A clash of the razor-blades. That’s how it started. Nick Robinson’s grey jowls were dotted with stubble as he sat down to quiz the PM on BBC One. Rishi Sunak had shaved. Robinson hadn’t bothered. And that mismatch set the tone for their bad-tempered interview. Robinson played the irritable major-general going over the blunders of an incompetent subaltern. The worst error Rishi had committed, said Robinson, was ‘bunking off D-Day.’ Rishi grovelled abjectly, yet again. His upper lip quivered nervously. ‘I hope that people can find it in their hearts to forgive me,’ he said. Crikey. Anyone would think that he’d crashed a chopper into a column of veterans on Omaha beach. He restated his love for Britain’s soldiers and he stressed that he sits beside a minister for veterans at the cabinet table.
Rishi grovelled abjectly, yet again
They clashed over NHS waiting lists. Are they up? Or are they down? Up, said Robinson. Up and down, said Rishi. Not an enlightening exchange.
‘We have not made as much progress as I’d have liked,’ said Rishi feebly. ‘They have gone up and they are now coming down.’ Expressed like that, it sounds like deliberate ineptitude.
The same wobbly graph applies to the small boats. Rishi’s hope is to put every dinghy into the back of an RAF Hercules and send it to Rwanda at the speed of sound. So far he’s failed entirely but his description of these deportations is getting more elaborate and detailed. ‘We’ve got a plan. The airfield is on standby. The planes are booked. If I’m prime minister, the flights will go.’
Rishi Sunak says affording a home has “got harder” under a Conservative government
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) June 10, 2024
In an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson, the prime minister was also asked about D-Day and Tory tax plans – watch the full interview here: https://t.co/5pL9yfGMLl pic.twitter.com/dHqvdwuWRn
Robinson said that so far this year 11,000 migrants have landed on our shores. ‘A record high.’ Rishi did his characteristic shimmy and called this uptick a reduction. ‘Everyone said you won’t be able to do it,’ he claimed. ‘We got the numbers down last year by a third.’ When Robinson mentioned legal migration (which last year was equal to twice the population of Coventry) Rishi argued that the increase was actually a decrease. Or it will become a decrease very soon. He was specific. The total will halve next year, he said. So that’s one Coventry instead of two.
On taxes and spending they reached an impasse. Rishi wants lower taxes and higher spending. At least that’s what he seemed to say. ‘I believe in a country where people’s hard work is rewarded,’ he said. Robinson summarised the position after 14 years of Tory government. ‘The total tax has bill has gone up by £93 billion a year,’ he said, simmering with outrage. And he called it ‘a bit of a nerve’ for Rishi to talk about cutting taxes. Rishi used the same careful phrase three times. ‘The average worker is facing the lowest tax-rate on their earnings in over 50 years.’ That sounds great but when Robinson suggested that public spending will have to fall, Rishi changed his tune. ‘That’s not what our plans show,’ he said with pride. ‘Public spending will continue to grow and continue to be at record levels.’ A very strange boast for a Tory prime minister to make. When it comes to the big state, Rishi sounds like Buzz Lightyear. To infinity and beyond. And this attitude is impossible to square this tax-cutting rhetoric.
Robinson didn’t deliver a knockout blow. Nor did he make Rishi squirm by asking the obvious questions:
Why the rush to deliver a Labour landslide?
Who do you tip as your successor?
Have you hired a realtor in California yet?
Robinson added an RSC flourish to his performance by flinging down sheets of paper as he itemised the Tory record. He went through it, shambles by shambles.
‘Nothing works in this country. You can’t get a GP appointment or find a dentist. Sewage gets pumped into the rivers and the sea. Why do you deserve another chance?’
Poor Rishi.
His worst moment came when Robinson used the dreaded L-word.
‘You’re sounding like Liz Truss.’
Surely, he’ll never sink that low.
Join Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Kate Andrews for a post-election live recording of Coffee House Shots in Westminster, Thu 11 July. Bar opens 6.30pm, recording starts 7.15pm
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