• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

BBC empty chair Johnson as Andrew Neil makes final plea to “untrustworthy” PM

"We've always proceeded in good faith that the leaders would participate. And in every election they have, all of them. Until this one."

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2019-12-05 20:30
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

The BBC empty chaired Boris Johnson this evening as Andrew Neil made one final plea to the Prime Minister to come forward and face scrutiny.

Johnson has managed to evade the fierce broadcaster up until now, despite all other leaders putting themselves forward for questioning.

It was also revealed today that the PM has snubbed an interview with ITV’s Julie Etchingham.

Every other leader of Britain’s major political parties has agreed to appear on ITV’s Tonight programme.

That is democracy

Speaking after completing his final planned leaders interview with Nigel Farage, Neil made a three minute statement directly to the camera calling Johnson out for his elusiveness.

“There is of course still one to be done – Boris Johnson ,” he said. “The Prime Minister.

“We have been asking him for weeks now to give us a date, a time, a venue. As of now, none has been forthcoming.

RelatedPosts

Watch: Tories take a beating as BBC QT heads to Inverness

Steve Bray fundraiser nears a quarter of a MILLION pounds

Labour MP asks whether US-born Boris should be deported for breaking the law

No10 says PM had no reason to block appointment of Pincher as deputy chief whip

“No broadcaster can compel a politician to be interviewed.But leaders’ interviews have been a key part of the BBC’s prime time election coverage for decades.

“We do them on your behalf to scrutinise and hold to account those who would govern us. That is democracy.”

No broadcaster can compel a politician to be interviewed

Mr Neil said it was not too late for the interview to take place – and gave a preview of the questions he’d like to ask.

Here’s Andrew Neil’s statement in full:

And that concludes our fourth leaders interview for the general election of 2019.

There is of course still one to be done – Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister.

We have been asking him for weeks now to give us a date, a time, a venue. As of now, none has been forthcoming.

No broadcaster can compel a politician to be interviewed.

But leaders’ interviews have been a key part of the BBC’s prime time election coverage for decades.

We do them on your behalf to scrutinise and hold to account those who would govern us. That is democracy.

Oven ready

We’ve always proceeded in good faith that the leaders would participate. And in every election they have, all of them.

Until this one.

It is not too late. We have an interview prepared.

Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say.

The theme running through our questions is trust, and why so many times in his career in politics and journalism, critics and sometimes even those close to him have deemed him to be untrustworthy.

It is of course relevant to what he is promising us all now.

Can he be trusted to deliver 50,000 more nurses when almost 20,000 in his numbers are already working for the NHS.

He promises 40 new hospitals but only six are scheduled to be built by 2025.

Can he be believed when he claims another 34 will be built in the five years after that.

Can he be trusted to fund the NHS properly when he uses a cash figure of an extra £34bn? After inflation, the additional money promised amounts to £20bn.

He vows that the NHS will not be on the table in any trade talks with America. That he vowed to the DUP, his unionist allies in Northern Ireland, that there would never be a border down the Irish Sea.

That is as important to the DUP as the NHS is to the rest of us.

It is a vow his Brexit deal would seem to break.

Opponent of austerity

Now he tells us he’s always been an opponent of austerity. We would ask him for evidence of that and we would want to know why an opponent of austerity would bake so much of it into their future spending plans.

We would ask why, as with the proposed increase in police numbers, so many of his promises only take us back to the future – back to where we were before austerity began.

Social care is an issue of growing concern.

On the steps of Downing Street in July he said he’d prepared a plan for social care. We’d ask him why that plan is not in his manifesto.

Questions of trust. Questions we’d like to put to Mr Johnson so you can hear his replies.

But we can’t.

Because he won’t sit down with us.

There is no law, no Supreme Court ruling, that can force Mr Johnson to participate in a BBC leaders’ interview.

But the Prime Minister of our nation will at times have to stand up to President Trump, President Putin, President Xi of China.

So we’re surely not expecting too much that he spend half an hour standing up to me.

Good night.

“It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say”

Andrew Neil issues a challenge for Boris Johnson to commit to an interview with him, to face questions on why people have “deemed him to be untrustworthy”https://t.co/daHLxEYn4r pic.twitter.com/oQ21uDdtJe

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 5, 2019

Related: Gina Miller: tactical voting only way to stop ‘autocratic Tory power grab’ on December 12

Please login to join discussion

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Goldman Sachs set to move 1,000 jobs to Frankfurt

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today 20 June 2022

Javid apologises for suggesting people ‘cower’ from Covid

PMQs – ‘Tell me, what first attracted the PM to billionaire oligarchs?’

Great year for Monks as seven holdings more than double

Brits reminisce about Beast from the East as they long for cooler conditions

Elevenses: Let Emma Be

Exports from Moscow to the European Market: barriers and how to overcome them

TLE meets…Vikings Star Maude Hirst

Treat PPI Claimants Fairly or Face Sanctions, FCA Warns Banks

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.