Andrew Mitchell has served many of the UK's most established institutions, from public

school to the army, to the city of London, parliament, the whips office and the cabinet.

He has an insider's eye on what makes the country tick.

Welcome to Payne's Politics, your insider guide to what's happening in British politics

from the Financial Times, with me Sebastian Payne.

I'm delighted to be joined by Andrew Mitchell.

His new book, Beyond a Finge, first not only to his distinctive hairstyle, but also his

insider view of Britain.

We'll be exploring his journey into politics, life in the whips office and the cabinet,

and where he sees Tory politics going next.

Andrew, welcome to the podcast and welcome to the FT's home at Bracken House.

It's the first time I've been in the studio for a while and might be the last for a bit

of a while with you working from home order.

Thank you very much for inviting me.

Well, I very much enjoyed your book.

It's one of the funniest political memoirs I've read in some time.

Now, I just want to begin at the start here that obviously you had a very prosperous middle

class background and you went to public school, to prep school you went to Ashtown House,

to rugby, before serving in the army and also later in the city of London.

Before we look at Westminster life, tell us a bit about what that was like and did you

ever feel like you would just be coming subsumed as part of the British establishment?

No, I wouldn't.

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