Former UK Prime Minister - Sir John Major
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2019
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What kind of country will emerge from the Brexit mess? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Sir John Major, former British Prime Minister. Within weeks the UK's Conservative party will have a new leader and Britain a new prime minister. As with so much in UK politics the battle between Boris Johnson and Jeremy hunt boils down to Brexit; who do Tories believe is better equipped to navigate the political and constitutional crisis that looms as the departure date of October 31st draws near?
Image: John Major (Credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)
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. |
| 0:11.6 | My guest today is the former Conservative Prime Minister of the UK, Sir John Major. |
| 0:17.8 | His own premiership from 1990 to 97 was scarred by deep internal Tory divisions over |
| 0:24.7 | membership of the European Union. Now he's watching from the sidelines as both his party and country |
| 0:31.7 | try to find a way out of the political chaos that followed the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU. |
| 0:40.4 | Prime Minister Theresa May's effort to deliver a negotiated withdrawal failed. |
| 0:45.4 | She's now making way for a new leader to be chosen by members of the Conservative Party |
| 0:50.3 | over the next couple of weeks. It will either be Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt. And really, |
| 0:56.7 | the choice boils down to this. Which of them is better equipped to end the Brexit agony? With the |
| 1:03.6 | revised departure date of October 31st drawing near, how close is the Conservative Party to self-destruction? And what kind of country will emerge |
| 1:14.1 | from the Brexit mess? Well, Sir John Major joins me now. Welcome to Hart. Good morning. |
| 1:20.9 | The Conservative Party leadership is in its final lap. What is it telling you about the state of your party? I've been a member of the Conservative |
| 1:31.1 | Party since my 16th birthday. It's been a very large part of my life. I have a great deal to it, |
| 1:36.0 | and I hope I've given quite a lot to it. I don't think I've ever seen our party so divided |
| 1:41.1 | or in such difficulty as it is at the moment. And we need, as we look |
| 1:45.1 | forward, firstly, to look at what is right for the country. Let me make that point absolutely |
| 1:49.5 | clear. The country is infinitely more important than the party. And if asked to choose between the two, |
| 1:54.7 | I would unhesitatingly choose the interests of the country. But we do need a Prime Minister |
| 1:58.9 | who can bring the country together. We need a |
| 2:01.0 | prime minister who can negotiate with Europe. We need a prime minister whose word we can trust. And we need |
| 2:06.6 | a serious man for serious times. The Justice Secretary in this current conservative government, |
... |
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