It’s been another bad week for the government, with rows over farmers, ships and businesses too. So what better time for Keir Starmer to manfully undertake his media duties, sitting out this morning for a grilling with local BBC news stations? This annual ordeal can prove somewhat merciless – as Liz Truss famously found to her cost in 2022. Faced with six of the best, how did the current PM compare?
First up was BBC Merseyside, where Starmer answered a question about energy bills by talking about, er, anti-social behaviour orders. The host immediately interrupted to point out that ‘we’ve drifted off the topic.’ Next, it was a trip to the East of England where the PM was forced on the back foot from the start. ‘I’ve got absolutely nothing against Lincolnshire!’ he protested to BBC Radio Lincs. If you have to say it…
Third up was the West Midlands where Starmer tried to turn a discussion of Birmingham Council’s financial woes on to – drum roll – anti-social behaviour, before being cut off again. You’d think he might learn eh? Next it was to Norfolk where the presenter asked the PM what he will do to help leaseholders who feel trapped ‘right now’. Starmer responded, illuminatingly – by claiming there is ‘no snap answer’ – but that he wants to be ‘overhauling’ the current system by the end of this parliament. Is that promise worth more or less than the one given to farmers?
In Kent he was accused of ‘running roughshod’ over the country on renewable energy before ending in Bristol by insisting that Labour is ‘also for the farmers and the pensioners’. Funny way of showing it…
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