Rishi Sunak hit back during a testy BBC interview this morning, which was meant to be about the government’s big announcement on new North Sea oil and gas licences.
The Prime Minister dialled into BBC Scotland for a radio interview, and was immediately confronted by the presenter criticising him for only allocating five minutes to the station.
Mr Sunak interjected and said it was a “strange way to start an interview”, and clarified he couldn’t talk for long as he was about to head off to Scotland.
The Prime Minister is the first Prime Minister since David Cameron to have sat down with the station, and has done so twice since entering No. 10.
Presenter Gary Robertson claimed he was just clarifying so listeners didn’t think the interview had been cut short.
Mr Sunak later accused the presenter of being “economically incoherent” when trying to pin down the PM on how much oil the UK imports from Russia.
The Government argues todays announcement will make the UK less dependant on foreign dictators and despots to keep our lights on.
Mr Robertson asked how that is the case when we import just three percent of our gas from Russia.
Mr Sunak shot back: “It’s a globally traded market and you can see the impact on energy prices, I think your listeners will know what’s happened to their energy bills over the past couple of years, so in spite of us directly not importing a huge amount of oil and gas directly from Russia we’re still heavily impacted by what happens when energy supplies are weaponised by dictators, because they’re traded in a global market.
“It’s just economically incoherent to say we’re not impacted by that, just look at anyone’s energy bill. That’s what happens in a globally traded market.”
Mr Sunak then criticised the presenter for getting his facts wrong, after BBC Scotland claimed the government isn’t meeting its climate change targets.
“We’ve decarbonised faster than any country in the G7… we’ve met every single carbon budget that we have set ourselves, every single one has been met.
“I don’t know where you’re getting your facts from.”
Overrunning on their allocated interview time slot, the BBC then pressed the Prime Minister on how he was planning on getting up to Scotland to make the announcement – a clear dig at his use of private jets.
Rishi Sunak said he would be “flying as I normally would, and that’s the most efficient use of my time”.
According to Google Maps, it would take the Prime Minister nine hours to get to Peterhead where he’s set to make the announcement.
Mr Sunak slammed the presenter as “completely and utterly wrong” in wanting to ban people from flying.
“Every PM before me has used planes to travel around the United Kingdom because it’s an efficient use of time for the person running the country, so I can continue focusing on delivering for people”.
