Trevor Phillips called out all senior representatives of the Conservative parliamentary party for refusing to go on his Sky News programme this morning.
Days after the Tories were humiliated in the general election, securing just 121 seats in parliament amid a Labour landslide, it seems its remaining MPs are hiding from the spotlight.
Speaking to his guest, the former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who chose not to stand in the election, the Sky News presenter noted that not one Tory MP had agreed to speak to him.
He said: “You announced many months ago that you were leaving the House of Commons, but perhaps it’s an indication of how shattering a blow this is for your party that not a single senior serving member of the Conservative parliamentary party would volunteer to speak for the party this morning.
“I don’t think I ever remember being in a situation where no senior person wanted to come on the telly.”
Zahawi just said they were “probably exhausted” after a six-week campaign.
“Nobody is ever too exhausted to take 10 minutes in front of an audience,” the presenter hit back.
Zahawi tried to move the conversation onto former chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s victory in his constituency of Godalming and Ash, but Phillips pointed out that Hunt only just “scraped home” – he won on just 891 votes.
Phillips continued: “It’s striking – OK, Penny Mordaunt’s out [of the Commons], she’s not saying anything.
“All the people who we think of as potential leaders – [Kemi] Badenoch, [Tom] Tugendhat, [Suella] Braverman – are all silent this morning.
“What’s going on?”
Zahawi began: “Well, it is Sunday morning after a bruising...”
Phillips cut in: “With a lot of these people, you have to actually lock the doors to stop them. What’s going on?”
Zahawi said: “I suspect the very senior ones are working out whether they’re going to run or not for leadership, if they are going to run, they’ll be putting their teams together.”
He claimed: “There’s a lot going on,” adding: “I wouldn’t read too much into it why you couldn’t get anyone senior.
“Because, remember, they’ve been fighting their seats, and they’re now having to sit back and think about what they can do next.”