This morning on BBC Andrea Leadsome was interviewed. The interviewer specifically asked her about the reversal of the EU student rule, which May had enacted when Home Secretary.
She started her response by stating ‘When we’re out of the EU and can take back control of our immigration…”.
There were several things wrong with that initial response; we have always controlled our own immigration, the change wasn’t made with EU citizens in mind, and her response had nothing whatsoever to do with the question.
The interviewer, aware she was merely choosing to make a party political statement instead of answering the question posed, pushed her to answer the original question.
She then started talking about the wonderful future leaving would afford everyone, still avoiding answering the question she was asked, claiming that the UK government was the ‘most open in the world’.
But the interviewer then interjected (if he hadn’t, the entire slot would have been taken by Leadsome doing nothing but making a party political broadcast on behalf of the Brexit party) and challenged her on that point, arguing that the government wasn’t warning businesses about the potential dangers.
She then made an almost unbelievable statement: she said it wasn’t a good idea to tell people about the worst possible scenario, using the analogy that she could get run over on leaving the studio.
Those who dislike what they perceive as ‘rudeness’ of interviewers interrupting politicians should watch that interview again and again, until they see exactly why we need an intelligent, probing, free media to expose the appalling duplicity and evasiveness of the average cabinet member.