Jeremy Paxman vs Chloe Smith: 'Is this some sort of joke?!' - video

"Ah Paxo, I'll miss him when he has that massive coronary," said The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker of Jeremy Paxman. Judging from yesterday's battle with Treasury minister Chloe Smith on Newsnight, you can see why.

It's been over 15 years since Paxman asked Michael Howard once or twice if he threatened to overrule the head of the prison service, but last night's sparring shows that at the age of 62, he's still definitely got it. Fast forward to six minutes for all the action.



With all the ire he usually reserves for the less-enlightened contestants on University Challenge, Paxman seems less than impressed with Smith's attempts to evade his questioning over the government's latest budget U-turn.

"Is it hard for you to defend a policy you don't agree with?" he splutters at one point.

"You didn't in May! In May you said, 'It is not certain that cutting fuel duety would have a positive effect on families or businesses. So what's happened?'"

The most cringe-inducing moment comes at 12 minutes 35 seconds, when Paxo explodes: "Is this some sort of joke?!

"How can you possibly have as a number one priority cutting the deficit when you choose to spend an underspend in funding a tax cut, or failure to implement a tax rise which was scheduled?"

He followed that up with: "Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, 'My god, what I'm going to be told today'... do you ever think you're incompetent?"

We imagine that the next time Gideon George Osborne asks Smith to go on the telly for him, she may have second thoughts in accepting.