'Favours for chums', and the football debacle
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused the prime minister of sleaze after allegations that friends can text him seeking special treatment. Is lobbying worse today? Plus, we discuss the collapse of the plan by big football clubs to form a European Super League, and whether politicians should get more involved in the regulation of the game. Presented by George Parker, with Robert Shrimsley, Helen Thomas, Murad Ahmed and special guest Steve Parish, chair of Crystal Palace Football Club. Produced by Anna Dedhar and Josh de la Mare. The sound engineer was Breen Turner. Review clips: Parliament TV, News pool, Arsenal press office
Read more on FT.com:
-Boris Johnson is not the man to clean up British public life
-Dyson texts seem low-level sleaze but still raise lobbying questions
-Closing the ‘revolving door’ would weaken government further
-Dyson moves residency back to UK as text dispute refuses to die down
-‘It was utter chaos’: the inside story of football’s Super League own goal
-Super League would break football’s essential promise
-Super League: European politicians give US sports model a good kicking
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We wanted you to listen to us. |
| 0:04.0 | It's time for every girl, wherever she is in the world, to have her voice heard. |
| 0:10.0 | It's time we were equal. |
| 0:12.0 | Together with Girls, Planet International are creating a future where all girls are free from violence, |
| 0:18.0 | are in school, and know their rights, and we need you. |
| 0:23.0 | Search plan-uk.org |
| 0:30.0 | I've been missing this word. |
| 0:35.0 | Sleeze, sleaze, sleaze. |
| 0:39.0 | And it's all on his watch. |
| 0:42.0 | With this scandal now firmly centered on him, how on earth does he expect people to believe that he is the person to clean this mess up? |
| 0:53.0 | Welcome to Pain's Politics. |
| 0:56.0 | And while Seb's off finishing his book on the Labour Red Wall, welcome to another special edition of Parker's Politics, with me George Parker. |
| 1:03.0 | You heard there, Keir Starmer attempting to link Boris Johnson to that old Westminster favourite, sleaze, |
| 1:10.0 | in the same way Tony Blair successfully associated John Major with the word back in the 1990s. |
| 1:17.0 | We'll be looking at the latest allegations of favours for Chums, leveled against the Prime Minister, |
| 1:22.0 | with our columnists Robert Schrimsley and Helen Thomas. |
| 1:27.0 | And later we'll be talking through the fallout of the European Super League debarkly, |
| 1:32.0 | whether it's time for the politicians to get more involved in football. |
| 1:36.0 | With our sports head Sir Morad Ahmed and the chairman of Crystal Palace Football Club, Steve Parish. |
| 1:43.0 | Before we get on to all that Robert and Helen, can I ask whether you were disappointed to learn this week? |
| 1:48.0 | Boris Johnson's abandoned plans for White House style daily media briefings, having hired former BBC journalist, |
| 1:54.0 | Allegra Stratton to host them, and having spent over two and a half million quid, building a glorified TV set. |
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