Watch: Lawyer brands interview with top Tory ‘biggest car crash in history’

It was James Cleverly’s turn to do the Tory media rounds and make a complete fool of himself.

Sky’s Sophy Ridge rattled him and he ended up confessing that he had no idea if Nadhim Zahawi was investigated over his tax affairs while Chancellor, or when prime minister Rishi Sunak knew about the issue with HMRC.

Cleverly, foundering, replied with: “I’m not an investigative journalist, and it’s not my functional role to investigate my colleagues’ tax affairs”.

He then appeared over on the BBC, this time he tried to suggest that he wasn’t in a position to discuss the former chancellor’s tax issues, as he’d been too busy shopping!

He toldLaura Kuenssberg that: “I spent the whole of last week in the US and in Canada… before having a rest and doing some shopping.”

Alright for some!

Car crash

Lawyer and filmmaker Peter Stefanovic tweeted the interview and his reaction to it, and wrote: “Probably the biggest car crash interview in history – watch in disbelief as the Prime Minister’s promise of transparency & accountability are well and truly tossed in the bin.”

Probably the biggest car crash interview in history – watch in disbelief as the Prime Minister’s promise of transparency & accountability are well and truly tossed in the bin pic.twitter.com/UuVXvZPkuL

— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) January 22, 2023

Reactions

1.

Spot on Peter. But what do we expect from James 'not so' Cleverley. Abysmal tripe from him as usual. But as for Laura Kuenssberg….having Rachel Johnson on the panel when one of the lead stories is about Bozo Johnson's latest scandal?!! Unbelievable! No balance on the Beeb.

— Liam O'Hara (@LiamOHa82358200) January 22, 2023

2.

You can always rely on Cleverly to not know anything about anything. Does anyone rely buy it? He knows the issues he's been sent onto media to absthe questions and he "doesn't know anything". Dishonest tories #dishonesttories

— Paul Basnett (@PaulBasnett) January 22, 2023

3.

pic.twitter.com/ovvIx9QDlY

— Christopher Ramsay🌻 🇮🇪 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 (@IOTEChris) January 22, 2023

4.

Maybe Peter was wrong…

Well, there *was* this other time…😬https://t.co/wiDgWqkmIu

— Ian #WeStandWithCorbyn (@jorge_rupes) January 22, 2023

Related: Watch: Rosie Holt’s parody MP defending Zahawi over tax row is amazing