The questions that David Cameron and Ed Miliband had no answer for
Jeremy Paxman gave David Cameron and Ed Miliband an intense and figurative grilling last night, in what was the first of four so-called pre-election ‘debates’.
Both leaders were put under severe pressure by the veteran presenter, who asked a series of hard-hitting questions.
On multiple occasions both Miliband and Cameron did what they could to avoid answering. Here’s a list of the occasions when they simply had no answer:
David Cameron
The deficit
Paxman:
How much money have you borrowed?
Cameron:
Well you’re going to tell me Jeremy presumably.
Paxman:
I am. It’s a mere 500 billion pounds.
Cameron:
That is a lot less than the previous government was borrowing.
Paxman:
No it isn’t, it’s more than the previous government.
Immigration
Paxman:
You said, quote, ‘no ifs no buts, we make a promise to the British people that we will reduce immigration to the level it was at in the early 1990’s'. You’ve not done it.
Cameron:
I believe that is still the right ambition.
Paxman:
It’s a ‘no ifs no buts’ promise, not an ambition. Do you accept you haven’t met the promise?
Cameron:
We’ve not met the commitment I made, I fully accept that.
Food banks
Paxman:
Do you know how many food banks there are?
Cameron:
I don’t know the exact figure.
Zero-hour contracts
Paxman:
Could you live on a zero-hours contract?
Cameron:
That’s not the question.
Paxman:
It’s the question I’m asking
Cameron:
No.
Welfare
Paxman:
Do you know where these cuts will fall?
Cameron:
It is possible to make the savings like we’ve made.
Paxman:
Sorry I don’t want to be rude, but do you know and you’re not telling us or do you not know?
Cameron:
We know there will be difficult decisions.
Ed Miliband
Immigration
Paxman:
Supposing we got to a figure of 70 million in ten or 15 years, as the population of this country, is that acceptable or not?
Miliband:
I’m not going to get into your hypotheticals.
Paxman:
I’m asking you if you think there’s any natural limit to the population of this country.
Miliband:
I’m not going to get drawn in to speculation about a number
Economy
Paxman:
Is overall spending going to fall?
Miliband:
It is likely to fall
Paxman:
Likely is a bit of a weasel word likely isn’t it.
Personal ratings
Paxman:
How is it that you are less popular than your party? Even your own MPs consider you a liability. How has that happened?
Miliband:
I don’t commentate on these things
Paxman:
The thing is, they see you as a north London geek.
Miliband:
Who cares? Who does?
More: [We asked Londoners whether Ed Miliband is tough enough to be prime minister - hell yes or hell no?]1
More: [Katie Hopkins might just have won the election for Labour]2