GB News host Eamonn Holmes abruptly ended an interview about celebrity birthdays with contributor Paul Coyte, as his “producer was in his ear” during the show on Wednesday 15 January.
Eammon said his producer was informing him via his earpiece that Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride was “on standby”. The politician was waiting at Westminster to speak with Eamonn and co-host Ellie Costell, causing them to adjust their segment. As Paul continued talking, Eamonn cut him off with the words: “Right my friend we have to go. Our producer is getting very irritated shouting in my ear. Because we’ve got the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Mel Stride waiting on you to finish.”
“It’s not his birthday though is it?” Paul joked before they took a brief break and then went live to Westminster. Eamonn seemed pleased to welcome the MP, confessing he had chuckled at his “Peking Duck” comment in Parliament the day before to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves.
Eamonn Holmes cut Paul Coyte short on GB News (
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(Image: GB News))
“So can I ask why she [Rachel Reeves] chose not to respond herself? The Chancellor, of course, ducked the difficult questions by jetting off to Beijing. I believe that in Labour circles, they are calling it the Peking duck,” he said, referring to her recent trip to China. “I don’t know about the future of Rachel Reeves that’s in the hands of the Prime Minister, but what I do know is that she’s got to get a grip of this economy,” Mr Stride replied.
“We’ve seen growth killed stone dead. We’ve seen the government has taxed the living daylights out of businesses. We have seen, even though inflation has come off a little bit this morning, high inflation above target,” reports the Express.
“And you put all those things together with the moves that there have been in the bond market, and you’ve got an economy that’s in a very precarious situation, and she really needs to get a grip, particularly on how she’s going to start generating growth,” he said.
Eamonn Holmes revealed his producer was “in his ear” (
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(Image: GB News))
Eammon responded to Mr Stride by saying: “She will say, you don’t need me to tell you this, she will say, the economy is in that state because of your previous government. That’s why it’s there, and what your borrowing costs were, and then just look at the situation at the moment. Surely she’s not entirely to blame for what’s going on, because when you bear in mind what’s happening to the global economy as well…I mean, you’re being, dare I say it, a bit mean on her, are you not?”
“On the bond markets, you’re absolutely right, there’s been an increase in bond yields across the country, focused really on the expectations of what might be happening around the US economy and the Trump administration coming in, but we are a distinct outlier, which is much more severe here,” Mr Stride said.
“So the spread in bond yields, for example, on 10 year bonds between ourselves and Germany, is the highest that it’s been in 30 years. And what that means is that there is something more going on than just all bond yields going up across the country.”
“In terms of the inheritance that Rachel Reeves received from us – we had far from stone dead growth that we have at the moment. We had the fastest growth in the G7 we had a near record level of employment. We had a near record low level of unemployment. We’ve seen real wages rising for each of 13 consecutive months.”
“And on inflation…we’ve taken it down from its peak of over 11% down to bang on target at 2% on the day of the general election. So afraid where we are at the moment is to do with the choices, the wrong choices, that this government has taken,” he said.
