‘Radio Rishi’ was a masterclass in how not to do an election phone-in

Tetchy towards callers and unconvincing in his responses, the prime minister gave the performance of a politician resigned to defeat, writes John Rentoul

Rishi Sunak told presenter Nick Ferrari during his LBC election phone-in: ‘You’re sighing – but what do you expect me to say?’ (LBC)

After four bruising weeks of a six-week election campaign, it seemed to be dawning on the prime minister during this morning’s hour-long radio phone-in that a lot of people dislike him. He tried to sound upbeat and sympathetic to the complaints about how hard life is in Tory Britain – but there was an air of resignation about several of his answers.

“I’m sorry you feel like that,” he said more than once to callers who were cross about his record. “I don’t suppose I will persuade you otherwise.”

Towards the end of the phone-in – presented by Nick Ferrari on LBC – Rishi Sunak said: “We are almost done with this interview and we haven’t talked about migration or security.” Ferrari immediately put Rachel from Bexley through, who wanted to complain that the Rwanda deportation scheme was a waste of money. Sunak wasn’t able to convince her, either.