Mansfield MP Ben Bradley tells TV's Krishnan Guru-Murthy to 'grow up' in Brexit row

A TV interview turned sour yesterday, as Channel Four broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mansfield MP Ben Bradley about his changing stance on Brexit.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.

Introducing Mr Bradley, Mr Guru-Murthy said: "Conservative MP Ben Bradley is in the House of Commons.

"He voted to remain, then became a Brexiteer, then voted against the deal, then voted for the deal, then said he'd struggle to back the deal again, but now says he will back the deal.

"Ben Bradley, why do you get to change your mind?"

Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy grilled Mr Bradley about changing his mind on Brexit.
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However, Mr Bradley responded that he hadn't changed his mind, and that he voted remain in the 2016 referendum.

He added: "What you've laid out there is a series of votes that are trying to achieve the same option.

"The thing I've being doing since day one is to get us out on a date that we promised.

"Back in January we had the time and political capital to go back and seek further improvement."

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"Now it's come to the point where we don't have the time and capital, which means that the deal is the same, but actually the circumstances surrounding it are very different.

"My intention in terms of voting for the deal the second time around is to get us out on the 29th March, and if more colleagues had done the same, we might have achieved that."

Mr Guru-Murthy then asked if Mr Bradley was in favour of Brexit, to which he responded: "Yes I am in favour of Brexit - I voted to remain in the referendum as a 'better the devil you know' scenario. I've never been pro-European and it was pretty clear that leaving was going to be tough.

"I've consistently voted to leave at the first possible opportunity."

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Mr Guru-Murthy then challenged Mr Bradley further, saying: "The point is, you get to change your mind, and you don't want anybody else to get the chance to change their mind."

Mr Bradley responded that the idea that a second referendum would be any more straightforward or better than the first, was "just not reality".

"There's no point asking the question again, if we haven't delivered the first time" he added.

After the interview, Mr Guru-Murthy tweeted: "Meet Conservative MP Ben Bradley: He voted Remain then became a Brexiteer then voted against the deal then voted for the deal then said he’d struggle to back the deal again then said he would back the deal. But you should not get another vote."

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Mr Bradley, however, defended his comments, responding: "You set out for a fight from the first sentence, put out this predetermined narrative that bears no resemblance to anything that I said, attacked my character and then talked over my responses. You're supposed to be a public service broadcaster, not a clickbaiter! #growup"

Broadcaster Jeremy Vine later tweeted about the interview, saying 'Now that's an intro".

The tweet, which was sent at 8.33 this morning (March 27), reached 2,705 retweets and 9,215 likes within two hours.