Photo: Twitter
Here we are, all getting ready for another working week – but the Conservatives aren’t quite done with their disaster-class of an election campaign just yet. Tory Chairperson Richard Holden has become the latest senior politician to put his foot in his mouth.
The serving MP has been parachuted into a fairly safe seat in the south of England – abandoning his red wall constituency, after previously claiming he was ‘bloody loyal’ to the region. However, that’s no longer his biggest faux pas anymore.
Sky News journalist Jon Craig lost his cool with Holden on Sunday evening, after he ignored his line of questioning on three separate occasions. The reporter prompted him on his seat-switch, but the top Tory simply went off on a different tangent.
While trying to make an entirely separate point about Emily Thornberry, for reasons still unknown, Holden runs afoul of Craig, who branded the entire exchange ‘ridiculous’ and ridiculed previous claims about his so-called loyalty.
“I have to stop you there – this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous! You have not answered these questions. You said in an interview earlier this year that you were bloody loyal to the North East. What happened to that?” | Jon Craig
After another quarrel over whether the question had been answered or not, an aide of Richard Holden then intervenes, stating that he and his boss will simply leave, as the topics raised are ‘not what they came here to discuss’.
The clip then ends on that tense exchange, with Jon Craig in the studio stating this wasn’t Mr Holden’s ‘finest hour’. The car crash interview has already gone viral online – compounding the miserable start the Tories have had to election season.
Facing oblivion at the polls, the party currently seems incapable of avoiding controversy on a daily basis. With their manifesto launch penciled in for next week, the Tories are going to need something miraculous to improve their public perception.
You can watch the awkward exchange here:
