Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shops, The Spectator's Daily Political Podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast and I'm today joined by Fraser Nelson and Katie Balls. So Katie, Theresa May was on BBC 5 Live earlier for a phone-in with Emma Barnett taking questions from public. How did it go? Well, this is her second phone-in in less than a week, and it's interesting because

Theresa May normally avoids doing too much media. She doesn't look particularly comfortable doing

it, but I think there is a realisation in number 10 that if she has to have any chance,

and it still looks unlikely, of passing her deal. She has to try and get the

public, at least on the side that could change some MP's mind. It's at least how the thinking

goes. So it didn't seem like her natural habitat, but she seemed fairly confident as she

faced some questions. I think most of the questions were a little bit hostile. There was one

question in particular where a caller

asked her if she could just guarantee now that she believed her deal was better than a EU membership

and what they got was a series of waffle. And eventually Emma Barnett, who was presenting it,

went to the caller and said, do you think you got an answer to your question?

The caller did not think they had.

And I think slightly awkward for Theresa May this morning before this interview,

we had Dominic Rab on Radio 4.

And he said, you know, ardent Brexiteer, that he, if he was going to be completely frank,

but what's currently on offer is worse than the EU membership.

I think this is very damaging, actually, for Theresa May right now,

because I know a lot of senior Brexit years who also will tell you in private,

but they do think Theresa May's deal is worse than EU membership.

And when I say in private, this is the offer record conversations

that journalists like me have with the politicians the whole time.

I get the impression talking to them.

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