BBC row as Ben Elton brands Rishi Sunak a 'mendacious narcissistic sociopath' trends now
A left-wing comedian today defended calling Rishi Sunak a 'mendacious, narcissistic sociopath' on the BBC's flagship politics show as the corporation faces a new bias row.
Ben Elton told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the Prime Minister was 'dripping with vanity' after he urged Brits to 'hold your nerve' over interest rate hikes and focus on the 'enemy' of inflation.
Today he claimed 'didn't set out' to insult Mr Sunak and described his comments as a 'personal reaction'. He told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: 'Look, I didn't set out to mug the PM. I was really sad. I went on [the programme] to plug my rail documentary.
'I'm sorry, it was a personal reaction. The BBC didn't know I was going to say it, but then I didn't know they were going to play that word salad and then ask me to comment on it. It just happened. That's live telly.'
Asked whether he should have got so personal in his attack on the PM, Elton said: 'If that's the worst he gets he should read some of my reviews'.
Ben Elton said Rishi Sunak was 'dripping with vanity' after he urged Brits to 'hold your nerve' over interest rate hikes and focus on the 'enemy' of inflation
Elton later defended his attack on Mr Sunak on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast
The incident angered Tory MPs, who insisted the BBC should have anticipated that Elton would stoop to 'personal insults'.
During Sunday's rant, the comedian accused Mr Sunak of delivering an 'extraordinary Orwellian, meaningless, evasive word salad'.
'I sort of believed maybe he's kind of a bit more decent, and it turns out, he's as much of a mendacious, narcissistic sociopath as his previous boss,' he told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
'This man literally, he seemed to be making a principle of the fact that he resigned from a Government that he'd served loyally and tried to keep propped up for numerous years.
'He's trying to boast about having worried about inflation while he was chancellor of the exchequer under Johnson.
'He seems to act as if being born into Downing Street six months ago was a miracle birth.
'No – he was a part of a 13-year cycle which has got us to this point.'
He added: 'He's the Prime Minister. He
