Conrad Duncan
Nov 07, 2019
A Tory MP is being ridiculed for saying he “doesn’t know” if Jeremy Corbyn would shoot rich people as prime minister.
Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative business minister, was invited on The Andrew Neil Show to talk about Boris Johnson’s decision to compare Corbyn to Joseph Stalin.
When Neil asked the Tory minister if Johnson’s comparison was unfair - pointing out that Stalin’s government helped kill millions of people - Zahawi bizarrely chose to doubled down on the claim.
BBC viewers were then forced to witness the following ridiculous exchange:
Neil:…the comparison between [Stalin] and Mr Corbyn wanting to raise taxes on the rich is absurd, isn’t it?
Zahawi:No, when you begin to demonise the wealth creators, the entrepreneurs , it is in my view an incredibly dangerous road to go down…
Neil: So he’s going to have them shot?
Zahawi: I don’t know, you will have to ask him that question
Neil:Are you seriously saying to our viewers tonight that you don’t know if Mr Corbyn is going to have wealthy people shot?
Zahawi: Well, he’ll take their money away…
When you have Andrew Neil, one of the UK’s most prominent right-wing journalists, defending Corbyn, you know you’ve gone too far.
Zahawi’s comments came after two days of non-stop disaster for the Conservatives, which included insulting the victims of the Grenfell fire, doubling down on that insult, doctoring a video of Labour’s Brexit secretary and being mocked live on air by Sky News.
Even critics of the Tory party where left aghast at how bad the interview was.
And in the same interview, Zahawi also complained that the Conservatives were being “demonised” over Grenfell.
It would have probably been better for his party if he didn’t turn up.
There's still five weeks to go until election day - but surely the Tories can't be this bad for the whole campaign?
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