A bizarre late-night row occurred on GB News yesterday. The channel were delighted to welcome lawyer Jonathan Coad on to discuss the lockdown files, with host Steve N Allen welcoming him by saying he was ‘actually recently asked to act for Matt Hancock.’ But Coad bristled at that introduction, insisting that ‘I made it absolutely clear to your programme, I asked them not to disclose that. That is very, very poor journalism.’ He continued thus:
When your own television station has engaged in correspondence with me where I explained that I’m in a position to be able to comment on this and mentioned I’d been approached by Matt Hancock – I asked you not to mention that and you mentioned it. If anybody is tempted to take you seriously or your programme seriously here is a good reason not to.
Yet five minutes after that exchange, Allen interrupted the discussion to retrieve the email sent by Coad to a GB News producer ahead of the interview. It, er, revealed that the lawyer had missed out a vital word in his request. The email said: ‘As a courtesy to the lady who approached me to act for [Matt Hancock] I would be grateful if it was mentioned that he asked me to act for him (via his assistant).’ To laughter from the audience, Coad replied:
You’re absolutely right, it’s my mistake I missed out the ‘not’ – I take all of that back. You’re right and I’m wrong. Fair dos I’m absolutely wrong about that, my apologies.
Talk about the best and brightest. To add confusion to this somewhat baffling situation, an ally of the former Health Secretary has now been briefing the media that Coad is not representing Hancock and has not been asked to do so by his team.
Good luck with that court case Matt…
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