AN excoriating takedown of Rishi Sunak on the BBC has triggered fury from Conservatives – who accused the broadcaster of becoming a “soap box for the left”.
Comedian and writer Ben Elton delivered a devastating assessment of the Prime Minister on Laura Kuenssberg’s politics show on Sunday morning – branding him a “narcissistic sociopath” who was as untrustworthy as Boris Johnson.
His attack drew fury from Tory commentators, with Claire Bullivant, the editor of the Conservative Post website, calling the Blackadder and Young Ones writer a “champagne socialist”.
Speaking after an interview with the Prime Minister was shown on the programme, Elton said: “If anyone was still watching after that extraordinary, Orwellian, meaningless, evasive word salad.
"Turns out [Sunak] is as much of a mendacious narcissistic sociopath as his previous boss" Comedian Ben Elton describes #BBCLauraK's interview with PM Rishi Sunak as "an extraordinary, Orwellian, meaningless, evasive word salad"https://t.co/O6NHH5m1nw pic.twitter.com/7mNzihAZMl
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) June 25, 2023
“I’d sort of – everybody else wanted to believe, and I sort of wanted to believe maybe he’s kind of a bit more decent, you know? And it turns out he’s as much of a mendacious, narcissistic sociopath as his previous boss.”
Bullivant told The Independent: “The BBC these days seems like one long party political broadcast for the Labour Party. It’s becoming just a soap box for the left.
‘‘It’s a disgrace.”
She added: “The BBC isn’t interested in hearing Conservative voices. Yet of course they allow a champagne socialist like Ben Elton all the time in the world to spout complete hate on live TV and then ‘recommend’ viewers vote against the Tories.
“It’s truly appalling. I’m all for free speech but why should the British people be paying for that? It’s not right.”
One Twitter user added: "Ben Elton is one of those people we used to think funny and anarchistic with his humour...now I think he is just another hateful bigoted lefty."
An interview with Sunak was shown on the programme, in which the Prime Minister insisted he had integrity after he was grilled over his refusal to vote on suspending Johnson from parliament after he was found to have lied to MPs.
Speaking about missing the Commons vote Privileges Committee report last week, which found Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over parties at Downing Street during lockdown, Sunak said he had taken a stand in the past by quitting as chancellor last year.
The PM was notably absent during the debate and the vote and has since been facing accusations of being too “weak” to stand up to his former party leader.
Sunak said: “I was a person that as chancellor resigned from Boris Johnson’s government” and explained he missed the vote “because I was actually speaking and attending an event at a fantastic charity called Jewish Care, which does an extraordinary job looking after people around the country”.
He went on: “Your point is, do I have to demonstrate my integrity and my leadership? I did that when I resigned.
“I demonstrated that I was prepared to stand up for what I believe in…”
Kuenssberg accused Sunak of being in “some kind of parallel universe where the NHS is getting better and the economy is going to be okay”.
She added: “That’s not the experience of millions of people right now.”
Sunak replied: “I’ve never said that it’s not challenging.
“I’ve never said that this isn’t going to be a difficult time to get through but what I want to give people the reassurance and confidence is that we’ve got a plan, the plan will work and we will get through this.”
Speaking after, Elton said: “This man literally, he seemed to be making a principle of the fact that he resigned from a government that he’d served loyally and tried to keep propped up for numerous years.
“He’s trying to boast about having worried about inflation while he was chancellor of the exchequer under Johnson.”
He added: “He seems to act as if being born into Downing Street six months ago was a miracle birth.
“No – he was a part of a 13-year cycle which has got us to this point.”
Elton's comments were praised by many on social media. One Twitter user said: "Absolutely nailed it! Ben Elton sums up Sunak in a perfectly phrased two minute take down."
A BBC spokesperson said: “We feature a wide range of guests and opinions across the series and ensure we meet our due impartiality commitments.”
