Liz Truss’ disastrous interviews prove the importance of local radio

Liz Truss, on her 24th day as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, sat in a room awaiting her first of eight interviews with regional radio stations.

It had been six days since her chancellorship Quasi Quarteng announced a “mini-budget” and it was the first time she has spoken publicly since then.

The pound fell, interest rates skyrocketed and the UK was plunged into the depths of despair.

Perhaps she could use this opportunity as a warm-up for upcoming national appearances, where she is bound to face a grilling. Perhaps he thought he could avoid the intense scrutiny. Maybe she thought it would be a walk in the park.

There was quite a bit of online snobbery the night before from political commentators tweeting about the easy ride Truss would face at the hands of the regional hosts.

How wrong they were.

The interviews instantly went viral as the hosts kept Truss on his toes in one of the most remarkable media rounds I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending.

They had about five minutes with the Prime Minister, much like a GP who gets just one short appointment to reach a conclusion about their patient’s health through an expertly curated series of questions and answers.

The co-morbidities of the Truss government were discussed at the table. The diagnosis? Dark. According to polls, this may turn out to be extreme.

Her interview with BBC Radio Leeds breakfast presenter Rima Ahmed opened with a heartfelt: “Did you sleep well?” Like a martial artist bowing to his opponent before landing a punch to the jugular bone, Ahmed went on to list the disastrous consequences of Truss’s fiscal plans before asking Truss why she had remained silent for so long.

“Where have you been?” Rima asked in her wonderfully straight Yorkshire accent.

All too often, strong regional accents are underrepresented in the lobbying journalists and national broadcasters who confront the cabinet more regularly. We are used to hearing northern voices in voicemails and human interest stories as victims of the cost of living crisis, but rarely as voices seeking direct accountability from the Prime Minister.

Regional broadcasters know their audience better than national broadcasters. They know what is most important to local people. They also know they don’t need to keep the No 10 press cute with an easy interview to ensure the Prime Minister returns for a future on-air segment.

Another presenter asked Truss questions from his listeners, including “What on earth were you thinking?” and “You should be ashamed of yourself for what you’ve done. Are you?’. The silence before her possibly scripted, evasive answers was deafening. You can hear a pin drop louder than a pound.

UK regional radio stations are disappearing at an alarming rate. Local radio stations and license areas are being consolidated into larger geographical areas, meaning news and entertainment reporting is losing its individuality to appeal to a larger audience.

In 2020, my beloved Radio Wave 96.5, the local radio station in my home town of Blackpool, closed as it merged with the Greatest Hits Radio network. BBC Radio Lancashire’s Blackpool and Lancaster offices also closed that year.

This left a gaping hole in the local community and I personally mourned the loss of radio jingle earworms promoting local businesses such as Terry’s Carpets, C-Cabs and Fylde Soft Drinks. REST IN PEACE.

Local radio gives voice to local people and covers neighborhood issues that would otherwise be relegated to the bottom of the pile of stories for national coverage.

Fracking has been a very personal and contentious issue in Blackpool for many years. Many will have read stories about the dangers of fracking in the news, but with the only hydraulic fracturing site in the UK successfully producing shale rock, the people of Lancashire know this first hand.

In 2011, 57 fracking-related earthquakes were detected in a five-month period in Lancashire.

Shortly after, I spoke to a man whose wife is buried in the same cemetery as my grandfather. He was very worried about fracking – terrified that earthquakes would cause his wife’s body to be dug up and that he couldn’t afford the emotional or financial cost of burying her a second time.

Anyone who has taken the time to speak to local residents will know that many of us are not in favor of lifting the ban on fracking, but Liz Truss yesterday refused to rule out fracking for good on BBC Radio Lancashire.

While she insisted that fracking would only take place with the consent of the local community, when pressed by the host, she refused to accept that the local community had already spoken out, that local councils had made up their minds and some of her Tory MPs were were against changing the plan.

“Why can’t you tell us this morning that there will be no return to fracking in Lancashire?” he asked.

Trot stopped for a moment in silence. Perhaps the dead air was a foreshadowing of her career as prime minister.

“I don’t accept the premise of your question,” she replied. Well, many do not accept the premise of her politics.

As the weeks go by and the cost of living crisis continues and predictions of an energy crisis become an unprecedented reality, we’re no longer listening to the news, we’re living it.

Our concerns and communities must not be merged and forgotten in a national agenda.

That’s why it’s more important than ever to have local journalists, local broadcasters and local news stations delivering the stories that matter most to people living nearby.

Liz Truss may have underestimated the power of local radio, but she did so at her peril.

Have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.

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