Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell took a brutal swipe at journalist Laura Kuenssberg during an interview on the BBC's Sunday morning show, calling recent media speculation about Ed Miliband's potential cabinet role 'horrible' and 'unedifying'.
Powell defends Labour transition
With less than 24 hours until Andy Burnham is set to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister, Powell was asked to define 'authentic Labour' and discuss changes Burnham will bring. Kuenssberg pressed Powell on Ed Miliband, who is in line to potentially replace Rachel Reeves as Treasury minister.
Kuenssberg said: 'One of the people who will be very eager to hear what Andy Burnham has to say about those decisions will be Ed Miliband, another close ally of yours, who's been the energy secretary for the last couple of years. Andy Burnham has promised to end factionalism in the Labour party. But there's been a lot of briefing already, quite a lot of briefing against Ed Miliband. It doesn't bode very well for Andy Burnham's big promise of ending that kind of unhappiness and infighting in the party.'
Powell hits back
Powell, speaking from her home with a lush green garden in the background, responded: 'Look there's been a lot of speculation in the media about various individuals. It's been really horrible, to be honest, and unedifying. I know that as political journalists, maybe you have not had the story of the Labour leadership crisis to write about for the past few weeks, because actually I'm really proud of the way in which the Labour party has handled this transition and come together in the consensus around Andy Burnham being the next leader and I think we've given a really good account of ourselves over these last few weeks.'
She continued with a direct swipe at Kuenssberg: 'And maybe because political journalists haven't had all that to write about, they are looking for other personalities, another disagreements to write about.'
Kuenssberg defends
Kuenssberg, left red-faced, quickly defended: 'Well journalists write about things they are told.' Some viewers criticised Kuenssberg's handling of the interview. One commented: 'For Christ's sake Laura, if you have got a question to ask then ask it, don't just blurt out s***.' Another added: 'Laura desperately trying to get ahead of her media ghoul competitors by dragging revelations out of Lucy Powell before they're planned to be revealed.'
