Former UK Transport Minister Jo Johnson
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On December 11th, two and a half years of posturing, politicking and poisonous disagreement come to a head: the UK Parliament will vote on whether to accept the Brexit deal Prime Minister Theresa May has negotiated with the EU. Her case boils down to this: it’s the least worst option. But many in her own party, as well as the opposition, simply don’t buy it. Stephen Sackur speaks to former minister Jo Johnson, who resigned in order to oppose the deal. Does he have a credible alternative?
Image: Jo Johnson (Credit: Reuters)
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. |
| 0:06.7 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:11.4 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:16.2 | My guest today has been in the thick of Britain's psychodrama over Brexit for the past several years, |
| 0:23.4 | both as a politician and as a member of one of the most high-profile political families in Britain. |
| 0:30.2 | Joe Johnson has long been regarded as one of the brightest young stars in the Conservative Party. |
| 0:35.7 | He wrote much of the party's manifesto for the 2015 election, |
| 0:39.5 | in which then Prime Minister David Cameron promised the country an in-out referendum on the UK's |
| 0:46.2 | EU membership. In more recent times, Joe Johnson has been a minister in Theresa May's government. |
| 0:52.4 | But a few short weeks ago, he resigned his post in protest at Mrs. May's |
| 0:57.2 | Brexit strategy, a strategy that has seen her sign a compromised deal with the EU, which she says |
| 1:04.2 | honours the result of the referendum while safeguarding national interests, but which many in her own |
| 1:10.7 | party as well as the opposition |
| 1:12.1 | describe as a worst of all world's fudge. To add to Joe Johnson's personal drama, |
| 1:18.9 | his older brother Boris has also resigned from the government, but with a radically different |
| 1:23.6 | opinion about the merits of a hard Brexit. Now, if you're confused, don't worry. So it seems are many Britons. Brexit has become the biggest, |
| 1:33.1 | most divisive crisis facing the country in 50 years. Is there any viable way out? Well, |
| 1:40.6 | Joe Johnson joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. When you quit the government just a few |
| 1:46.6 | weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, you came out with this very powerful statement. You described Brexit |
| 1:52.4 | as a failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis. Now, you have been intimately connected with the Brexit project |
| 2:04.2 | from the very beginning. So do you feel a very deep sense of guilt? Look, I feel we're in an appalling |
| 2:11.3 | situation right now, and the government is presenting us with a choice which is completely unacceptable. |
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