SKY news host Kay Burley interviewed an empty chair after the Conservative Party chairman failed to take part in an arranged interview.
Earlier this morning on Breakfast, the journalist listed the questions she was due to ask James Cleverly.
There was an empty chair in the studio where the MP for Braintree should have been, despite him standing "15 feet away". Rather than cancel the interview, Burley instead listed the questions she wished to ask an empty chair.
READ MORE: Conservatives defend 'doctored' Keir Starmer campaign video
There was a live murder on Sky News this morning... pic.twitter.com/ZWPks3wwPq
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) November 6, 2019
Kay Burley stated that she planned to question James Cleverly on the front page of today's Telegraph, on which Boris Johnson compares the Labour leader to Josef Stalin, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg's recent comments about the victims of Grenfell and about calls for Welsh secretary Alun Cairns to resign.
Sources close to Mr Cleverly said that he had not been booked to appear on Sky, and was actually taking part in an interview on TalkRadio at the time of the empty-chair broadcast.
A source told The Independent “It is totally false to say he ducked the interview in any way, shape or form,” said the source. “He has done a full round of interviews this morning.
Earlier today, Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly defended a Tory campaign video that critics claim has been “doctored”.
The film depicts Labour’s Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, struggling to answer a question on television about his party’s position on leaving the European Union despite him answering it “perfectly adequately”, according to the BBC’s Nick Robinson.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson bids to pull UK 'out of rut' ahead of Scotland visit
Mr Cleverly told the BBC that Tory social media feeds had posted the interview in full and then followed it up with a “lighthearted satirical” video on Labour’s Brexit position.
“What we also did, and this is not unique to us, is we did a lighthearted satirical video, obviously so with a comedy soundtrack, highlighting the Labour Party’s chaotic position on Brexit,” he said.
Asked whether his party had “posted a lie” online, he replied: “I disagree with your assessment of it.”
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