Alastair Campbell let the mask slip on Newsnight yesterday. During a segment on the future of Brexit, Bad Al lost his rag with co-panelist Alex Phillips. In the rare moments Campbell wasn’t interrupting Phillips, he could be heard huffing and puffing off camera. One patronising exchange came towards the end of the interview:
AP: It’s very rich a man who essentially was part of telling lies to invade a country to accuse me of dishonesty…
AC: I think you may have lost the argument there, my dear. If I may patronise you even more.
Alastair wasn’t going to let it end there, as he then turned on host Victoria Derbyshire for one final tirade. Victoria calmly responded, “I am not going to take that, with respect, from you Mr Campbell”.
In the aftermath of her appearance, Phillips took to Twitter to highlight Bad Al’s behaviour. After coming off air “shaking at his rudeness” she criticised him for “outright bullying, intimidation and frankly thinly veiled misogyny”.
I came off air shaking at his rudeness.
— Alex Phillips (@ThatAlexWoman) May 11, 2023
Quite astonishing.
Let’s have a political debate but this was outright bullying, intimidation and frankly thinly veiled misogyny.
I would feel quite ashamed of myself if I acted like that on air. It was not a good look https://t.co/UAaERZmnco
In a reply of his own, Campbell did accept “it was not exactly disagreeing agreeably”, though refused to apologise and instead doubled down on his argument. Raab lost his job for using “physical gestures” in an intimidating way; Campbell’s behaviour went beyond that…
UPDATE: Campbell has now tweeted that he has apologised to Victoria Derbyshire.
Lord Baker couldn’t work out how to stop his mobile phone ringing during his interview last night. In the end after the fourth time he handed it to Victoria Derbyshire to deal with. We’ve all had it happen…
The BBC today published its annual report, including the salaries of all earners over £150,000. Listed below are the politicos and other highest earners, with a percentage change on their figures from last year. Despite the supposed need for cutbacks, a lot of the figures appear to have remained very stable…
Today
World at One
PM
BBC Breakfast
BBC News at Six and Ten
Question Time
Andrew Marr Show
Newsnight
BBC News
On-air editors and correspondents
Non-politics or news
Guido congratulates Amol Rajan and Clive Myrie for their wage hikes, while both Naga and Faisal Islam have seen theirs rise significantly for the second year in a row. Victoria Derbyshire is also a big winner, with her pay rising significantly even before she takes over at Newsnight. Gary Lineker will no doubt be distraught at both his £10,000 cut and the BBC’s failure to close the gender pay gap, which increased to 5.1%. The cost of living crisis must really sting on £1,350,000…
Read the full report here.