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Watch: Barry Gardiner throws his toys out the pram on Sky News

It’s day two of the snap election campaign and already tensions are running high. In particular, Sky News‘s Adam Boulton is having a rather testing week. After the news presenter speculated on Tuesday that Theresa May’s surprise announcement could relate to an illness, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff sent ‘Bunter’ a text telling him she would be making a complaint on May’s behalf.

Now Boulton is getting it from the other side. This morning on All Out Politics, Boulton interviewed Iain Duncan Smith and the pair discussed whether the Conservatives would drop their previous immigration pledge. Boulton then moved on to interview Barry Gardiner, the shadow International Trade secretary, about Corbyn’s speech today.

However, rather than talk about Labour, Gardiner launched into a tirade as he accused Boulton of letting Duncan Smith ‘off the hook’ on immigration:

BG: Why did you let him off the hook?

AB: On what?

BG: On immigration. If that had been a Labour minister sitting there who had failed on their key pledge on immigration

AB: I pointed it out to him

BG: No, no. You pointed out to him the lowest she got it was to a 100,000

AB: No I didn’t say that

BG: In fact it’s now up to almost 300,00. This was a key manifesto commitment and you just sort of sit back and now they’re saying to you ‘it doesn’t matter’ we’ll just control it some way and you say ‘oh well that’s fine’, this is outrageous! You’re supposed to be holding them to account!

Mr S suspects Labour MPs are not best placed to put the boot in when it comes to getting immigration numbers down…

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Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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