Election: Is Paxman Past It? The Surprise Debate Loser

The sole pseudo-debate of the election campaign between Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May has left one player looking tired and past it, and the biggest surprise was the identity of that loser – Jeremy Paxman.

The veteran TV interrogator did so poorly in the Sky TV-Channel 4 debate that even Nigel Farage, who is not exactly a fan of Labour foe Corbyn, suggested in a tweet that Paxman had made Corbyn look good. “I may not agree with @jeremycorbyn but he came across as being totally sincere. Paxman didn’t score any goals,” said UKIP’s number one media tart.

In fact Paxman’s over-scripted bluster seemed like vaudeville, with an actor parodying the traits of the Paxman of old, the one who used to monster evasive politicians to the amusement and enlightenment of his audiences. Since leaving BBC’s Newsnight three years ago for the occasional appearance on Channel 4 Paxman has been all bravado and little enlightenment, and that style allowed Corbyn and May to get off easily in the supposed highlight of the TV campaign.

Corbyn handled himself nicely when Paxman kept interrupting him, staying calm and reasonable while Paxman simply looked silly with his confected outrage and repetition of screamingly obvious questions. It is supposed to be the interviewee or “talent” who comes across as over-scripted and robotic in the face of a sensible and persistent questioner but those roles were reversed. The TV producers have convinced Paxman that he is the real “talent”, so instead of listening to the politicians’s answers and acutely dissecting them Paxman stuck to his over-rehearsed written questions with more theatrical flourish than insight.

Paxman was similarly unsuccessful in his “all thunder and no light” questioning of Theresa May but the Prime Minister was wooden and flat-footed enough in the one-on-one session with Paxman and the earlier questioning by a studio audience to show just why the Tory campaign chief Lynton Crosby has banned her from taking part in any real head-to-head debates with Corbyn and the other party leaders.

Forget the election campaign and the futures of May and Corbyn, the big question now is whether Jeremy’s credibility can ever recover from that performance. The 67-year-old has long been Britain’s most famous political interviewer-cum-interrogator. His 25 years on Newsnight made him a legend for pulling no punches and throwing politicians into panic with his dogged questioning.

In his 1997 interview with then Home Secretary Michael Howard, Paxman asked the same question 12 times as Howard continued to avoid answering. His 2012 interview with junior treasury minister Chloe Smith was like watching a Rottweiler rip apart a baby lamb. He’s taken on Blair, Simon Hughes, William Hague and a generation of political figures, often making them look pint-sized with his scrutiny.

Needless to say the nation had high hopes that the king of awkward TV silences would put Corbyn and May through their paces. We could not have been more wrong.

In a strange 180, it was Paxman’s interrogation that seemed practiced rather than the politician’s answers and nothing he said managed to truly unsettle either leader. There were times it felt more like play-acting rather than an intelligent grilling. Paxman got one laugh as he brandished the Labour manifesto moaning “I had to read it”, at which point Corbyn deadpanned: “I had to write it”.

Manifesto still in hand, Paxman asked “There’s nothing in this manifesto about getting rid of the monarchy, which is another thing you believe in isn’t it?”. Corbyn’s reply was simply “Look there’s nothing in there because we’re not going to do it”, eliciting laughter from the audience. Twitter responded (below) by mocking Paxman’s questioning about Corbyn’s “core beliefs”. This interview seemed more Graham Norton than Jeremy Paxman.

If anything the audience did a far better job of holding the leaders to account and making them uncomfortable. May was left speechlessly grasping for answers once or twice and was laughed at while answering questions and heckled as she spoke about school funding cuts.

One audience member mouthing “bollocks” as the PM spoke about the NHS has become an instant meme.

by Jo Davey

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