LISTEN Row breaks our after 'Tory' GQ editor attacks Jeremy Corbyn over magazine interview
2 min read
A row has broken out after the editor of GQ magazine lifted the lid on the “tortuous” process of getting Jeremy Corbyn on the magazine's front cover.
Dylan Jones said the Labour leader refused to be interviewed by New Labour grandee Alastair Campbell and was unable to name a film he had seen or a book he had read in the past year.
He also claimed Mr Corbyn was "pushed around like a grandpa for the family Christmas photograph" by his advisers.
But hitting back, a source close to the Labour leader told PoliticsHome: "Dylan Jones supports the Tories and he wasn't at the shoot or the interview."
Mr Corbyn cuts a striking figure on the latest cover of GQ, alongside the headline: “2018 Election special! Jeremy Corbyn’s hostile takeover.”
But Mr Jones told Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: “The photoshoot itself was quite tortuous, it was as difficult as shooting any Hollywood celebrity.”
Turning to the “very particular gatekeepers” around the Labour leader, he added: “They didn’t really seem to understand the process at all.
“They didn’t understand that he would have to be photographed in the first place, that he would need to be presentable or that he couldn’t just turn up in his anorak…
“When he actually turned up for the shoot it was almost like he was being pushed around like a grandpa for the family Christmas photograph and wasn’t particularly aware of what was going on.”
Elsewhere, he noted that Mr Corbyn was “not fantastic on the detail” and was unable to name a single business advisor or book or film he had engaged with in the past year.
Mr Jones added: "We sent a lot of the youngers members of the team who perhaps subscribe to the idea that he can turn water into wine.
"And a lot of them came back saying they wish they hadn’t met him because they did find him to be quite underwhelming."
Mr Jones has been editor of GQ since 1999, and in 2008 published a book of his interviews with former Tory leader David Cameron. He has also spoken of his support for the Conservatives in the past.
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