Gavin Esler: In just 10 minutes I knew I had to run as an MEP

Esler hadn’t been interviewed for a job since he applied to be North America Correspondent at the BBC in 1989. Over Skype, Heidi Allen “with two or three other people in the room” asked him questions. “‘Why do you want to do it?’ and so on.” It lasted around three-quarters of an hour. “I didn’t think I would get it,” he adds. But at six o’clock on Easter Sunday he answered the phone to Chris Leslie, who said they would like him to run, at the top of the list.