This is LBC from Global, leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

And we're back in the room. It's three minutes after ten, and you're listening to James O'Brien on LBC.

Can I apologise for an even more

chaotic and disjointed introduction shortly before the 10 o'clock news than I, then I ordinarily

deliver. I was upstairs when I noticed the time and I had T minus 20 seconds to make my way

into this studio, which saw me running faster than I have since

Sports Day, 1983, I think, through the corridors. I ran past the classic FM studio so

quickly. I think the needle jumped on Alexander Armstrong's record. But I'm here now,

and I've almost got my breath back. Goodness knows how Kirstama is feeling this morning.

I'm very conscious of how lazy this may sound, but I promise you it's a sincere inquiry.

If you've got something clever to say about the by-election results in Hartlepool yesterday, I'd really love to hear it because part of me doesn't even

know where to start this morning. So should we, we'll get the phone lines open. Good and early.

0345-6060973 is the number that you need. I think the first and obvious thing to say is that the

scale of, well, again, I said it was the first and obvious thing to say,

and I'm already giving you a bit of nuance, because was it the scale of the conservative victory

or the scale of the Labour Party's loss that seems most significant? I honestly don't know.

I think probably a little bit of both. I think, and I've explained to you that I do this from the

position of a recovering addict, if that's the correct phrase. The electoral appeal of Boris Johnson

is epic. It is immense. It is possibly why even people like me voted for him many moons ago to be to be London mayor.

And although the cross I have to bear on social media is the idea that facing Theresa May in 2017 or 2018 across the dispatch box is in any way comparable to facing Boris Johnson in 2020,

2020, 2021. But you can leave the world's smallest violin in its case. I don't need any

sucker or support on that. It is and always has been the case that the current Prime Minister excites the

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