Phew! I’ve just finished watching Channel 4 News’s Jon Snow attempt to interview Tory MP for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith about suggestions that he has serious questions to answer about the accuracy of his election expenses.
It’s true car-crash telly, with Zac Goldsmith spending the first seven minutes of the interview ranting against Channel 4 News in a way that will have had Tory HQ cringeing with embarrassment. You can watch the full 13-minute broadcast here:
(Also avalable on the Channel 4 News website here).
Channel 4 News has refuted Mr Goldsmith’s allegations with Jon Snow inviting him to take them up with OfCom:
“We refute any suggestion that Zac Goldsmith was targeted simply because he is a high profile figure. The questions we have raised relating to his expenses are entirely legitimate. The issues we found regarding Mr Goldsmith’s campaign expenses are materially different and of a different scale to those found in other returns we looked at.
“We informed Mr Goldsmith of our report last week and he was given ample opportunity to respond on the record to these questions. Channel 4 News stands fully behind its report which was rigorously researched. The investigation into campaign spending continues.”
Lib Dem Twitter reaction to the interview has not been kind to Zac:
@waddertron Watch the Zac Goldsmith interview on C4, its a master class in how not to do it. @pimlicat Zac Goldsmith interview a bit car crash @stevenlambert1 Well done @jonsnow on getting Zac Goldsmith to answer Qs. Btw the loaned jackets still have to be declared as in kind with notional value! @jpshaddock Right now, Andy Coulson is watching Channel 4 News and facepalmming @lloyd_harris watched Zac Goldsmith on C4 news failing to answer questions about his election exps – has he something to hide? @colinross1975 Zac Goldsmith is doing very badly on Channel 4 News – attacking Jon Snow and not answering the accusations