RADIO 2 DJ Jeremy Vine said a listener was ‘great’ for saying the Lake District ‘doesn’t belong to Cumbrians’.

The presenter was hit with a barrage of abuse on Twitter after sharing an email from a listener following a discussion about the coronavirus pandemic.

The DJ debated Cumbrian leaders pleading with visitors not to head to the Lakes given the high infection rate and demographic in the county’s population.

In the email, the listener - called ‘Terry’, said: “The Lake District does not belong to Cumbrians - it belongs to us all. They have no right to complain.”

Vine shared a picture of the email with the caption: “Great comment after complaints from people in Cumbria that visitors shouldn’t come to their beauty spots.”

One user replied: “I disagree Jeremy about it being a great comment. Yes Cumbria is everyone’s to enjoy, but for the people who live there it’s their home. They do not want Covid-19 increasing in their locality or emergency services being overwhelmed. A bit of empathy is needed.”

Georgina Little, a nurse in Cumbria, said she was ‘very disappointed’ by Vine’s view.

She wrote: “We’re not selfishly keeping the Lakes to ourselves. We just don’t want a disproportionate increase in cases of the virus for our very small district hospitals to have to deal with.”

Andrew Steel from Barrow added: “That is not a great comment. It’s a short-sighted, selfish, idiotic comment.”

One user responded: “We aren’t asking people not to come so that we can enjoy the scenery ourselves, we are asking because we want to protect our communities and services that do not need additional strain.”

Another Twitter user replied: “In Cumbria we have the highest rate outside of London, Cumbrians are dying largely due to the influx of visitors the weekend before lockdown. We don’t want that to happen again... The Lake District does not belong to us but our lives do.”

Penrith Councillor Jonathan Davies went as far as to suggest roadblocks would put a stop to any outsiders visiting the Lakes.

He warned: “Our county will, when the virus has gone, welcome everyone but test us now and we will be #PuttingCumbriaFirst and its people; roads can be blocked!”

Vine later clarified what he claimed what was his intended interpretation of the word ‘great’.

“By ‘great’ I just meant electrifying/interesting. Sorry for bad choice of adjective. ‘Great’ was not praise. I meant eye-catching,” he said.

The Mail contacted Jeremy Vine for further comment but he had not responded by time of going to print.