Has Rishi's party decided he's no good?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
A mystery is afoot: in a critical week for the Government's Rwanda policy - with a looming Commons vote in 24 hours - a YouGov poll has emerged which spells Tory election disaster for Rishi.
Look closely and you see that the poll started on December 12th - the same day the Rwanda policy last went through the Commons. Could it be the two are in fact related? In other words, are senior conservatives trying to spell out to Sunak that he must harden up his policy or face wipeout? Or even replacement?
And if so, how should Rishi respond?
We talk to former Levelling Up Minister Sir Simon Clarke, and Conservative Home's Editor Paul Goodman. And with Iowa temperatures down at -28 degrees celsius, will the big winner of the first Republican caucus be... the sofa?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producer: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.5 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.9 | On the Yuga poll unit today's Daily Telegraph, it says your party is facing a 997-style election |
| 0:18.1 | wipeout. What's your response and how can you turn it around? |
| 0:20.7 | There have been lots of polls over the last year. There'll be hundreds more polls. The only one that |
| 0:24.3 | matters is the one when the general election comes. And the choice of that election is clear. |
| 0:29.6 | It's to stick with our plan that is working. It's delivering change for people. Or the alternative, |
| 0:36.0 | which is Keir Stama and going back to square one with him. |
| 0:39.0 | He hasn't said, what do you do differently? |
| 0:40.3 | And that's because he doesn't have a plan. |
| 0:42.0 | So that's the choice. |
| 0:43.1 | Stick with the plan that is delivering change, making a difference, or go back to square one. |
| 0:47.5 | That was Rishi Sunak, responding to a question from GP News's Chris Hope. |
| 0:52.8 | Just so happens there have been this extraordinary number of coincidences this morning to start the week. |
| 0:58.7 | You're not being suspicious-minded. |
| 0:59.8 | Not at all, but in the week that the critical Commons vote on the Rwanda policy is re-entering public political discourse, |
| 1:11.2 | a major poll has appeared in the front of the telegraph, |
| 1:15.4 | forecasting wipeout if Rishi Sunak doesn't harden up his Rwanda bill. |
| 1:22.4 | And just underneath that poll, you'll never believe what we saw. |
| 1:25.3 | No. |
| 1:25.5 | The former Brexit negotiator, David Frost, |
| 1:30.1 | has commented on the poll calling it stunning, stunningly awful, almost with relish. |
... |
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