Rob McLoughlin paid tribute to the late Lord Ashdown on BBC Breakfast live on Sunday 23rd December on BBC1 and BBC News Channel.

Rob who presented political programmes on Granada Television as well as news and current Affairs series on ITV; BBC Five Live and commercial radio described Paddy Ashdown as a real ‘action man’ in line with his image and his ‘remarkable’ experience in the military, diplomacy and politics.

He recalled how ‘tough’ he could be to interview in set piece political discussions where he would often ‘attack’ the premise of a question – he recalled an encounter in a European election campaign in the 1990s which made headlines within hours of transmission and was quoted by Michael Heseltine on BBC TV’s Question Time later that night.
It followed comments by Paddy that sovereignty of the people was more important than sovereignty of Parliament in a ‘heated exchange’ on the power of the European Commission.

Rob also told a funny story about Paddy at a Lib-Dem conference in Torquay which showed how he was leading a party ‘yet to mature’.

Rob also discussed President Trump and the US partial closedown in Washington DC plus he discussed the Virtual Grand National and Artificial Intelligence and the science behind changing managers at the key moment following Man Utd’s 5-1 victory over Cardiff City.

BBC Breakfast is produced from MediaCityUK live each day and reaches up to 6m viewers daily.
It is a BBC News production.

Rob is scheduled to re-appear in 2019.