flagship news programme got off to a rocky start when Victoria Derbyshire was forced to shut down a guest during a heated debate.
On Wednesday (February 19), the 56-year-old broadcaster returned to the helm to discuss some of the biggest news stories hitting the headlines this week.
Later on in the show, the mum-of-two welcomed former Trump ambassador Carla Sands onto the show to discuss the worrying number of people jailed being jailed for free speech.
Victoria began: “You may not have heard but a former conservative prime minister who’s stood shoulder to shoulder with a former US president, George H. W. Bush, said at the weekend he found it “absolutely odd” that JD Vance, the US vice president, was talking about a retreat of free speech in Europe and the UK at the same time as cuddling up to President Putin.
“[Talking to Putin] where, if you speak against him, you get put in jail. Where, if you oppose his policies, you get poisoned”.
:
Victoria Derbyshire shut down a former Trump ambassador on Newsnight (Image: BBC)
It was at this point that Carla interrupted the broadcaster to criticise the number of Brits jailed for free speech up and down the country.
She fumed: “No, I just have to interrupt you and just say that there are more people in jail in the UK for because they spoke what they thought was right or they had interest online than there are in all of ”.
The TV presenter was visibly shocked at Carla’s comments and immediately shut down her claims on the show. She chuckled: “Oh my goodness, I don’t know where you’ve got that from. I’ve got a guest here who’s laughing his head off at that”.
It didn’t take long before fans flooded to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their thoughts on the explosive scenes as they hit the airwaves.
One user penned: “Interesting that they seem to be going out of their way to show in a positive light, right at the same time as Trump’s trying to broker his ‘peace deal’ with Putin…”
Another agreed: “There shouldn’t even be any remote possibility of a comparison” as a third echoed: “That’s complete rubbish, the American lady is probably getting muddled up with non-crime hate incidents.”
Newsnight airs on weeknights from 10.30pm on News or catch up on iPlayer.