Andrew Mitchell MP: What will Boris Johnson do next?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 538 Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The scale of the Conservative Party triumph in last week's UK election promises to have seismic consequences. Boris Johnson can get Brexit done on terms and a timetable of his choosing, with Parliamentary approval guaranteed. Not since Margaret Thatcher has a Tory leader had such an opportunity to remake Britain.
Hardtalk speaks to Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. Boris Johnson has been handed immense power - what will he do with it?
(Photo: Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:07.0 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:12.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today has been a Conservative MP for the best part of 30 years. |
| 0:21.5 | Andrew Mitchell entered Parliament at the tail end of the Thatcher years. |
| 0:25.6 | Under David Cameron, he was a cabinet minister, and now he has a ringside seat for the unfolding of the Boris Johnson era. |
| 0:33.6 | Not since the Iron Lady has the Conservative Party won the kind of overwhelming parliamentary |
| 0:39.6 | majority that Mr Johnson achieved in the recent UK election. As a result, the protracted parliamentary |
| 0:46.5 | stalemate over Brexit is at an end. Mr. Johnson can get Brexit done on his own terms and timetable. More than that, he has a mandate to remake |
| 0:57.4 | post-Brexit Britain. He's already promised a government for the people, capable of bridging |
| 1:03.6 | political divides and reaching those parts of Britain, Tories have long struggled to reach. |
| 1:09.8 | But beyond the rhetorical flourishes, huge challenges lie ahead. |
| 1:14.6 | How will Brexit affect the UK economy? How will Mr Johnson maintain the fragile unity of the United Kingdom? |
| 1:21.5 | Well, Andrew Mitchell joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. I want to begin with some very |
| 1:27.3 | interesting words. |
| 1:28.8 | Coming from the mouth of Boris Johnson after his election victory, he said this election has changed |
| 1:35.1 | this government and this conservative party for the better. What did he mean by that? |
| 1:41.8 | I think he's right. I think what he meant was that the paralysis that has characterized the past three and a half years of Mrs May's government has been swept away. |
| 1:51.5 | There is a decisive conservative majority. |
| 1:55.3 | And it sprung from the loins of the Brexit argument in Britain, which has seen the country more divided than |
| 2:02.4 | at any time in my political life, and which hopefully this election will now heal. |
| 2:09.3 | But surely he was pointing to something else as well. Perhaps even he was surprised by the |
| 2:14.3 | degree to which voters in traditionally labour strongholds in the north and |
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