They disrespected him with jeers and boos. Asked about the lack of ethics displayed by his party, he blinked painfully slowly. Probed as to why, even now, he has failed to suspend candidates caught up in the betting scandal, he promised to boot out anyone found to have done wrong — pausing for applause that never came.
Instead, the claps came when his opponents — facing their own grilling from the audience — traduced him.
It is unprecedented for a prime minister to spend a full day away from the campaign trail two weeks before polling day, as Sunak did to prepare for this bout. He wanted to get it right.
He didn’t. The hours Sunak spent prepping were apparent from his slick answers. But when he trotted out the line that voters should trust him because “my grandparents came to this country with very little, and in two generations I’m standing here as your prime minister,” he merely sounded desperate.
He clearly hadn’t practiced hard enough to lose the tetchy edge when he dismissed audience concerns about National Health Service waiting lists or the morality of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
Starmer plays it safe
By comparison, Labour Leader Keir Starmer, grilled in the half hour before Sunak, was solid if stodgy.
