James O'Brien leaves Tory Education Minister momentarily lost for words with question over university reforms

'Would you send your children to one of these colleges?'

Jo Johnson on Newsnight

The LBC presenter James O’Brien is famed for his ability to leave guests and callers gasping for words on his weekly radio show.

O’Brien has a particular talent for exposing hypocrisy or contradictory arguments, often just by posing one question.

On Thursday, he demonstrated his ability for usurping politicians during a discussion with Jo Johnson, an Oxford educated Conservative MP proposing reforms to the higher education system. The reforms could allow universities considered to be providing a higher quality education to charge more than £9,000 a year for tuition, in line with inflation.

The proposals would also make it easier to open new universities.

There have been reports of private colleges offering places to students to obtain loads to students who don’t have the skills or would be unable to graduate from the course. Mr Johnson, the Minister of State for Education, claimed the reforms would drive up the quality of higher education and produce more highly skilled graduates.

But he was momentarily stopped in his tracks when O’Brien asked him one simple question: "Would you send your children to one of these colleges?"

Johnson hesitated, apparently unsure of how to answer, before responding: “Where there is high quality education we should be encouraging people to go to university - it's a life changing experience. It delivers massive benefits."