Rough evening for PM as critics slam his performance as 'rude' and 'embarrassing'
Rishi Sunak has been rinsed over his performance during the Election Question Time Leaders’ Special on Thursday evening, with critics branding his interactions with audience members ‘rude’ and ‘shameful’.
At one point during the debate audience members shouted “shame” at Rishi Sunak after he attacked ‘foreign courts’ and hinted the Tories could withdraw the UK from the European Court of Human Rights.
The topic saw him clash with an audience member, who accused Sunak of putting words in her mouth, after he said to her, “you and I disagree on that, you think it’s fine for people to come and they shouldn’t be removed, I don’t think that’s right for this country.”
The audience member replied: “I said, are you considering leaving the ECHR.. you just put words in my mouth then.”
Following the event, the audience member in question wrote on X: “I did not expect the Prime Minister to respond to me in such a manner, I am well within my right to add critique. To also put words in my mouth as well. Shame indeed.”
It went from bad to worse for Sunak as the next audience member ripped into the PM on the subject, telling Sunak that there were only two countries in the world that don’t subscribe to the ECHR “Russia and Belarus”.
One social media user praised this audience member and referred to the interaction as, “the exact moment Rishi Sunak lost the election. We salute you Eyebrow Man.”
Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said Sunak had “totally lost it” during his debate appearance.
On X, Lucas wrote: “Whoever trained Sunak for this #bbcqt session should be sacked – he’s totally lost it. So aggressive. So rude. This audience shouting “shame” gives me hope.”
Another commented: “Sunak quite literally picked fights with members of the audience, most notably putting words in the mouth of a young woman who asked why he wants to take us out of the ECHR.
“Utterly embarrassing and deplorable.”
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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