‘THREE WORDS… AND SHE WAS DONE’ — BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Leaves Shabana Mahmood Floundering as a Brutal On-Air Put-Down Stops the Stuttering Interview in Its Tracks

Laura K

Laura Kuenssberg skewered the home secretary (Image: BBC)

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood appeared on BBC programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg to discuss her strategy for halving violence against women and girls within a decade. But with just three words, she found herself stuttering as anchor Kuenssberg cut across her evasive response, leaving Mahmood tense.

During the segment, Kuenssberg asked: “One of the things you are talking about trying to do, though, is change the culture and stop young men and boys becoming offenders in the first place. Now, lots of schools already teach kids about safety and consent, what’s actually going to change? What’s going to be different?”

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Mahmood tried to say: “Well, I won’t get ahead of future announcements in the next few days on the prevention side of the strategy-“

She was cut off as Kuenssberg said: “You’ve come here this morning to tell us about your whole strategy, so people wanna know.”

Those three words – “people wanna know” – had Mahmood on edge as she stumbled on her words, replying: “No, no, no, and I- I’m talking particularly today about the changes we’re going to make and the way we look at perpetrators and the criminal justice system, which I think you’d expect from the home secretary.”

Cabinet Meeting in Downing Street in London

Mahmood wants to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade (Image: Getty)

She went on: “We particularly recognise the role that education around healthy relationships can have, particularly for young boys. We want to make sure teachers and parents have the tools that they need to try and make sure we are collectively, as a society, raising young boys with a good understanding of healthy relationships.”

It comes after the announcement that specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams will be introduced to every English and Welsh police force by 2029, including funding for undercover online units.