Nick Ferrari's greatest moments of 2020

24 December 2020, 07:00

As 2020 draws to a close, we look back on Nick Ferrari's greatest moments of the year. Watch as he challenges Cabinet ministers, Lords - and even the Prime Minister.

Michael Gove says he has driven to test his eyesight

During the summer lockdown, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's most senior adviser, took a controversial trip to Durham which led to public outrage.

Addressing the media in the Downing Street garden, Mr Cummings said he had taken a "short drive" with his wife and child to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight because it had been affected by the disease.

Nick Ferrari challenged Michael Gove on the validity of this statement - this is the moment the Cabinet minister claimed he too has driven "on occasion" to test his eyesight.

Williamson: 'We're a much better country'

This year has seen the UK become the first country to approve a Covid vaccine - the Pfizer jab was rolled out earlier in December and the NHS inoculated over 137,000 people in the first week.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson's celebration on LBC received backlash from politicians and high profile individuals.

It was the moment he told Nick Ferrari the reason the UK was first in the world to approve a Covid vaccine, ahead of France, Belgium and the US, is because "we're a much better country."

Boris Johnson refuses to criticise his dad for breaking lockdown rules

Boris Johnson's father Stanley flew to Greece via Bulgaria for a holiday on the Mediterranean during the summer - despite government advice saying you should avoid all but essential travel.

Nick asked the Prime Minister what he thought of his father's actions, after a caller told LBC he couldn't see his mother for one last time before she died due to coronavirus rules.

Yet, Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to criticise his father - watch the confrontation above.

"What's the difference between an Australia deal and No Deal?"

In January 2020 the UK officially left the EU - but the two sides have spent the year trying to negotiate a trade deal which is yet to be finalised.

Business minister Alok Sharma appeared on LBC's Call the Cabinet, and told Nick that the Government was "preparing to leave on Australia terms."

But when Nick asked him what the difference between an Australia-style deal and a No-Deal Brexit, Mr Sharma struggled to reply. After repeated questioning, the business minister said, "It's a question of semantics."

Nick Ferrari v Extinction Rebellion spokesperson

In February, Nick launched his Enough Is Enough campaign, asking for the Public Order Act to be amended to give the police power to ban any protesters causing serious public disorder.

This came after many Extinction Rebellion protests and marches, which halted the streets of London.

Nick Ferrari sat down with a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion over his new campaign... and things got extremely tense.

Caller told to travel 341 miles for a Covid-19 test

September saw some Brits with coronavirus symptoms being forced to drive more than 100 miles to be tested after access to kits “dried up” in parts of the country.

Nick thought travelling 100 miles was "absurd" enough - but then he spoke to this caller.

This is the moment Nick discovered someone was told to travel from Nottingham to Dundee for a Covid-19 test.

Nick Ferrari tackles Lib Dem peer who compared Brexit to 1930s Germany

Lib Dem peer Lord Greaves caused anger earlier this year by saying that Brexit could cause events "which could be reminiscent of things happening in Germany in the early 1930s".

However, when he came on Nick's show he denied ever making those remarks.

This is the much-see moment when Nick played the clip of him saying just that.

"Will you accept mistakes were made on the provision of kit?"

Tragically 2020 has been the year of the pandemic. LBC has followed its developments meticulously and given a platform for callers to hold the Government to account.

This caller Intisar is the son of Dr Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, who died from Covid-19 shortly after writing to the Prime Minister to tell him about the lack of PPE in his hospital.

He confronted the Health Secretary about this tragedy - and this was Matt Hancock's response.

Nick Ferrari's extraordinary exchange with Care Minister over pandemic

Exercise Cygnus was an operation carried out three years ago to test the government's preparedness for a pandemic.

The verdict was that the UK would be overwhelmed by a shortage of critical care beds, ventilators, morgue capacity and protective kits should this happen - of which ministers were warned.

This is the extraordinary moment Nick put it to Care Minister Helen Whateley that the UK was drastically, and needlessly, underprepared - and she claimed the opposite.

"You want Prince Andrew? Give us the woman who killed Harry Dunn"

At the start of the year, US prosecutors branded Prince Andrew "uncooperative" after they requested to interview him over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

During this time period, the US refused an extradition request for Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence official suspected over the crash which killed teenager Harry Dunn.

This caller made this suggestion at the time which had many LBC listeners talking.