Politics Mark Francois

Watch Mark Francois hit peak question avoidance when Tom Swarbrick tried to pin him down on Tory childcare policy

Oonagh Keating. Updated October 6th, 2026

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Mark Francois is a curious creature. The Tories’ Shadow Defence Secretary has been such a figure of ridicule, over the years, that you’d think he’d have sailed off into the sunset to give lectures on the correct way to hang a Union Flag, or life in the Territorial Army. But no.

The former European Research Group Chair and rabid Brexiter is still at the heart of the Tory plans for Government, which is much like Liz Truss being at the heart of Spurs’ plans for winning the Champions League.

He granted an interview to Tom Swarbrick of LBC, who was keen to get to the bottom of the Conservative Party’s pledge to give free childcare to people earning £100,000 per year.

Here’s how that went.

A simple “I don’t know. Nobody knows. Kemi wrote it on the back of a fag packet.” would have saved a lot of time.

That noise you heard was a mass facepalm event.

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Anyway – here’s a reminder of the time he definitely should have looked up the meaning of perfidious before using it in public.

Source LBC Image Screengrab