Maitlis reveals ‘surreal’ text from unlikely fan Cummings
Under-fire Newsnight presenter tells of message of support from PM’S aide amid ‘all the crazy stuff ’
WHEN Emily Maitlis delivered a damning Newsnight monologue about Dominic Cummings and his trip to Barnard Castle, she faced a barrage of criticism.
Tory MPS rounded on the presenter, who earned a swift rebuke from her BBC bosses for breaching impartiality guidelines. Yet, in the middle of the furore, Maitlis had one unlikely supporter: Mr Cummings himself.
“He sent me a text of support,” Maitlis said. “It was peak surreal getting a message of support from him in the middle of all the crazy stuff.”
She made the disclosure in Tatler magazine, with an accompanying photo shoot of “the journalist as you’ve never seen her before”, wearing Christian Dior and Dolce & Gabbana.
Maitlis also discussed her interview with the Duke of York about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, noting how accommodating he was to the Newsnight team.
She said: “He was actually so generous with his time. He took us on a tour of the extraordinary corridor of Buckingham Palace, he pointed out the statues, the staircases and where the Queen has her audiences with prime ministers.
“He said to me: ‘Next time you come, we’ll talk about Prince Albert. He was the entrepreneur of the family.’”
Asked if she knew how damning the interview was, Maitlis said: “You’re so determined not to miss a beat, to check with yourself you haven’t used the wrong tone or got something stupendously wrong, that actually you’re not sitting there grinning, thinking, ‘Hahaha! That’s amazing!’”
She also said that the Duke was “very pleased” with how the encounter went.
The interview was widely praised, while the Cummings monologue split the nation. The May episode of Newsnight was broadcast after it emerged the Prime Minister’s special adviser had made a 260-mile trip to his parents’ home in Durham during lockdown.
The BBC received nearly 24,000 complaints about the episode.
In her monologue, Maitlis said: “Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that and it’s shocked the Government cannot.
“He should understand that public mood now, one of fury, contempt and anguish. He made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools and has allowed many more to assume that they can now flout them.”
The BBC issued a swift reprimand, saying Maitlis had overstepped the mark and presented a matter of debate “as if the country was unanimous in its view”.
Also in the Tatler interview, Maitlis discussed her friendship with Piers Morgan, the host of ITV’S Good Morning Britain.
She said: “I know, if I was in prison, Piers Morgan would come and see me. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but he’d be there.”
The full interview is in the September issue of Tatler magazine, available via digital download and newsstands from July 30.