Rishi Sunak insisted that he understands the country’s frustrations after 14 years of Conservative-led government as he faced an hour-long grilling in front of a live TV audience.
In something of a rehearsal for a general election campaign later this year, the Prime Minister faced questions from GB News viewers on the NHS, his Rwanda asylum plan and why right-wing voters should back the Tories.
Facing a cross-section of voters in Co Durham, one audience member pressed him on why traditional Tory voters should back his party over the Nigel Farage-founded Reform UK.
The Prime Minister told the questioner he could “completely appreciate your frustration”, as he switched between attacking Labour and defending the Tories’ record.
But contrary to suggestions on the Conservative Party’s main Twitter account, the PM’s comments failed to resonate with audience members, who had mixed reactions to the Q&A show.
Viewing figures posted by a GB News ‘analysis’ account also suggest the show could have been more effort than it is worth for Sunak, who appeared to be trying to win over a purely Reform/ anti-Vax crowd.
The numbers suggest just 153,000 people tuned in to the show, and only 3,000 tuned in via YouTube.
A breakdown of the numbers suggests six in ten watching were male, while the median age was 65.
Embarrassingly for Sunak, the area with the fewest number of viewers was Yorkshire, where his constituency is.
And it’s not a great night for GB News either, with just one in four viewers new to the channel, having never watched it before.
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