The Conversation (0)
Politics
Catherine Shuttleworth
May 26, 2023
Theo Paphitis with his head in his hands
BB
Former Dragon’s Den judge Theo Paphitis was left with his head in his hands after Conservative minister Laura Trott failed to respond to questions about immigration on BBC’s Question Time.
Trott was elected as Conservative MP for Sevenoaks in 2019
As Trott struggled to explain how her party would lower migration numbers, Paphitis was left exasperated.
The question comes after it was announced that net migration in the UK has hit a record high, according to official figures.
In response to the question ‘what is the right level of immigration?’ Trott used many excuses as to why the government had failed to deliver on their promise, including the Ukraine and Hong Kong influx.
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
She also added: ‘the last thing I’ll say is you can’t trust Labour on this one. They went into the last election saying they wanted freedom of movement. As recently as 2020, Kier Starmer said he wanted to defend the free movement.’
But Paphitis was not having it. In response to Trott’s struggling defense for her parties failures, he said: ‘I’ve never been [so] disappointed when a politician comes on, gets asked a question, and the first thing they do rather than answering a question is attack the opposition. It was a question that needed an answer.’
\u201c"I've never been disappointed when a politician comes on, gets asked a question, and the first thing they do rather than answer the question, is attack the opposition."\n\nTheo Paphitis shames Conservative MP Laura Trott on #BBCQT - Follow for more.\u201d— Farrukh (@Farrukh) 1685050362
He was met with applause from the audience.
Paphitis was left with his head in his hands after Trott repeatedly failed to answer host Fiona Bruce’s question: ‘On the work visas, who would you not want coming here?’
The only example Trott could come up with was lorry drivers, saying that it was ‘really important that we have more training for people within the UK.’
Bruce continued to press until she eventually gave up, saying, ‘[Paphitits] has got his head in his hands so we’re not getting anywhere.’
Many viewers appeared to agree with Paphitis assessment of, and clear frustration towards, Trott:
\u201cA quick summary of tonight's question time:\n\n#bbcqt\u201d— Gene McGurk (@Gene McGurk) 1685052382
\u201cHats off @TheoPaphitis for tolerating #Sevenoaks Tory MP Laura Trott talking utter drivel - & making excuses for 13 years of Tory catastrophic failures.\n\nNo \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffbfor Trott from this Kent audience .\n\nTheo holds his head in his hands in despair after just 10 minutes of Trott #BBCQT\u201d— Elizabeth Gould (@Elizabeth Gould) 1685046182
This week’s Question Time was filmed in Gravesend, Kent. Other panellists were Hove’s Labour MP Peter Kyle, Twickenham’s Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson, and journalist Janet Street-Porter.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
x