HOW was your weekend? Better than Phillip Schofield’s I hope.
Having quit his job on Saturday after a public spat with co-presenter Holly Willoughby, the now former host of ITV’s This Morning would have expected the Sunday papers to go big on his misfortune. The red tops duly obliged with the Daily Star Sunday leading the way: “Holly 1, Wally 0”.
Elsewhere on Saturday, another story was breaking. Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, had reportedly asked civil servants to arrange a private driver awareness course after she was caught speeding last summer. That way, it was claimed, she could avoid having points on her licence and be spared the embarrassment of going on a public course.
Was this a breach of the ministerial code? “Suella ‘tried to cover up’ speeding offence” said the Mail on Sunday, while the Sunday Times, which broke the story, went for “Braverman asked civil servants to help her avoid speeding fine”.
Pity Therese Coffey, the Minister scheduled to appear on the Sunday shows. How was she going to explain this? Yet rather than fret about what she was going to say, it turns out that ignorance was bliss for Ms Coffey.
The first stop on her “I Know Nothing” tour was Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday. Presenter Sophy Ridge observed interview proprieties by asking about the G7 summit Rishi Sunak had attended. Then it was straight on to Braverman.
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Ms Coffey said she knew nothing more than what was in the newspapers, and she had only read those 20 minutes before coming on the show.
Ridge, who is fast becoming the boldest and most box office of Sunday show hosts, tried and tried again but to no avail.
“Do you have the Home Secretary’s number?” she eventually asked Ms Coffey.
“Er, yes, somewhere,” said the Minister.
“Why don’t you message her then?” challenged Ridge.
Ms Coffey said she did not make it her business to go contacting people this early in the morning to get “chapter and verse” on something.
Ridge had to admit defeat. “I don’t know what to say,” she spluttered.
Ms Coffey has previous experience in the art of saying nothing about something. Last summer she was the Minister on Sunday show duty when a row erupted over the appointment of Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip.
Mr Pincher had been suspended after complaints of sexual assault from two men. Boris Johnson, then PM, was under pressure to say whether he knew about earlier complaints against Mr Pincher.
Ms Coffey, despite her looming shift on the Sunday shows, said she had not spoken to the Prime Minister about what he knew and when.
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On that occasion she had looked clearly uncomfortable. Fast forward a year and she was far more relaxed.
“I’ve read the same level of detail you have in the newspapers,” she told BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Ms Coffey’s boss, Rishi Sunak, was similarly reluctant to address the matter. Speaking in Hiroshima at the G7 press conference, the Prime Minister declined three times to say he had confidence in his Home Secretary.
Appearing irked at being asked whether he would ask his ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus to investigate the claims, Mr Sunak asked journalists: “Did you have any questions about the summit?”
Others were only too pleased to comment. Shadow Health Minister Liz Kendall, speaking on Ridge on Sunday, said: “Rishi Sunak should launch an investigation. He should ask the independent adviser whether she has breached the standards of the ministerial code here. I think a lot of people watching this programme will think, you know, why is it always one rule for them and another rule for everybody else?”
Former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry, appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, said the Home Secretary had “questions to answer”.
Later, the focus was on raw sewage, how much of it was pouring into our waterways and what effect it was having. An important topic, everyone agreed, but it was amazing how quickly it turned grown broadcasters into school kids.
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First difficulty: what to call the brown stuff? Both Kuenssberg and Martin Geissler, presenter of BBC1 Scotland’s The Sunday Show, settled on “poo”. Then there were the unfortunate turns of phrase. Kuenssberg said when it came to sewage the programme’s in-box had been “absolutely jam-packed”.
Geissler wondered what was in the “big dumps of water” coming from sewer overflows. Were swimmers and surfers “literally going through the motions”?
Both presenters had the good grace to apologise if anyone was having their breakfast. What, on a Sunday morning? What madness would that be?
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