By Roz Morris, Managing Director, TV News London Ltd
Always be prepared – you’re never so important that you can get away with not thoroughly preparing for your media interviews.
That’s the lesson we can all take from the car crash interview given by UK Government minister Emma Reynolds about the current UK Labour Government’s transport policies.
She was talking to the legendary LBC broadcaster, Nick Ferrari, who is renowned for skewering people who don’t know their subject. She came unstuck when she didn’t know basic facts including where the new Lower Thames Crossing will be as set out in the news release she was supposed to be talking about.
She also didn’t know whether the transport budget she was promoting provides for repairing Hammersmith Bridge over the Thames which has been closed for 5 years as unsafe for traffic, with only pedestrians and cyclists allowed since 2021.
As Emma Reynolds is Economic Secretary to the Treasury, it was surprising that she was also not clear about any of the costs of the policy she was promoting. Nick Ferrari had to tell her the total costs, and he became so exasperated that he asked her if there was any point in continuing the interview.
But he did continue and asked her other questions about government policies. Comment on this interview was widespread and included headlines like ‘Cringe Interview’ and ‘Car Crash Interview’ on social media and in national and local newspapers.
Let’s not forget Nick Ferrari’s long history of form in this field of unprepared politicians.
Here are some of the most memorable examples:
2015
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader in 2015 was unable to tell Nick Ferrari how the Greens would pay for building 500,000 new social homes and other policies.
This was an interview which she herself later described as ‘excruciating’.
2017
Labour MP Diane Abbott, then the Shadow Home Secretary, could not tell Nick Ferrari what the cost would be of Labour’s pledge to recruit 10,000 extra police officers if they won the election.
Nick Ferrari said he was “incredulous” during her awkward interview about Labour’s police and crime policy ahead of the 2017 general election. She claimed at one point that the policy would cost £300,000, which Nick Ferrari pointed out would be the equivalent of £30 per officer.
She said at the time: “Well, erm… if we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four-year period, we believe it will be about £300,000.” And her figures didn’t get any better after that.
After an awkward discussion over the number of officers that would be employed and their salaries, she insisted the plan was thought through and fully costed, paid for by reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to Capital Gains Tax.
Later in an interview with Radio Times, Nick Ferrari spoke about this infamous interview and the reason behind why he challenged the Labour MP.
“What people forget is that she knew what she was going to be asked to talk about,” he explained. “It’s not like I’d bumped into her in the street. That’s why I was incredulous.”
He recalled hearing a “shuffle of papers” on Ms Abbott’s end during the awkward silences when she was trying to work out the costs. “Silence on radio is so b****y powerful because it’s not meant to happen,” he stated.
Diane Abbott later said she wasn’t well when she gave this interview.
2020
Michael Gove attempted to defend Dominic Cummings driving to Barnard Castle ‘to test his eyesight’ during a Covid lockdown after he claimed he had been having trouble with his vision.
Dominic Cummings was also criticised for driving over 200 miles from London to his family’s home in Durham during the strict lockdown, while he and his wife were ill with suspected COVID-19.
Nick Ferrari said he was left “staggered” after Mr Gove appeared to claim that, like the Prime Minister’s aide, he himself had also tested his eyesight by going for a drive.
When the radio host questioned Mr Gove if he would have gone on a 60-mile round trip to test his eyesight, using Mr Cummings’ family trip to the Castle as an example, Michael Gove rather unconvincingly replied: “I have, on occasions in the past, driven with my wife in order to make sure, what’s the right way of putting it.”
We can now add to this list:
2025
Emma Reynolds, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She really should have done better. See for yourself here. Watch the full interview here
It’s important to note that in all these interviews Nick Ferrari was asking simple and not unfair questions. This was not ‘gotcha’ journalism.
All the politicians in these examples clearly had not done their homework and had not prepared thoroughly.
As I always tell people I help with media training, headlines are never enough on their own. You must prepare for the obvious factual questions.
Whether you are in business, politics, the arts or humanitarian or charity work, if you don’t know the facts, why should the public listen to you?
There is no doubt that media skills are required now more than ever in all types of business and professional careers, and this includes taking time for preparing your interviews.
