London Minister Paul Scully launched an extraordinary blue-on-blue attack on a Tory mayoral hopeful over a car-crash TV interview.
Moz Hossain, who has made the Conservative shortlist to take on Sadiq Khan next year, was grilled by GB News presenter Camilla Tominey with a round of yes or no questions during an appearance on her show this morning.
The journalist challenged the barrister on issues including Rwanda, rejoining the EU and if a woman can have a penis.
But Mr Hossain, who is running against London Assembly member Susan Hall to be the Conservative candidate, struggled to give a yes or no answer to a number of the probes.
Mr Scully – who was a frontrunner for the Tory London mayoral candidate but did not make it to the shortlist – retweeted the clip and took aim at Mr Hossain.
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Mr Scully said: “Key thing for a strategic leader of a £20billionn per annum organisation is making clear decisions.
“Key thing the electorate expects are clear answers even if they are not what people want to hear.
“Final key thing is how to invest heavily in learning lessons over the last 11 days.”
Another ex-hopeful for the Tory candidacy, Samuel Kasumu, shared Mr Scully’s tweet and called for him to be added to the shortlist.
Mr Kasumu added: “I know we’ve had our tensions but for the sake of London can someone with half a brain just put Paul on the shortlist. Paul vs Susan is far more respectable than the last few weeks.”
Presenter Ms Tominey kicked off the round of questions by asking Mr Hossain if he backed the net zero by 2030.
He said: “It’s impossible. It’s a great ambition but it’s not going to happen.”
Pressed on yes or no, he said: “As an ambition I’d support it but it’s not going to happen.”
Ms Tominey turned to the issue of banning diesel and petrol cars in favour of electric vehicles.
The Tory London mayoral hopeful said: “Again this is so unrealistic.”
Told it is a Tory policy, he added: “I think it’s a good ambition to have.”
Ms Tominey went on to press the barrister about Rwanda but was unable to get a yes or no answer.
He began to say: “Look we have to find a way…”
The presenter interjected: “Moz, you’re prevaricating. It’s a yes or no game.”
Mr Hossain went on: “We have to stop illegal immigration.”
Ms Tominey asked: “So you support Rwanda, yes or no?”
He said: “We have to find an effective way to stop these criminal gangs.”
Asked again yes or no, he added: “We have to find a way to stop these ghastly criminal gangs.”
An exasperated Ms Tominey said: “Moz, you’ve got to answer yes or no questions honestly because otherwise the electorate will just despair.”
Following more back and forth between the pair, he said: “There’s a legal process going on… as a King’s Counsel it would be wrong.”
Turning to the next question, Ms Tominey asked if the UK should rejoin the EU.
Mr Hossain, who backed Remain in the 2016 referendum, said the issue of Brexit had been settled.
In the next two questions, he said women do not have penises and that he backed gay marriage.
But he ran into problems again when asked if the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights, saying it was a “tricky one”.
Asked if the Tories were right to oust Boris, Mr Hossain said: “I’m here to talk about London, I’m here to talk about that, not about Westminster politics.”
