Nick Robinson has come under fire after subjecting Suella Braverman to a highly personal ad hominem attack during a Today Programme interview this morning.
Ms Braverman agreed to go on the flagship BBC Radio 4 programme to discuss the Government’s new Rwanda Bill, but shortly found herself under attack from the star presenter.
Mr Robinson accused the former Home Secretary of “spreading poison” both in the country and in the Tory Party.
He said: “You’ve condemned the leader of your party as uncertain, weak and lacking in leadership, you’ve said he never had any intention of keeping his promises, you’ve accused him of betrayal and wishful thinking.
“You’ve attacked lawyers, judges, civil servants, the head of the Metropolitan Police, people who are worried about deaths in Gaza, you’ve attacked the homeless, you’ve attacked migrants as being part of an invasion.
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“Isn’t the truth you’re a headline-grabber who does it by spreading poison, even within your own party?”
Ms Braverman hit back, saying that she always sought to be honest as Home Secretary, even if that honesty was “uncomfortable”.
She refused to shy away from “telling people how it is and from plain speaking”.
She said: “If that upsets polite society then I’m sorry about that… we can’t keep failing the British people.”
Mr Robinson’s brutal broadside of Ms Braverman won plaudits from left-wingers, however, it was blasted by a Brexiteer Tory peer.
Stewart Jackson, the former MP for Peterborough, slammed the £280,000-a-year presenter as “sneering, angry [and] hectoring”.
Lord Jackson said Suella Braverman handled the interview “with cool aplomb”.
He added: “You can see why BBC Today listening figures are cratering.”
The Today Programme lost 800,000 listeners in a year, according to figures out in May, down to 5.76 million listeners.
That figure represents its smallest audience in almost 25 years.
Another social media user said they agreed with Lord Jackson, saying Ms Braverman “exposed Nick Robinson as the self-appointed spokesman of the smug middle class liberal ‘conservative’ – couldn’t quite keep the sneer out of his voice”.
Another said: “So true, just more woke Left bias at the BBC, that’s why I stopped listening to it.”
