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.