FURY AT BBC’S CLASH WITH PM
Rude Robinson tells PM to ‘stop talking’ during radio interview
BBC veteran Nick Robinson ordered the Prime Minister to ‘stop talking’ during an extraordinary confrontation on live radio yesterday.
In a tense exchange which infuriated Tory MPs, the presenter also told Boris Johnson ‘you are going to pause’ as the pair repeatedly talked over each other on BBC Radio 4’s Today.
The clash, during Mr Johnson’s first appearance on the programme in two years, came amid growing tensions between the BBC and the Government over impartiality and the licence fee.
MPs said the interview was ‘downright rude’ and ‘slapstick’ and Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden said politicians ‘have the right to finish a sentence’.
A BBC source said: ‘Interviews with politicians sometimes have a bit of an edge, but they expect that, as do the public.
‘It was an interview with plenty of content and a chance to hear and debate issues.’ It came a day after the new Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, warned that the BBC may not exist in a decade and criticised its ‘snobbish’ approach.
Mr Robinson, who was a contemporary of Mr Johnson’s at Oxford, pointedly began his interview by saying it was the first time he had ‘agreed to talk to us’ in two years.
Later, as the Prime Minister spoke at length about the shortage of lorry drivers, Mr Robinson attempted to interject but his interviewee persisted.
He said: ‘Prime Minister you are going to pause. Prime Minister stop talking. We are going to have questions and answers, not where you merely talk, if you wouldn’t mind.’
At the end of the interview, Mr Johnson told the presenter: ‘It’s very kind of you to let me talk... I thought that was the point of invitJohnson ing me on your show.’ An unnamed senior minister described the interventions as ‘unforgivably disrespectful’ adding: ‘I wouldn’t talk to my three-year-old like that.’
A comparison between the treatment of Mr Johnson on the Today programme and that of Labour leader Keir Starmer would appear to suggest that Mr Starmer got an easier ride.
Mr Starmer was asked 16 questions in an interview last week and was interrupted nine times. Mr faced 22 interruptions during 15 questions.
Giles Watling, who sits on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the Prime Minister should not be subjected to ‘gameshow politics’. Tory MP