The ‘Empty Chair’: Neil vs Boris Johnson, December 2019
Neil delivered a direct interview challenge to Boris Johnson during the 2019 General Election, telling him it was ‘not too late’ to accept his invitation to chat before the poll.
Mr Johnson had refused to be interviewed by Neil, who had spoken with Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and the Lib Dems’ Jo Swinson.
During an ’empty chair’ moment, Neil said: ‘There is of course still one to be done, Boris Johnson. We have been asking him for weeks now to give us a date, a time, a venue. As of now, none has been forthcoming.’
‘It is not too late. We have an interview prepared. Oven-ready, as Mr Johnson likes to say. The theme running through our questions is trust – and why at so many times in his career, in politics and journalism, critics and sometimes even those close to him have deemed him to be untrustworthy.
‘It is, of course, relevant to what he is promising us all now.’
Neil vs Ben Shapiro: May 2019
Neil clashed with US conservative commentator Ben Shapiro on the BBC’s Politics Live last year.
Shapiro was subjected to a tough interview by Neil about previous remarks he had made, including ‘Israelis like to build, Arabs like to bomb crap’ and his support for new abortion laws in Georgia.
The American, formerly of Breitbart, then accused Neil of bias and suggested abortions after more than six weeks of pregnancy were brutal.
‘You purport to be an objective journalist,’ Shapiro said. ‘The BBC purports to be an objective, down-the-middle network. It obviously is not, it never has been, and you as a journalist are proceeding to call one side of the political aisle ignorant, barbaric and sending us back to the dark ages.’
Shapiro later said that he had been ‘destroyed’ by Neil in the interview.
Neil vs Owen Jones: January 2019
Neil and commentator Owen Jones clashed in a row during the broadcast of the This Week programme.
The row was sparked after Jones made a film about far-Right protestors who harassed him and other journalists.
During the debate, Jones raised Neil’s work outside his role at the BBC as chairman of the Press Holdings media group which publishes the weekly magazine The Spectator.
As the debate drew to a close Jones claimed the editorial line of The Spectator and other papers legitimised some far-Right views, provoking an angry response from Neil.
Neil told Jones: ‘Your smears and lies about me are not going to be dealt with tonight so just move off it.’