Presenter Alex Phillips had enough of Labour’s Sebastian Salek.
Alex Phillips lost it live on air (Image: TalkTV)
Former Labour councillor Sebastian Salek was thrown off TalkTV in a heated clash with presenter Alex Phillips, who fumed, “I give up!” The pair were arguing over undercover footage obtained by ITV, which caught Reform UK councillors using sexist and racist language; as Salek tried to talk about the incident, Phillips asked if Labour would come out “smelling of roses” if a similar investigation was carried out in the ruling party. Salek, however, refused to answer the “hypothetical question”, leaving Phillips fuming. He insisted she was “deflecting”, as Phillips erupted: “I’m not deflecting! I’m asking you, as someone talking about the Labour Party right now, as a former Labour councillor-“
Salek cut her off to fume: “This isn’t about the Labour Party. This is about Reform!”
Phillips put to him: “If there were to be an undercover investigation into councils and councillors of the Labour Party, up and down the country, specifically looking at involvement, say, with grooming gangs and whether there should be a national inquiry, do you think Labour would come out of that smelling of roses?”
Salek replied: “You’re asking a hypothetical question, so I can’t possibly answer that. The evidence we have in front of us is that there are members of Reform who have been democratically elected, who are saying things that have shaken me, and I hope they’ve shaken you as well. You can’t feel comfortable with what you’ve seen coming out of that, surely?”
Phillips clarified: “I’m not saying I do feel comfortable, but I’m asking you as a former Labour councillor. Look, I’m just a journalist asking you a question. You are a former Labour councillor.”
She went on to repeat: “I am asking you, if undercover scrutiny for an entire year was placed upon Labour Party councillors and tough questions were asked about the grooming gangs, do you think that Labour would come out smelling of roses?”
The pair butted heads (Image: TalkTV)
Salek gritted out: “Again, Alex, you’re asking me a hypothetical question about something that has not happened-“
He was cut off again as Phillips said: “Yes and I want you to answer the hypothetical question!”
Salek said: “I can’t give you an answer because it has not happened! Let’s talk about things that have happened, which is that somebody has investigated Reform-“
Phillips told him: “I get to decide what we talk about on this show, and I’m going to ask you the question again, because you seem to not want to answer it.”
Salek replied: “No, because I think it’s a bad question,” as Phillips said: “I’m afraid you don’t get to choose good or bad questions. Okay, let me rephrase it and make it simple. Sebastian Salek, are Labour councillors perfect people who have never said barbed things?”
Salek said: “There are no perfect people in this world, Alex, and you know that. I’m not sure what you’re getting out of asking that.”
Phillips then repeated the question again: “Do you think if there was an undercover investigation into Labour councillors people would get stuff on film, during the course of a year, that would be very embarrassing to the party?”
But as Salek started to say: “Once again you’re asking me a hypothetical question that I can’t answer-“ she cut him off and ended the interview, severing the video feed.
Phillips erupted: “Oh, do you know, Sebastian, I give up. I give up. I can’t be bothered talking to you because you don’t want to answer the question, so forget it. Forget it. Wasting my time, aren’t I? He knows that there is no way if you recorded under the same circumstances…
“I’m not saying the things that were said by Reform councillors aren’t embarrassing, but I’m very disturbed by things going on in the Green Party.
“I’m fairly certain we’ve got big questions to ask about how much people involved with the Labour Party knew about what was going on in their constituencies about grooming gangs. I want to know about what Conservative councillors know.
“I want to know the legacy parties especially, who have been in power for decades, who might have business affiliations who seem to have overlooked some of the greater scandals happening in our constituencies, because those two parties have actually been in power!”