Iain Hits Back At People Saying He’s Unfair To Corbyn
21 April 2017, 17:17 | Updated: 21 April 2017, 17:21
When one listener accused Iain Dale of having a dig at Jeremy Corbyn he didn’t hold back in explaining he’s doing exactly what the media is supposed to do.
"What am I supposed to do in an election campaign? Am I supposed to just say 'all politicians are wonderful' and not hold them to account for what they say?"
Iain’s response to a listener's criticism was in relation to questions Iain had about Labour’s pledge to reduce class sizes.
"If you make a speech and you criticise the number of kids in the class and then you don't actually say what you're going to do about it, yeah, sure I'm going to have a dig, because I think that it is not good politics."
He explained that while Corbyn’s pledged desire is fine, not giving any details of how it’s going to be achieved is not.
“We can all identify the solutions, we can all identify things that we'd like to see, the land flowing with milk and honey.
“I’d love to see class sizes down to 20, but unfortunately I haven't got a magic money tree, Jeremy Corbyn hasn't got a magic money tree, and I want to know how he's going to pay for it."
Iain made clear his criticism wasn’t motivated by any sort of party bias, but instead by a simple desire to know what is being sold to the electorate.
“Mr Corbyn, I want to know what size of class you think is appropriate and I want to know where the money is coming from to pay for it.
“If you're going to tax me more, I'd like to know that. If you're going to borrow more, I'd quite like to know that as well.
“So don't just come out with speeches where you say what you think people want to hear, because you will be held to account for that.”
Iain finished by explaining he would continue asking questions of politicians, because that’s his job.
“The electorate, and indeed the media on behalf of the electorate, try to hold politicians to account. And that's what you're going to get for the next seven weeks, certainly on the show.”
