EXCLUSIVE: Laura Kuenssberg red-faced as she’s torn apart by Lucy Powell in brutal BBC dig
Laura Kuenssberg quizzed Lucy Powell on Ed Miliband on her BBC show (Image: BBC)
Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell took a brutal swipe at journalist Laura Kuenssberg when she was asked to spill details on her close ally, Ed Miliband. With less than 24 hours until Andy Burnham takes over to be the next prime minister, there is lots of speculation around who will be his cabinet ministers and the public are particularly interested to find out who will be the new Chancellor.
Speaking on the BBC Laura Kuenssberg show on Sunday morning, Powell was asked to define “authentic Labour” and the changes Burnham will bring in to the new government. She was also asked to share her opinion on Ed Miliband, who is in the hot seat of potentially replacing Rachel Reeves as the new Treasury minister.
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The BBC broadcaster asked: “One of the people who will be very eager to hear what Andy Burnham has to say about those decisions will be Ed Miliband, another close ally of yours, who’s been the energy secretary for the last couple of years.
“Andy Burnham has promised to end factionalism in the Labour party. But there’s been a lot of briefing already, quite a lot of briefing against Ed Miliband. It doesn’t bode very well for Andy Burnham’s big promise of ending that kind of unhappiness and infighting in the party.”
Powell, who sat in her home with the lush green garden in the background, responded: “Look there’s been a lot of speculation in the media about various individuals. It’s been really horrible, to be honest, and unedifying. I know that as political journalists, maybe you have not had the story of the Labour leadership crisis to write about for the past few weeks, because actually I’m really proud of the way in which the Labour party has handled this transition and come together in the consensus around Andy Burnham being the next leader and I think we’ve given a really good account of ourselves over these last few weeks.
Andy Burnham is set to replace Keir Starmer as the next prime minister (Image: Getty)
She continued and took a swipe at Laura: “And maybe because political journalists haven’t had all that to write about, they are looking for other personalities, another disagreements to write about.”
Laura was left red-faced and she quickly defended: “Well journalists write about things they are told.” Some viewers disliked Laura’s handling of questions, as one commented: “For Christ’s sake Laura, if you have got a question to ask then ask it, don’t just blurt out sh***.”
Another added: “Laura desperately trying to get ahead of her media ghoul competitors by dragging revelations out of Lucy Powell before they’re planned to be revealed.”
