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Jeremy Paxman gave David Cameron and Ed Miliband an intense and figurative grilling last night, in what was the first of four so-called pre-election ‘debates’.
Both leaders were put under severe pressure by the veteran presenter, who asked a series of hard-hitting questions.
On multiple occasions both Miliband and Cameron did what they could to avoid answering. Here’s a list of the occasions when they simply had no answer:
David Cameron
The deficit
Paxman:
How much money have you borrowed?
Cameron:
Well you’re going to tell me Jeremy presumably.
Paxman:
I am. It’s a mere 500 billion pounds.
Cameron:
That is a lot less than the previous government was borrowing.
Paxman:
No it isn’t, it’s more than the previous government.
Immigration
Paxman:
You said, quote, ‘no ifs no buts, we make a promise to the British people that we will reduce immigration to the level it was at in the early 1990’s'. You’ve not done it.
Cameron:
I believe that is still the right ambition.
Paxman:
It’s a ‘no ifs no buts’ promise, not an ambition. Do you accept you haven’t met the promise?
Cameron:
We’ve not met the commitment I made, I fully accept that.
Food banks
Paxman:
Do you know how many food banks there are?
Cameron:
I don’t know the exact figure.
Zero-hour contracts
Paxman:
Could you live on a zero-hours contract?
Cameron:
That’s not the question.
Paxman:
It’s the question I’m asking
Cameron:
No.
Welfare
Paxman:
Do you know where these cuts will fall?
Cameron:
It is possible to make the savings like we’ve made.
Paxman:
Sorry I don’t want to be rude, but do you know and you’re not telling us or do you not know?
Cameron:
We know there will be difficult decisions.
Ed Miliband
Immigration
Paxman:
Supposing we got to a figure of 70 million in ten or 15 years, as the population of this country, is that acceptable or not?
Miliband:
I’m not going to get into your hypotheticals.
Paxman:
I’m asking you if you think there’s any natural limit to the population of this country.
Miliband:
I’m not going to get drawn in to speculation about a number
Economy
Paxman:
Is overall spending going to fall?
Miliband:
It is likely to fall
Paxman:
Likely is a bit of a weasel word likely isn’t it.
Personal ratings
Paxman:
How is it that you are less popular than your party? Even your own MPs consider you a liability. How has that happened?
Miliband:
I don’t commentate on these things
Paxman:
The thing is, they see you as a north London geek.
Miliband:
Who cares? Who does?
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