The 5 biggest talking points from Andrew Tate’s fiery BBC interview

Andrew Tate has given a fiery interview with BBC News, which marks one of the first times he has spoken to the media since he was arrested last year.

Both Tristan Tate and Andrew Tate were released from prison and placed under house arrest in April, three months after they were detained in late December on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.

The brothers – as well as two other suspects – deny the allegations and none of them have been charged.

The new interview took place from Tate's home in Bucharest and saw him clash with BBC News reporter Lucy Williamson as he was asked about the charges.

These are the biggest talking points.

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When he claimed he’s a “force for good” acting “under the instruction of God”

When asked about the paid courses at his Hustlers University, Tate said: "I genuinely am a force for good in the world. You may not understand that yet, but you will eventually. And I genuinely believe I am acting under the instruction of God to do good things, and I want to make the world a better place."

Claiming the BBC had invented testimony from “Sophie”

BBC News

A woman who went under the pseudonym Sophie claimed to the BBC Radio 4's File on Four that she had felt pressured by Tate into webcam work in Romania and having Tate’s name tattooed on her body. As BBC News reports, Sophie is helping Romanian prosecutors with the investigation.

When questioned about Sophie's testimony, Tate said: "I'm doing you the favour as legacy media, giving you relevance, by speaking to you. And I'm telling you now, this Sophie, which the BBC has invented, who has no face. Nobody knows who she is. I know."

Calling accusations of spreading dangerous ideology “absolute garbage”

Tate was asked about the concerns of rights campaigners including the chief executive of Rape Crisis in England and Wales, who said she was "deeply concerned by the dangerous ideology of misogynistic rape culture that Mr Tate spreads".

Tate called the accusations "absolute garbage" and later said it was "completely disingenuous" to "pretend" his viewers were having a harmful effect on young people.

"I preach hard work, discipline. I'm an athlete, I preach anti-drugs, I preach religion, I preach no alcohol, I preach no knife crime. Every single problem with modern society I'm against,” he said.

Suggesting that he’d been ‘joking’ in some of his previous videos

Tate suggested to the BBC that some of his previous comments had been taken out of context or were meant to be interpreted as “jokes”.

When asked about a comment where he said that a woman's intimate parts belonged to her male partner, Tate said: "I don't know if you understand what sarcasm is. I don't know if you understand what context is. I don't know if you understand what's satirical content.”

Denying he said he had emotional manipulated women

BBC News asked about a previous version of Hustlers University, stating that Tate had described his job on there as "meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, get her to fall in love with me to where she'd do anything I say, and then get her on a webcam so we could become rich together" in a description that was later taken down.

When asked about it Tate replied: "I've never said that."

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