Piers Morgan calls for Captain Tom Moore to be knighted after raising £7 million for the NHS

Piers Morgan has called for Captain Tom Moore to receive a knighthood after raising a huge amount of money for the NHS.

Moore, who received £10,000 from Morgan after appearing on Good Morning Britain earlier in the week, set out to raise £500,000 for NHS Charities Together by walking the length of his back garden 100 times.

However, after generating huge public interest, the 99-year-old World War II veteran has since raised over £7 million, a 1,500 per cent increase from his original target.

Morgan, 55, wrote on Twitter that he believed the captain's efforts to raise money during the coronavirus crisis, in addition to his previous service as an army officer, should see him receive a knighthood.

“I’d like to see the magnificently inspiring Captain Tom Moore be knighted for his services to his country in WW2 & now to the NHS,” he wrote. “Who’s with me?”

Since writing the tweet this morning, Morgan’s appeal has since received over 56,000 likes and 5,700 retweets.

The presenter's interview with care minister Helen Whately on Wednesday, in which he asked her position on giving nurses pay rises and about misleading figures of care workers having died from Covid-19, has been shared widely on social media.

Morgan has also called for other celebrities to contribute to the fundraising efforts.

Last week, when discussing the Queen’s address to the nation, Morgan suggested that Katherine Jenkins should release a cover of Dame Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again to raise money for charity – which she then announced she would be doing the next day.

The UK currently has over 98,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 12,868 people having died from the disease.