Photo: Twitter
Take a bow, Matthew Stadlen. The veteran journalist won a few new admirers this weekend, after a forensic takedown of Nadine Dorries went viral. The soon-to-be-former MP was left speechless, after her defence of Boris Johnson was dismantled comprehensively.
Like most high-ranking Tories, Dorries has been given her own show on a fledgling news channel. Imaginatively titled ‘Friday Night with Nadine’, her show hasn’t exactly been the ratings smash that TalkTV producers were hoping for.
However, there were plenty of eyeballs on this interview. Within 90 seconds, Stadlen calmly and concisely explained to Nadine Dorries how her actions over the past few months were threatening to undermine democracy in the UK.
“The way you continue to undermine our democracy, I fundamentally disagree with it. Despite the findings of two Privilege Committees, you have decided to double down and sew the seeds of doubt. You are marking your own homework on this show.” | Matthew Stadlen
Stadlen even brought the receipts, reading transcripts of what Dorries had said previously about the Privileges Committee being ‘a kangaroo court’. He also slammed the experienced politician for being able to ‘mark her own homework’ while presenting the show.
As one of Boris Johnson’s most unapologetic cheerleaders, Dorries isn’t usually short of a comeback or two. But there were no pre-prepared slogans that could get her out of this jam. Stadlen picked apart her rhetoric, and the eventual retort was feeble.
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Turning to the camera like someone in a budget remake of The Office, Nadine Dorries told her audience with a wry smile that she ‘knew she should not have done this show’. The rapid application of accountability certainly took the host by surprise.
