Owen Jones says decision to storm off Sky News was an 'instinctive reaction' and not about him

Owen Jones has said his decision to walk off Sky News was an instinctive reaction to an objectionable situation and stressed it was not about him.

On Sunday night, the Guardian and former Independent columnist stormed out of a live television interview about the mass killing in Orlando in protest at the interviewer’s refusal to describe the shooting as an attack on LGBT people.

Mr Jones disagreed with Sky News Press Preview host Mark Longhurst and co-panelist Julia Hartley-Brewer over the motivations of the gunman and whether the atrocity should be called a homophobic attack or be labelled solely as a religiously motivated attack.

Forty nine were killed and 53 were injured after a gunman, apparently inspired by Isis, stormed LGBT nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida in the early hours of Sunday morning. It was the biggest mass shooting in US history.

Writing on Twitter this morning, Mr Jones said the mass shooting was a homophobic hate crime as well as a terrorist attack.

“Thanks for all the lovely comments: but it really was just an instinctive reaction to an unpleasant situation, this isn't about me,” he wrote.

“Orlando was both a terrorist attack and a homophobic attack on LGBT people - this really isn't hard,” he added.

Mr Jones also asked the public to leave co-panelist Ms Hartley-Brewer alone. “None of the abuse directed at her is in my name,” he said.

He has now expanded on his reasons for walking out in a Guardian column, arguing that some people will do all they can to ignore homophobia.

In the column, Mr Jones asserted that it was possible for an atrocity to be simultaneously labelled as more than one thing at the same time. He also argued that if a terrorist walked into a synagogue we would rightly describe it as both terrorism and antisemitism.

Referring to the host Mr Longhurst, he said, "He not only refused to accept it as an attack on LGBT people, but was increasingly agitated that I – as a gay man – would claim it as such”.

Mr Jones clashed with both Ms Hartley-Brewer and Mr Longhurst after arguing there had been a dearth of LGBT voices in mainstream news coverage of the event.

“It is one of the worst atrocities committed against LGBT people in the western world for generations and it has to be called out as such,” he said.

Mr Longhurst interjected and said the crime had been committed against “human beings” who were "trying to enjoy themselves, whatever their sexuality”.

Later, Jones claimed Mr Longhurst “could not understand” because he himself was not gay.

Quickly afterwards, Ms Hartley-Brewer said, “I don’t think that you have ownership of horror of this crime because you’re gay.”

The situation quickly escalated with Mr Jones saying, “I’ve had enough of this,” and removing his microphone, leaving the set and admitting he was upset.

The presenters continued to discuss the newspapers' coverage of the attack after Mr Jones quit the broadcast.