Over the weekend a number of Brexit activists walked out of an anti-EU Grassroots Out rally after George Galloway was revealed as the guest speaker. Although the Respect party leader was introduced by his new chum Nigel Farage at the event, even Ukip supporters voiced opposition to his involvement.
So when Galloway appeared on today’s Daily Politics, it wasn’t out of the question that the presenter Jo Coburn might bring up the incident. Alas her attempt to ask him about whether his involvement could prove to a divisive issue fell flat, as Galloway took issue with her line of questioning. An excruciating exchange between the two followed:
JC: But are you worried that you might be turning off some people who would like to support Grassroots Out?
GG: But you asked me to come here. Presumably because you thought that you had something that these people might be interested to hear
JC: Yes, and we’ll get onto that
GG: I don’t know when we’ll get onto it, we’ve almost finished the interview
JC: How do you know? We might have you on for another 10/15 minutes
GG: I very much doubt that
JC: You’re right, I’m not going to have you on for another 15 minutes. But if you’re going to convince people of an argument, they’ve got to believe in the big players that are there
GG: Can you stop this? Please stop this. You misled me into coming in here today. Every question you’ve asked has been about me. I’m campaigning — amongst my one million followers on social media — on the radio, on television, on platforms, on the streets for Britain to leave for a series of important reasons to which you have not yet turned.
JC: I will get to it if you could just answer the one question. When have you ever not wanted to talk about you, George Galloway
GG: Because it’s so childish, it’s so tabloid, it’s so Daily Mail.
JC: God forbid we should ever be tabloid here at the BBC
Mr S suspects that Daily Politics producers will soon find themselves accused of anti-Galloway bias.
Comments