Is Kemi Badenoch telling the truth?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why did Kemi Badenoch accuse a whistleblower of lying - in a row over compensation payouts to Post office victims?
And why isn't the Prime Minister prepared to investigate what was actually said?
Today, Keir Starmer put those questions to the government in the tone of a barrister preparing a quiet but devastating court case. Is Kemi sure she's right, even though the sacked chairman of the Post Office is fighting back? And what happens to her - the darling of the Tory right and leadership front runner - if she's proved wrong.
Later, how much power does Sue Gray wield in the Labour party? We talk to Keir Starmer's biographer Tom Baldwin.
Editor: Tom Hughes
Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus
Producer: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
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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. |
| 0:08.1 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | Mr Speaker, would the Prime Minister be prepared personally to repeat the allegation made by his |
| 0:17.5 | business secretary that the former chair of the post office is lying when he says |
| 0:24.4 | he was told to go slow on compensation for postmasters and limp to the next election. |
| 0:32.6 | That was Kirste Stama in the comments this lunchtime. Two things to say about that. One, he had his barrister's |
| 0:40.0 | voice on, which normally puts the fear of God into the Conservatives because he's rather |
| 0:45.5 | effective as a barrister. And two, when Rishi Sunak answered, he absolutely swerved round the |
| 0:53.6 | question and would not back |
| 0:56.0 | Kemi Bade Knox use of words. |
| 0:58.0 | As the business secretary said on Monday, she asked Henry Staunton to step down after serious concerns were raised. |
| 1:05.0 | She set out the reasons for this and the full background in the House earlier this week. |
| 1:10.0 | But importantly, we have also taken unprecedented steps to ensure that victims of the horizon |
| 1:15.2 | scandal... |
| 1:16.2 | Today, we're going to be looking at that row between Kemi Badoadnock and the former chair of the |
| 1:21.6 | post office, who she has accused outright of lying. |
| 1:26.2 | She is the frontrunner for the Tory leadership in a post-Rishy |
| 1:30.8 | Sunat world. How damaging will this row be to her? And why won't the Prime Minister give her his |
| 1:38.1 | backing? Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:46.1 | It's John. It's Emily. It's John. |
| 1:46.8 | It's Emily. |
| 1:47.3 | It's Lewis. |
... |
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