Culture secretary Nadine Dorries was forced to abandon a live TV interview this morning after a dispute broke out off-camera.
The cabinet minister and Boris Johnson ally was speaking to Sky News about the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when she was interrupted by the altercation.
As the dispute unfolded in the background, Dorries told Sky’s Kay Burley: “I’m sorry Kay...I’m afraid we’re going to have to go now.”
She added: “I think the cameraman is in a bit of trouble.”
In the background a man could be heard shouting: “Touch me then? You can’t because they’ll have you arrested for assault.”
Dorries interjected: “He’s not touching you.”
The man responded: “He can’t touch me madam, what do you mean he ain’t touching me? He can’t, I’ll have him arrested in five seconds flat.”
Dorries then told viewers: “The cameraman did not touch him.”
Dorries had been attempting to move Burley’s questions away from the Tory leadership contest and on to the Commonwealth Games when the altercation happened.
But Burley persisted in asking the culture secretary about the race to succeed Johnson as prime minister, which will dominate the summer before the winner is announced on September 5.
The culture secretary said she believed Truss was the right candidate to “pick up the baton” from Johnson, who she said had been brought down by a “coup”.
Dorries said she was “very disappointed” that Johnson resigned, adding: “I thought it was a huge mistake”.
“But what I would say is that, in Liz Truss, we have somebody who has both integrity and loyalty and is able to pick up the baton using those very important qualities to take the country forward,” she said.
And asked how much she blamed Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak for Johnson’s downfall, Dorries replied: ”I don’t want to get into the....as you can see behind me, there are dancers at this early hour in the morning,..”
Pressed again on Sunak’s role in Johnson’s demise, Dorries said: “It is not a secret that things happened that shouldn’t have happened and that Boris Johnson was removed via a coup...”
She added: “I don’t want to talk about the leadership. I want to talk about the really important things that are happening here in Birmingham and the West Midlands and in Wembley on Sunday.
“I’m the Secretary of State for DCMS. This is what my department has been working on — we even have one of our own civil servants competing from my departments in the Commonwealth Games today. For me the next few days I’m not about leadership.”
The Commonwealth Games kick off today in Birmingham and will go until Monday August 8. The event will see athletes from around the Commonwealth of nations compete in sports and medal events for the next 11 days.
The Games has attracted some criticism for its £778m price tag during a cost of living crisis.
Burley asked: “Should we be spending £778 million on a vanity project?”
Dorries hit back: “It’s not a vanity project Kay, come on. This is hugely important.
“Are you saying we shouldn’t have the Commonwealth Games? I think we are proud and honoured to have picked up the baton when it was dropped elsewhere in the world and to continue to run these Commonwealth Games in the amazing way that we have done.
“Everybody here — thousands of people — are extremely proud, including the volunteers behind me right now, extremely proud of what we’re doing.”
