Well, hello and welcome to the For the Many podcast. Jackie and I are in the LBC studio this morning.

There's going to be a lot of interruptions because I've got the mother of all coughs.

But we'll try and get all the coughs edited out, which I think would be nice, wouldn't it?

That would be nice, Ian.

And I am here moving gently from foot to foot, shaking my arms about in a

in a May bot kind of way. In a dance-like manner using the term dance-like advice.

Blesser cotton socks. We might, well, in fact we will be talking about that later. We're going to

talk about Frank Field. We're going to be talking about the new book that Jackie and I have got coming out next week.

And I'm sure we're going to mention the bodyguard, as well as a few developments at LBC.

Well, shall we start with Frank Field?

Because he sent out an embargoed press notice yesterday, which, of course, was immediately broken by Gido Forks. And I suppose in some ways

it shouldn't have come as a huge surprise that he's decided to sit as an independent Labour MP.

But of course, a lot of people are saying, well, is he going to be the first of many? Jackie, over to

you. It isn't much of a surprise. and some people would argue he's always been a

pretty independent Labour MP but we've always had a party that's managed to keep him within

the fold you know and of course he is now taking a pretty strong Brexit line and there are

some people that are angry that he, you know, in their view,

is propping up the government in his support for Brexit. But, you know, let's not forget,

he's faced deselection in the past. At that point he had the support of the Labour leadership.

He's always taken slightly maverick views, but he's also been at

heart somebody who has championed the poor, who's worked for a better benefit system, who wants

to get people into work, who's tackled poverty. You know, he worked for the child poverty action

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