Ian Hislop has been heralded for “obliterating” Conservative Party chair Jake Berry while debating the Tories’ “disgraceful” handling of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
The Have I Got News For You captain appeared on Robert Peston’s ITV show on Wednesday (10 January) alongside Conservative Party chair Jake Berry, with Labour MP Jess Phillips sat in the middle as the pair clashed.
Discussion turned to the handling of the historic Post Office scandal, after prime minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that a new law will be introduced so those wrongly convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting in 1999 are “swiftly exonerated and compensated”.
Hislop asked why the Tories “did nothing the whole time”, and it had taken ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office for change to come. “I mean, it is absolutely fatuous for this government to claim, ‘Hey, we’re really acting now,’” he said.
When Berry claimed that Hislop’s comments were “nonsense”, the Private Eye editor responded: “You talk over everyone else and you’ve been doing it the entire programme.” He then told Berry: “You can’t just talk nonsense and not be interrupted.”
The clip was swiftly shared on Twitter/X, with social media users branding the clip “a joy to watch”.
“Ian Hislop’s anger is our anger…” one commenter wrote. “How dare these Tories try to wash off their own complicity, cronyism and negligence in some eleventh hour, self-congratulatory flurry of concern and compensation for postmasters. That can absolutely f*** off.”
Another tweet read: “Ian Hislop is dead right – there is something hopelessly wrong about the way that politics works in modern Britain, where problems are only addressed after they become front page media scandals.”
Commenting on “Ian Hislop, full-throttle, absolutely shredding Jake Berry on Peston”, another Twitter user wrote: “Hislop doesn’t give an inch and talks at Berry the way Tory MPs hate and just can’t cope with (“You can’t just talk nonsense and not be interrupted!”). Superb.”
“Rules of Engagement Lesson 1: Don’t ever pick a fight with Ian Hislop on matters of miscarriages of justice. He will obliterate you,” one fan wrote.
On Peston, Hislop hit out at the “disgraceful” handling of the scandal. “Why couldn’t you do it so long ago?” he said.
Toby Jones in ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’— (ITV)
“The fact it takes an ITV drama and suddenly, having been told their entire campaigning lives, ‘This is very difficult, you’ll have to go in front of a judge, this is very, very expensive. Oh, this morning it isn’t, tomorrow we’ll pass legislation and you’re all exonerated.’ I mean, it is absolutely fatuous for this government to claim, ‘Hey, we’re really acting now.’ Did nothing, did nothing the whole time.’”
When Berry interjected, claiming Hislop’s comments were “demonstrably untrue”, Hislop asked “Why did you give her a CBE in 2019? Why did you appoint her to the cabinet office?”
His comments come in reference to disgraced former Post Office boss Paula Vennells, who handed back her CBE on Tuesday (9 January) with immediate effect.
Peston told Hislop to “let [Berry] speak”, leading to Berry to call Mr Bates vs the Post Office “that programme which you claim to love so much”, adding that it was “an amazing piece of drama”.
“Why am I ‘claiming’ to love that programme?” Hislop asked. “I did like that programme. You can’t just talk nonsense and not be interrupted.” Peston was then forced to bring the show to a close.
