‘Things Can Only Get Wetter’: GMB Hosts Muse ‘Amateur’ Optics Of Rishi Sunak’s Rain-Soaked Election Launch

Good Morning Britain pundits mused at the “amateur hour” optics of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Wednesday evening general election announcement outside Downing Street as a heavy shower of rain fell on him and protestors loudly played 1997 Labour election anthem Things Can Only Get Better from afar.

The event drew mixed reactions as the country and media, less concerned about the what Sunak had to say, stopped to ask: “Why doesn’t he have an umbrella?”

“Whose choice to be outside with no protection, knowing that [Stop Brexit activist] Steve Bray has his speaker and playlist on standby, drowning him out with Things Can Only Get Better?” host Susanna Reid began.

GB News host and Daily Mail contributor Andrew Pierce agreed: “Giving everybody the excuse to write [headlines like] ‘Things Can Only Get Wetter.’

Adding her take, former political advisor to Labour and journalist Baroness Ayesha Hazarika offered more headlines: “Exactly, and ‘Drowning Streets’ and ‘Drowning Out.’”

She continued: “I mean, to be honest, I feel like this launch was a metaphor for how the Conservatives have governed the country for the last 14 years. It was just an absolute… It was amateur hour. And Andrew and I can both agree with that, you know, having worked around politics. There is a state-of-the-art TV studio inside Downing Street.”

Pierce added: “It cost the taxpayer £4 million.”

Baroness Hazaika said: “I mean, it was completely ludicrous, completely ludicrous. I know we talk about seizing the moment. I wish he’d seized an umbrella… Nobody’s actually talking about the election. The chat going around the country is: ‘Why didn’t he have an umbrella?’”

The host pressed: “Why didn’t he, Andrew? I mean, who is running the comms and thought that this was a good option?”

Pierce suggested: “It was a decision, ‘do I hold the umbrella myself or do I have somebody hold the umbrella for me, which makes me look a little bit…’”

GMB co-host Richard Madeley offered: “A bit patrician.”

Pierce agreed: “Exactly. So that would have been the debate. But he should have just done it inside. Or, later on, he was at the ExCeL [exhibition centre in London] where he talked… He made a speech to [launch the Tory election campaign]… Could have done it there.”

Madeley presented a different perspective, suggesting some Tory commentators viewed the move as showing “spirit and defiance.” However, Pierce remained sceptical, noting: “Yes but the headlines would continue out being ‘What a drip.’”

Baroness Hazarika concluded: “And you know what? That launch and those headlines will be studied for years in PR schools, in political classes for all the wrong reasons… Look, an optic is so important in politics. When you launch a campaign, a picture, you know, says a thousand words, you want to get your campaign launch off to the best possible start, and that’s what everyone is talking about.”

Watch above on Good Morning Britain.