Starmer vs. Johnson: who performed best against Susanna Reid?
Good Morning Britain presenter grills party leaders on cost of living and ‘beergate’
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer have both faced bruising interviews as they attempt to make their pitch to the country ahead of Thursday’s local elections.
The prime minister squirmed under a forensic examination from Good Morning Britain’s (GMB) Susanna Reid on Tuesday, who was quick to remind viewers that Johnson had refused to come on ITV’s flagship breakfast programme for a total of 1,791 days – apparently in response to strident criticism from former co-presenter Piers Morgan over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This morning it was the leader of the opposition’s turn in the GMB hot seat, just a day before the UK goes to the polls. Keir Starmer faced questions over his attendance at a late-night beer and curry gathering in Durham last year, which some Conservatives insist broke Covid laws.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Johnson ‘failed to show compassion’
If Johnson had expected a “gentle discussion of holiday plans and favourite colours” as a “warm-up” for the speech he was to give later to the Ukrainian parliament, he must have been sorely disappointed that Reid had “brought her A-game”, said Tim Stanley in The Telegraph.
Reid addressed the cost-of-living crisis by questioning Johnson over the plight of Elsie, a 77-year-old pensioner whose energy bills have risen from £17 a month to £85 a month, forcing her to eat just one meal a day to save money, and to use her “Freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home”.
“What else should Elsie cut back on?” Reid asked. Johnson responded: “I just want to remind you, the 24-hour Freedom bus pass was something I introduced”.
It sounded as if he was suggesting “that Elsie’s cup of cyanide was half full”, said Stanley, before the prime minister went on to “opine that what the lady really needs is a dynamic economy that creates ‘high-wage, high-skilled jobs’”.
It was a “real giveaway”, wrote John Crace in The Guardian. The prime minister did not show “compassion” for Elsie and people like her, nor a “sense of duty to or responsibility for the country he professed to serve”. Rather, he only showed an “eagerness to take the credit for making it possible for pensioners to spend their days keeping warm at the bus company’s expense”.
And while Johnson did introduce 24-hour Freedom Passes in 2009, they have been paid for by “London Councils since the 1980s, and not the Greater London Authority, which is headed by the Mayor of London”, added FullFact, which fact-checked the points the PM made on the programme.
Starmer faces ‘beergate’ grilling
Today it was Starmer’s turn to squirm as he faced questioning from Reid and Richard Madeley over the so-called beergate row. The Labour leader was photographed drinking beer at an indoor gathering with Labour officials at a constituency office in Durham on a Friday night in April last year.
Starmer “finally confirmed” that Durham police had not been in touch over the event after repeatedly “dodging answering” the question yesterday, said the Daily Mail. And he looked “distinctly uncomfortable” as he “failed to deny that there had been dozens of people present”, said the paper.
He was “clearly frustrated” as he recounted the events of the night, telling Reid that the group had been “on the road” in the run-up to elections last year, and that “restaurants and pubs were closed, so takeaways were really the only way you could eat”.
“So, this was brought in and at various points people went through the kitchen, got a plate, had some food to eat and got on with their work”, he told the programme.
Reid seemed “unconvinced” by Starmer’s response, said Harry Lambert in The New Statesman, and compared Starmer’s account to Johnson supposedly being “ambushed by cake” while working in Downing Street.
“In reality”, it was the prime minister who “presided over a months-long culture of rule-breaking in No. 10 and has been fined by police” and so their “positions are not comparable”, argued Lambert. But by holding back information on the evening until now, “Starmer appears to have needlessly put himself on the back foot”.
The Labour leader also “tried to rubbish” claims from Madeley that his party had entered into an alliance with the Liberal Democrats in the South West by standing a third fewer Labour candidates in the area ahead of local elections, said the Daily Express. The Labour Party is “actually standing more candidates in this election than in any other party (and) more than we’ve stood for many years”, said Starmer.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Quiz of The Week: 16 - 22 November
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures Firing shells, burning ballots, and more
By Anahi Valenzuela, The Week US Published
-
Damian Barr shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The writer and broadcaster picks works by Alice Walker, Elif Shafak and others
By The Week UK Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Last hopes for justice for UK's nuclear test veterans
Under the Radar Thousands of ex-service personnel say their lives have been blighted by aggressive cancers and genetic mutations
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
What message is Trump sending with his Cabinet picks?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION By nominating high-profile loyalists like Matt Gaetz and RFK Jr., is Trump serious about creating a functioning Cabinet, or does he have a different plan in mind?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Can Europe pick up the slack in Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Trump's election raises questions about what's next in the war
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
What does the G20 summit say about the new global order?
Today's Big Question Donald Trump's election ushers in era of 'transactional' geopolitics that threatens to undermine international consensus
By Elliott Goat, The Week UK Published
-
Will Trump fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell?
Today's Big Question An 'unprecedented legal battle' could decide the economy's future
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
Will Donald Trump wreck the Brexit deal?
Today's Big Question President-elect's victory could help UK's reset with the EU, but a free-trade agreement with the US to dodge his threatened tariffs could hinder it
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Where did Democratic voters go?
Voter turnout dropped sharply for Democrats in 2024
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published