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Rishi Sunak has faced backlash for responding to a query about the timing of a general election with a dismissive laugh.
The prime minister went on a media tour of radio stations in the North East this morning ahead of the upcoming local elections next month.
But during an interview with presenter Amy Oakden on BBC Radio Tees, the PM was asked about the timing of a general election, to which he responded with a burst of fake laughter.
Sunak mentioned that he had ‘answered that question many times in the last few weeks’ and was ‘unfortunately not’ able to disclose the precise date to local radio, but was pressed by the presenter about his awkward reaction.
Oakden asked Sunak: ‘Why is that funny? Sorry. Why are you laughing about that?’
The prime minister said he’d been chuckling ‘because there’s a way that we’d announce general elections and it would be done in the formal and official way.’
Sunak previously confirmed that an election would take place at some point in the second half of the year, with British electoral law stating he must call one no later than January 28, 2025.
In a later interview on BBC Radio Newcastle, the PM confirmed there had been ‘no change’ in his position after being challenged by the host about his previous bout of laughter.
Rishi Sunak has a tendency to nervously laugh when deflecting pointed questions, which could be perceived as either a nervous habit or an attempt to disarm interviewers.
During a meeting with senior MPs at the Liaison Committee on March 27, Sunak again tried to divert attention from questions when Tory MP William Wragg asked the prime minister to respond to his predecessor Liz Truss’s claims that her premiership had been undermined by the ‘deep state’.
‘I think that’s a question for her rather than me,’ he said while chuckling humorlessly, before weakly joking ‘I wouldn’t tell you if I was would I?’ when pressed on the subject by Wragg.
In January, the prime minister also faced criticism for chuckling at a member of the public when she confronted him over the ongoing rail and NHS strikes.
‘You could stop it all,’ the woman told Sunak when he quoted statistics to her about NHS waiting times. ‘You could make it all go back to how it used to be.’
Sunak responded by laughing at the claim, and when the woman followed up by speaking about her daughter’s seven-hour wait in A&E, once again chuckled nervously before attempting to turn his back on her and walk away.
Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats’ local government spokesperson, said: ‘Rishi Sunak laughing in the face of people crying out for change is the perfect example of how careless, callous and chaotic this Conservative party is.
‘While Sunak clings on it’s obvious that people up and down the country are demanding he and this rabble stop hunkering in their offices.’
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