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Evan Davis dresses down Hungarian minister for declaring “no go zones” in UK

BBC Newsnight got seriously awks

Evan Davis dresses down Hungarian minister for declaring “no go zones” in UK
22 September 2016

Yep, while the ol’ Brexit issue might be done and dusted for the UK (well, not really but you know what we mean) tensions continue elsewhere in the European Union.

Hungary, which can’t help but ruffle a few Euro-feathers, is holding its own referendum, voting on whether to accept the EU’s mandatory quotas of migrants.

And in a rather crafty move to try and persuade its voters, the Hungarian government has distributed pamphlets claiming European migration is so bad that Britain now has around a dozen no-go zones for non-migrants – including areas in London, Southampton and Peterborough.

Luckily, the British people have an absolute hero in Evan Davis, who took Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó to task over it on Newsnight. It got a bit awkward to say the least.

Szijjártó claimed the info on the pamphlets – which says there are several hundred of these no-go zones all across Europe – is based on “official reports of police and other security agencies.”

“You can use your eyes, it’s just ridiculous,” said Davis. 

He then asked Szijjártó if they’d had the decency to talk to the British government before publishing “an inaccurate slur on the United Kingdom”.

Davis continued by pointing out that Hungary was the Euro equivalent of the kid in class you nobody likes.

“Hungary is annoying a lot of other member states,” said Davis. “Luxembourg voices the opinion that you should be kicked out of the European Union. When you see things like this, distributing literature that is false and defamatory of a nation – lots of nation, actually – you can see why other governments say, ‘this country is not playing by the rules that it signed up to when it joined the EU.”

Needless to say, Hungary's name is being scribbled off Britain's Christmas card list as you read this.