A heckler owned a Tory MP in just nine words during last night’s broadcast of Newsnight.
While speaking to Newsnight host Faisal Islam about his letter of no confidence in the prime minister, Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was trolled by anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray who heckled: “The village idiot is in front of the camera”.
As the North West Leicestershire MP began to speak, Bray held up signs that read: “Toxic Tories destroying our nation” and “Save our Democracy”. On the flipside the signs read: “Get your Johnson out of our democracy!” and “A crock of s***”.
Speaking live from College Green in Westminster, Bridgen said former aide Dominic Cumming’s claims will have to be investigated by Sue Gray, and said it’s “probably career-ending” if the prime minister is found to be telling fibs to parliament.
It follows Cumming’s latest claims that Johnson “lied to parliament” when he said he thought the “bring your own booze” get-together in May 2020 was a “work event”.
“Lies, lies, lies”, Bray can be heard saying in the background.
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Islam highlighted that the number of MPs who have gone public with their no-confidence letters is still in single figures, nowhere near the 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote.
“I understand you have a bit of a distraction down there on College Green,” Islam said.
Bridgen responded: “The village idiot is out and…”
Hilariously, Bray interrupted and said: “No, the village idiot is in front of the camera”.
Bray then appeared behind Bridgen once again to show off his signs.
Bridgen went on to compare the government’s alleged “red meat” offerings, such as scrapping the TV licence fee, to being offered “sweets… you’ve already had in your pocket and you’ve already promised them”.
After the broadcast, Bray tweeted: “I hope you all enjoyed my cameo on Newsnight with Bridgen.”
Tweeting this morning, Bridgen said although he disagrees with Bray, he said “the right to protest is an important one”.
Twitter absolutely loved the exchange, with journalist Ava Evans remarking: “Outstanding television. Validates the license fee.”
Perhaps we’ll see a new “village idiot” inspired domain name popping up in the days to come, given Liar.co.uk now redirects to Boris Johnson’s Wikipedia page…