BBC viewers were left with one burning question after the broadcaster announced a major change to the guest line-up.
Laura Kuenssberg announced one major change minutes into her weekend show (Image: BBC)
BBC viewers were left asking the same question after Laura Kuenssberg was forced to issue a last-minute format change minutes into her politics show. On Sunday (January 18), the 49-year-old broadcaster returned to the helm for her weekly politics show, where she welcomed Jeremy Hunt, Lisa Nandy, and Mike Johnson onto the show. But one familiar face notably missing was Nigel Farage, who reportedly felt too “under the weather” to appear on the BBC show.
Laura explained: “Cabinet leader Lisa Nandy is here, and we were expecting Nigel Farage to join us this week, but Reform tells us he is under the weather, so the Deputy Leader of Reform, Richard Tice, set his alarm early at the last minute.” The politician beamed to the camera as he prepared to be quizzed on Donald Trump‘s plans to impose further tariffs and his new colleague, Robert Jenrick, who defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK this week.
It didn’t take long for viewers to flock to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their thoughts on the surprising move online. One user penned: “Nigel Farage has canceled on his own interview. Nothing like avoiding scrutiny.”
Another agreed: “Convenient timing that @Nigel_Farage is under the weather in a week where inevitable scrutiny on Jenrick US tariffs is heading his way on #BBCLauraK. Farage runs in the opposite direction when held to account.”
A third chimed in with: “Ahhh so @Nigel_Farage was too cowardly to turn up this morning on #BBCLauraK in case he had to support Britain against his buddy Trump… He really is pathetic…” Meanwhile, a fourth asked: “So @Nigel_Farage pulled out of @bbclaurak, how would he be if he was prime minister?”
When it was Tice’s turn in the hot seat, Laura wasted no time in quizzing him about Trump’s latest tariff threats to eight allies standing in opposition to his plans to occupy Greenland. He began: “Look, the president is completely wrong. I think we’re all united in both here in the UK but also across all of the other NATO allies.
Richard Tice was grilled on Reform’s stance on Trump’s tariff threats (Image: BBC)
“I think what the president is most worried about is the risk of China, but also Russia, gaining an extra presence in and around Greenland in the same way that he’s concerned about the risk of China in Venezuela. I think that’s what’s primarily on his mind, and he’s correct on that, but the approach and the way that you work with your closest allies is clearly completely wrong.”
Laura then put it to him that some are perceiving this to be “bullying” or “blackmail”, to which Tice insisted: “We are close allies. The point about friendship is you tell someone when you’ve got things right, but you also tell them very clearly when they’ve got it wrong, and on this, the president has got it wrong.
“The objective for protecting Greenland for all NATO allies is correct; the way that he’s going about it is totally wrong.” Laura then pushed the politician on what the government should do about Trump’s threats, to which he replied: “Publicly, you say, ‘You’ve got it wrong’, but privately you negotiate and everything is on the table.
“Whether it’s tariffs, whether it’s trade, whether it’s tech, whether it’s the Chagos bill, there are lots of things that could be on the table. You don’t negotiate in the public eye, in front of the world’s press; we know that doesn’t work very well. Behind the scenes, the president needs to understand that this is the wrong way to go about it. There is a much better way to achieve the objective, which is to protect all of us from a malign Chinese influence.”
