Victoria Derbyshire destroyed Tory MP Matt Vickers after he accused Labour of cronyism.
During an appearance on Newsnight this week, Vickers was part of the panel when they started discussing the Peter Mandelson vetting controversy.
During the debate, Vickers accused the government of cronyism in the case of Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, saying: “If you’ve got the right links in the Labour Party, they can put aside your links to paedophiles.”
READ NEXT: Lee Anderson skewered after being asked to give proof that Keir Starmer is a ‘liar’
But Newsnight host Victoria Derbyshire decided to immediately remind Vickers about his party’s record during their time in government.
She told him it was “a bit rich” for him to complain about cronyism, considering the Tories’ record over their 14 years in power.
From dodgy Covid contracts for Tory mates to peerages for Brexit supporters, Derbyshire put it to Vickers that he was perhaps being a tad hypocritical.
It’s also been pointed out by some that the Tories had their own vetting controversy, which seemed to create far less of a storm than the Mandelson saga engulfing Keir Starmer’s government.
In 2020, then-prime minister Boris Johnson awarded Russian-born businessman Evgeny Lebedev with a peerage. This was despite intelligence officials telling Johnson they had “serious reservations” on security grounds.
The House of Lords Appointments Commission, which vets peerage appointments, advised Johnson against granting Lebedev, the son of a former KGB officer, a seat in the House of Lords.
An LBC caller made this very point this week.
Maybe the Tories should sit out debates on dodgy appointments and cronyism…