Given George Osborne’s fondness for bemoaning those “sleeping off a life on benefits” there was amusement yesterday when it emerged that his former chief of staff, Matthew Hancock (read Rafael’s profile of him here), missed an interview on ITV’s Daybreak after he overslept. Hancock, who was due to discuss a new apprenticeship scheme for unemployed youths, was reportedly still in bed when his car arrived. The repentant Conservative MP wrote on Twitter: “I got 2 tv studio at 6:41 this am so missed 6:40 slot. You’ve got to be on time for work or there r consequences. I’ll learn from my example”.
But this morning Daybreak presenter Matt Barbet accused the skills minister of “spinning” and talking “nonsense”. In a tweet addressed to the MP, he wrote: “Appreciate admission about missing us on @daybreak. Everyone oversleeps – but you know you were much more than a minute late.”
He later added: “A minute after the interview starts is around 20-30 minutes later than when he should’ve been in the building preparing.
“Spinning it as if he was stopped from going on-air having just missed the time slot is nonsense.”
We await confirmation as to whether Hancock’s blinds were down this morning.
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