A British TV presenter has apologised over an interview where she seemed to attack a woman facing eviction, after revealing she was also a landlord.
Sky News presenter Jayne Secker suggested that younger tenants "aren't equipped with the necessary skills to rent" and claimed that some of her own tenants were unable to change a lightbulb without help.
Secker was interviewing London resident Kirsty Archer over a proposed ban to so-called 'no-fault' evictions. Under the rules, Archer and others get as little as eight weeks' notice to move out once their lease ends.
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"Especially with the younger generation - in terms of renters - you very often find that tenants don't really know how to do a great deal in the home," Secker told Archer.
"So I, for example, have had tenants complaining that lights have popped because they don't know how to change lightbulbs. I've had tenants complaining about heating when they haven't turned the boiler on.
"It's just very obvious things - if you lived in a home that you owned, nobody would be able to fix these things for you. They're just things that actually often require a bit of common sense."
Archer replied that Secker was being "a bit patronising" - and plenty of viewers agreed, with social media firing up.
Independent Europe editor Jon Stone tweeted that Secker "turned an interview about housing policy into an irrelevant and patronising rant about her tenants".
After the interview, Archer tweeted: "I was not told beforehand that I would be interviewed by a landlady or had no idea how condescending and insensitive her line of question will be. Let's get more working class people presenting news shows next #EndSection21."
The presenter has now apologised in a tweet, saying: "Clearly yesterday I got the tone and content of an interview wrong and it has upset many people.
"I am sure many of us will have made a mistake at work - unfortunate for me mine is a lot more public than most. Please be assured I have taken the many comments on board. Mea culpa."
UK broadcast regulator Ofcom quickly received 15 complaints about the interview, Press Gazette reported.
Ofcom said the complainants all believed Secker was hostile to Archer because of her personal interests as a landlord.
Newshub.
