LIZ Truss has snubbed the BBC by pulling out of an interview with veteran political journalist Nick Robinson.
The Tory leadership frontrunner’s team said she could “no longer spare the time” to take part in the one-to-one interview, which was scheduled for 7pm on Tuesday on BBC One, BBC News tweeted on Monday.
“We regret that it has not been possible to do an in-depth interview with both candidates despite having reached agreement to do so,” the press team said in a second tweet.
Truss’s rival in the race for No 10, Rishi Sunak, sat down with Robinson earlier this month.
Robinson said he was "disappointed and frustrated" that the interview had been cancelled.
Meanwhile a source for Sunak's campaign told the Huffington Post: "It's important that candidates face proper scrutiny ... avoiding that scrutiny suggests either Truss doesn’t have a plan at all or the plan she has falls far short of the challenges we face this winter.”
With bills rising, a recession expected and inflation skyrocketing, commentators suggested Truss should have joined the one-to-one as a chance to speak to people most concerned about how they'll get through this winter.
Top solicitor Nazir Afzal wrote: "Truss could have given the nation reassurance at a time of great crisis & anxiety, but chose to run & hide."
Labour MP Justin Madders added: "Looks like she’s hiding in the same fridge Johnson did- if she’s dodging scrutiny before she’s even got the job what’s she going to be like when she’s actually in it?"
Communications analyst Arieh Kovler suggested the move was "bad politics".
"Sure, she's unassailable in the Tory race so she doesn't need to do interviews," he tweeted. "But why antagonise the media and get a reputation as a bit of a coward? If you can't lose, what's to lose?"
Truss's decision comes just over a week after she successfully sidestepped a question about a controversial report she co-authored in 2009 by mocking the BBC’s journalistic standards.
During a hustings event in Manchester, Alastair Stewart quizzed her on a pamphlet which she co-wrote when she was deputy director of the Reform think tank. He corrected himself when he misread the date of publication.
Truss laughed and said: “I always thought you had high-quality standards at GB News.”
He insisted: “We do, we do”
Truss replied: “It’s not the BBC, you actually get your facts right.”
The candidates will go head-to-head again in the final official hustings of the Tory leadership race on Wednesday.
The ballot of Conservative Party members closes on Friday, with the winner to be announced on September 5.
