According to an article online by Claire Anderson, the headline states ‘Out of his remit!’ Sadiq Khan slammed for criticising Boris Johnson on NI hike. Now of course the Daily Express may wish to criticise Sadiq Khan for a range of decisions or statements that he makes. They may also wish to support Boris Johnson and perhaps they even support the idea of increasing the National Insurance costs in the UK. In which case they need to explain why increasing the NI will be a good thing for the UK. However this article was deeply weird. So they begin by stating

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said Boris Johnson has got it “completely wrong” and suggested the plans could spark an “inter-generational clash”. Plans for a new UK-wide 1.25 percent health and social care levy will also enable “radical innovation” in the health service, Mr Johnson said. But Mr Khan told GB News:

I think the Prime Minister has got this completely wrong. All of us share the need for there to be a properly funded social care system that supports our population who are living longer, thankfully because of the advances in science. What it’s not fair to do is to make those who earn the least in proportionate terms, pay the most.

The article carries on with a number of more comments from Sadiq Khan all of which sound very credible and would certainly justify a very different headline. However they then state

GB News viewers were quick to lash out at Mr Khan’s comments as one suggested he was speaking “out of his remit”.

It would be interesting to find out which of the GB News viewers made that statement. Clearly the GB News viewers are likely to be opposed to many people but to slam a political leader based on one single comment is strange. Particularly as such a position from any person is not out of their remit. Anyone of us can be opposed or in favour of the NI change. Indeed anyone of us can be in favour of Kadiq or opposed to him. But for a newspaper to promote that one personal view that this was out of his remit seems very strange to me. Perhaps Claire could explain why the Mayor of London is not able to comment on tax or indeed why people on GB News are entitled to make statements that get promoted onto the newspaper that is supposed to be a newspaper.