Humphrys’ ‘xenophobic’ interrogation of Konta

John Humphrys has been accused of xenophobia and sexism after an interview with Johanna Konta, the British tennis player.

On the Today programme on Radio 4, he asked: “We talk about you as being British but you were born in Hungary, have Australian citizenship, and I seem to remember that the Australian high commissioner, when you won the quarter final, said, ‘Great to see an Aussie win’ and we were saying, ‘Great to see a Brit win’ – so what are you?” One listener told the presenter to “grow up” on Twitter while another wrote: “Aggressive, sexist, patronising, inaccurate and xenophobic. How is this allowed?”