Beth Rigby has revealed how she decided on a “narrative” before quizzing the Labour and Tory leaders at Sky News’s special event – and how a morning run almost scuppered everything.
Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak took turns for a 45-minute grilling at Sky News’ Battle For Number 10 in Grimsby, with questions coming from a representative audience.
First to interrogate both leaders was political editor Rigby, who has lifted the lid on what it’s like to prepare, execute (and almost miss) the big event.
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“Kay Burley told me when I first came into telly ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’,” she told former Labour MP Margaret Hodge on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“So, I took these two mottos into this very intense interview prep… you get loads of information and you start to try and work out what’s the narrative that you want to tell.”
The secret, she said, is to look at everything and then “distill it” until you have a clear “narrative arc”.
“With Starmer, the thing really was – how can you trust this guy? That was the premise,” she said.
“But for Sunak, it was like, you say you’ve got a clear plan, you say you’re going to deliver… so, what’s the Conservative record? But more importantly, what’s your record?
“Because you’ve actually been prime minister. You made five pledges, and then there was a broader question about what were the betrayals to the British people.”
Beth Rigby in action
Read more:
How the Sky News event unfolded online
What we learnt at leaders’ event
But disaster almost struck before the event had even started.
“The night before, I woke up at, like, five in the morning, fully awake,” she said, adding she could “feel the adrenaline”.
So, she decided to go for a run.
“I just saw I’m coming to the end of the road. And I went to turn round, and, as I turned, I nearly ran into a moving car. So, I nearly got run over,” she explained.
Not the kind of car crash anyone would have expected that day.
Email the team electoraldysfunction@sky.uk, post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.