Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy has asked Piers Morgan “how on Earth” he would know if the press had been racist towards Meghan Markle given he has never had to deal with “ingrained prejudice”.

Interviewing Nandy on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday morning, Morgan dismissed the suggestion the Duchess of Sussex had been a victim of racism from the British media.

“Meghan Markle has exactly the same level of treatment as someone like Kate Middleton, good and bad in equal measure,” he said.

“If you are a member of a royal family, you get acres of press coverage. I would say 70% of the Meghan coverage has been positive, 30% has been negative, and she doesn’t like the negative stuff.”

The GMB presenter added: “It’s got nothing to do with her skin colour. Nothing to do with her gender.

“They have done stuff the British public – and the media reflect British public opinion most of the time – just thought was wrong.”

But Nandy rejected the claim. “If you don’t mind me saying, how on Earth would you know? As somebody who has never had to deal with ingrained prejudice, you’re not in a position to understand people who have,” she told Morgan.

Nandy took a big step on Tuesday towards making it on to the final ballot paper in the Labour leadership race after she won the backing of the GMB union.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer is the frontrunner in the contest, having already secured his place on the final ballot paper.

Rebecca Long-Bailey is expected to pick up the support of the major Unite union to be Starmer’s main rival.

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, appears to face an uphill battle to make it through to the next stage of the contest.

Jess Phillips, the outspoken backbencher, yesterday dropped out of the contest after admitting she could not win enough support.

The Duchess of Sussex was joined by Prince Harry in Canada on Monday after hashing out the new arrangement for the two of them with other senior members of the royal family.

And the pair have issued a legal warning to the media after various outlets published paparazzi shots of duchess walking her dogs with their baby, Archie.

The images of the duchess emerged on Monday morning and showed her walking her two pets with her son in a baby sling in a park in Vancouver.

But the pictures were reportedly taken by photographers hiding in bushes with long-lens cameras.