David Dimbleby rates Boris Johnson’s government worst in his 82-year lifetime

Asked by Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4’s The Fault Line podcast how he rates the latest Tory government, he explained: “Oh low, very, very low. The lowest. The lowest since I was born in 1938, by far.”

He continued: “It’s a combination of things. Incompetence, inexperience, choosing the wrong people to go into the cabinet, all that. It is not a government one would be proud of, I don’t think.”

Asked how the government could have been elected just 12 months ago, he continued: “I know the current answer which is Brexit and anger in the country and all that, Boris Johnson is a showman, sweeping the country with his 80 majority, I understand all that but why he was chosen?

“It’s difficult isn’t it? I think actually, without Covid it would be a different story.

“I think his style of management, which has clearly been revealed as a way easy going and a lot of allocating, devolving and passing responsibility to other people may work when you are mayor of London and it might have worked when we were leaving the EU and had the focus on the end of the year and the negotiations. But given a serious crisis, I think he wasn’t equipped for that.”

MORE: Bashing the Beeb.. a national sport that could end in disaster?

Annabel Giles tweeted: “I just wish we listened to our more experienced, wiser elders – this fascination with youth is inappropriate, especially during these difficult times.”

Another wrote: “David Dimbleby speaking for so many of us. We have all at times had to adjust to competent governance by politicians we have disagreed with. At the moment we have incompetent governance from the worst cabinet in living memory.”

But Russell Leahy was less forgiving of the former Question Time host’s analysis. He said: “This hypocrite happily interviewed Farage every other week on QT. He should own his part in promoting the right-wing, populist policies that have brought the UK to this point.”