The debate between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick on The Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots has been pulled, just over a week before it was set to air next Thursday. Naturally, there’s spin coming from both leadership camps as to why…
Guido hears Kemi dropped out having complained of host Harry Cole being “overly-critical” of her in previous interviews, while Team Kemi insist she was “happy to do” the debate, and that it was NewsUK who pulled it. BBC Question Time have offered to fill the slot, which Jenrick has already accepted. Wherever the debate, co-conspirators can be sure to expect some blue-on-blue attacks...
As usual it’s down to Jeremy Clarkson to provide a dose of political smelling salts for the chattering classes as he nails an analysis of the immigration riots. He writes in The Sun:
“When I lived in London’s Notting Hill, working in the media, I was a remainer and so were all my friends. It literally didn’t occur to us, as we sat down there in our agreeable houses eating agreeable food that someone might vote to leave. And I think the same thing is happening again.
“Today, I’m surrounded by farmers and plasterers and brickies and butchers and all I hear, all day long, is that there’s too much immigration. But if they say this out loud, or if they go on a march, they are told by the London elite that they are far-right extremists or racist thugs. For the most part, they’re not. They are just people who know that they have to shut up when the Last Post is played and that a cheese rolling down a hill is funny.
“There was a time you’d have called them the salt of the earth. But Sir Starmer doesn’t seem to have grasped this. He is surrounded by people who see nothing wrong with immigration and he’s got it into his head – as I did with Brexit – that anyone who disagrees with him must be some kind of Trump-nut. The fact is though that four million people voted for Reform. More than that voted for Brexit. And he’s p***ing them off by labelling them as modern-day Hitlers. I therefore suggest that both he and his friends at the BBC calm down the rhetoric or we could be heading for some real trouble.”
That also sounds like a Brexit handbrake turn: is Jeremy regretting backing remain? It’d be a great u-turn from the Top Gear legend…
As Huw Edwards pleads guilty to child sex charges, the mind-boggling hypocrisy of the well-paid liberal podcastariat has already been well noted. The well-heeled and right-on steamed in to defend their centrist buddy – but Edwards has today admitted to three counts of making indecent images of children…
Anti-press Hacked Off, which describes itself as a ‘campaign for a free and accountable press‘, also played a key role mixing the cards and sending up chaff on the Huw Edwards scandal – it ran a relentless campaign criticising the original reports which appeared in The Sun, seeking to discredit the story. In July last year Hacked Off released a statement from its director Nathan Sparkes which read:
“A man has been hospitalised, his family has been destroyed, a young person has seen their drug addiction issue and family estrangement splashed across the newspapers for the world to pick over. Whatever further emerges in this story, and if The Sun has further public interest justifications or evidence of genuine wrongdoing they are hiding it very well, this episode demonstrates the extraordinary power the press has inflict harm against people, and underlines the urgent need for an independent system of regulation as recommended in the Leveson Report”.
Hacked Off went onto say elsewhere that The Sun:
“Failed to follow very basic journalistic standards in pursuit of this story”.
The group prayed in aid the support of Peter Tatchell, who chimed in:
“The presumption of innocence until proven guilty has been thrown out the window… Unless a criminal offence has been committed or the young person has complained, it is a private matter and no one else’s business… [The Sun] is aghast that a BBC presenter allegedly paid a young man thousands of pounds for allegedly sexually explicit photos. But for decades that newspaper made millions in profits publishing sexually explicit photos of young women on page three.”
The BBC then quoted Hacked Off in a piece critical of The Sun‘s reporting:
“Jacqui Hames, a board member of press campaign group Hacked Off, said a “suggestion of criminality… screamed out” at readers day after day.”
Set that against Edwards’s own admissions in court. With the luvvie-backed group lobbying Starmer’s government hard for Leveson 2, this should weaken their argument. Press regulation campaigners are so often really just anti-press…
Yesterday was a tough today for the hardline centrist hacks who rushed to Huw Edwards’ defence after allegations he paid a child for indecent images surfaced. As the Metropolitan Police confirmed BBC presenter Huw Edwards was charged with three accounts of making explicit photos, the lefty pundits look rather silly for slamming The Sun for surfacing the scandal and running to Huw’s defence. Guido has browsed through the archives of these supposed ‘hommes serieux’ who will be more than a little red-faced…
The questions for The Sun just got bigger still.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) July 12, 2023
Former Editor of The Sun, David Yelland rushed to attack the paper, posting this a few hours after Huw’s wife named him as the presenter embroiled in scandal:
I wish @thehuwedwards well. The Sun inflicted terror on Huw despite no evidence of any criminal offence. This is no longer a BBC crisis, it is a crisis for the paper. Huw’s privacy must now be respected. Social media also needs speedy reform.
— David Yelland (@davidyelland) July 12, 2023
Emily Maitlis also blasted the “distasteful” BBC coverage of further allegations coming to light, questioning on The News Agents whether journalism had gone “too far” while “this poor man was in hospital, and that was absolutely appalling, and yet obviously there will be journalists here saying “but that doesn’t stop us doing our work”. Let’s not forget that the child’s mother initially approached the BBC to report the disturbing situation and she was met with silence…
Meanwhile, Jon Sopel was quick to wish Huw well:
This is an awful and shocking episode, where there was no criminality, but perhaps a complicated private life. That doesn’t feel very private now. I hope that will give some cause to reflect. They really need to. I wish @thehuwedwards well. pic.twitter.com/H3rN3bhE1U
— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) July 12, 2023
Last but not least, Corbynite luvvie Owen Jones posted a moving defence that hasn’t aged well:
The Sun is a disgusting rag and they have to pay for what they’ve done to Huw Edwards.
They tried to destroy someone’s life with false claims of illegality involving a minor.
We know now there was no criminality, and The Sun have driven a vulnerable man into medical care.
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) July 12, 2023
They’re not leaping to his aid anymore…
The paper, which always backs the winner, says: “Sir Keir has won the right to take charge.” With 16 hours to go…
The Sun’s “Election Showdown” is a similar format to Sky’s leaders event, with back to back grillings of the two party leaders on the top floor of the News Building. Sunak is going first for half an hour with Harry Cole – questions both from him and readers. Guido will give you live updates below:
🚨 WATCH LIVE: Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are grilled in The Sun’s Election Showdown. Our readers won’t pull their punches, nor will @MrHarryCole. Live at 5.30pm. https://t.co/RtKkuf5qAi
— The Sun (@TheSun) June 24, 2024
UPDATE: That’s the leader proceedings over. No new lines here…
