This evening I did a 30 minute interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, on my LBC show. It’s the longest radio interview he’s done in the EU Referendum campaign. It was originally scheduled for last Wednesday but he had to reschedule, which was a pity as it was the day he announced his so-called ‘emergency budget’. Unusually for me, I did a lot of preparation for this interview. Normally I like to treat interviews as conversations but with this one I knew I had to be rather more forensic than my normal style. Listen for yourself, but I think it paid off.
George Osborne has a habit of recognising when an interviewer is about to intervene or interrupt. His voice becomes a little louder and he makes sure he gets out what he had intended to say. He’s actually quite easy to interact with and I rather like interviewing him.
For me there were two main newslines to come out of this interview, but it will be interesting to see what gets the press coverage. For me the biggest revelation was that HM Treasury has done absolutely no planning for a Brexit scenario. Nada. Nichts. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. The polls show Leave and Remain neck and neck, yet the government has done no contingency planning at all? Breathtaking. If you just want to hear that part of the interview, click on the link below.
The other comment which I found most interesting was the section about what would happen on Friday morning. He didn’t seem to rule out redundancy notices being issued almost immediately. He clearly expects there to be some immediate job losses. He will be hoping that his own won’t be the first.
