommy weather girl” in a now deleted Facebook post.