🫣 Andrew Neil dismantles Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds in one of the most embarrassing moments of the year for the Business Secretary. You’d think they’d know better, especially sat next to Andrew Neil — the best political journalist in the country, and better than just about anyone with stats, figures and detail. Reynolds is on @bbcquestiontime boasting about the changes his government has made to get people off benefits and into work. Neil stops him in his tracks: “Hold on. Your own official forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility, under the policies you’ve just talked about, show a relentless rise in the numbers claiming sickness benefit.” Reynolds is already beginning to panic. He doubles down: “But the incentives have been changed. The amount of money you get has been changed.” Neil: “Well it doesn’t matter if the numbers are still rising.” That’s when Reynolds’ brain leaves the building. He says something that makes absolutely no sense given what Neil has just revealed: “People talk about what they would like to do and what they would do with a system they left behind and then didn’t change. That’s the kind of substantial change that actually makes a difference.” Can these politicians actually hear themselves? Does he know what he’s saying in response to what he’s just been told? It’s incredible. Neil is totally baffled by what he’s listening to: “What substantial change have you made if the sickness numbers are still rising?” Reynolds is now just digging in because he’s got nowhere to go: “If you remove the incentive for people to go straight onto that system, rather than being on universal credit…” Neil cuts in with another reality check: “But the OBR forecast takes that policy into account and it still shows the numbers rising year after year after year, as does the bill. So what are you doing to make things better?” Reynolds refuses to acknowledge what Neil is saying and just repeats the same things again. Painful. They really are absolutely clueless. They think they can just deliver the talking points and no one will notice. That doesn’t work when you’re sat next to @afneil. Imagine when they told him the seating plan and he realised who was sitting next to him. 😬😂

🫣 Andrew Neil dismantles Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds in one of the most embarrassing moments of the year for the Business Secretary. You’d think they’d know better, especially sat next to Andrew Neil — the best political journalist in the country, and better than just about anyone with stats, figures and detail. Reynolds is on @bbcquestiontime boasting about the changes his government has made to get people off benefits and into work. Neil stops him in his tracks: “Hold on. Your own official forecasts, the Office for Budget Responsibility, under the policies you’ve just talked about, show a relentless rise in the numbers claiming sickness benefit.” Reynolds is already beginning to panic. He doubles down: “But the incentives have been changed. The amount of money you get has been changed.” Neil: “Well it doesn’t matter if the numbers are still rising.” That’s when Reynolds’ brain leaves the building. He says something that makes absolutely no sense given what Neil has just revealed: “People talk about what they would like to do and what they would do with a system they left behind and then didn’t change. That’s the kind of substantial change that actually makes a difference.” Can these politicians actually hear themselves? Does he know what he’s saying in response to what he’s just been told? It’s incredible. Neil is totally baffled by what he’s listening to: “What substantial change have you made if the sickness numbers are still rising?” Reynolds is now just digging in because he’s got nowhere to go: “If you remove the incentive for people to go straight onto that system, rather than being on universal credit…” Neil cuts in with another reality check: “But the OBR forecast takes that policy into account and it still shows the numbers rising year after year after year, as does the bill. So what are you doing to make things better?” Reynolds refuses to acknowledge what Neil is saying and just repeats the same things again. Painful. They really are absolutely clueless. They think they can just deliver the talking points and no one will notice. That doesn’t work when you’re sat next to @afneil. Imagine when they told him the seating plan and he realised who was sitting next to him. 😬😂

It’s not to hard to see why the Government won’t let @afneil interview any of its ministers on his @TimesRadio show.

🤣 It hasn't quite landed your accent though Andrew!

People at @afneil coconut shy

Andrew I am very much aligned with you on the EU. However starting your series post 20 isn't terribly fair. We had a much bigger crash. Here you are counting the rebound but not the crash itself. Equally on gdp per capita terms we are up to 3x worse off relative to the EU over a similar period.

Fully appreciate that live, unscripted debate is considerably more difficult, and misunderstandings will happen. My concern is simply how the 6.7 million figure can land without context. It includes millions of people who are disabled, seriously ill, or caring for others, and who are not required to look for work. Without that qualification, many viewers will - rightly or wrongly - hear it as 6.7 million people who could work but are simply “swanning around” on benefits. That is the impression I was trying to challenge. I’m sure we both want what is best for the country and for the public finances. That means being careful not just with the figures we cite, but with what those figures actually represent.

I mean wow. Troops engaged in gun battles with the enemy every night and every day. Night after night. Week after week. Month after month (sometimes for years). Some people fail to realise that we sleep safely in our beds at night because these men and woman are constantly engaged in preventing attacks against this country. We should be focused on the sacrifices and their service not whether they swear at each other. We definitely shouldn’t compare their extraordinary roll to other professions.⬇️

Labour MP and UK Business and Trade Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, on BBC Question Time last night: "The deal we had [with the EU] has gone. We're never gonna get what we had before with our own currency and being outside Schengen" So Labour admit that rejoin is not possible.

Andrew Neil’s Brexit reality check on BBC Question Time. In a nutshell: Rejoiners are ignoring the huge political wind of change sweeping Europe and the UK v Germany/ France/ Italy growth rates make a nonsense of their Mickey Mouse economic arguments too. #bbcqt

I didn’t say or imply 6.7m people were workshy. I was very careful what I said last night and the words I used. Don’t put words I didn’t use in my mouth.

Fair correction, you didn’t use the word “workshy”, and I shouldn’t have attributed that implication to you. Apologies. My point is about what the 6.7 million figure conveys without context. Around 4.6 million of those claimants have no requirement to look for work, largely because of illness, disability or caring responsibilities. If you were careful with your words, surely that distinction is worth making just as carefully on air?

Andrew Neil’s Brexit reality check on BBC Question Time. In a nutshell: Rejoiners are ignoring the huge political wind of change sweeping Europe and the UK v Germany/ France/ Italy growth rates make a nonsense of their Mickey Mouse economic arguments too. #bbcqt