Is Rishi's reshuffle imminent?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Defence secretary Ben Wallace has been one of the stalwarts of this government at a time when many cabinet positions have been musical chairs. But last weekend he suddenly announced he was quitting front line politics. In his first interview since the news broke - he tells Jon why and confirms he's heard rumours of a cabinet reshuffle in the coming days.
Later we hear from Jamie Oliver who has been fighting to make Britain’s kids healthier for almost twenty years. Who could forget the infamous turkey twizzler episode - and backlash - as the chef-turned-food campaigner took on the stodgy school dinner.
Today he’s back with a vengeance telling The News Agents Keir Starmer needs to provide free school means for 800,000 children on universal credit - and warning that his refusal to overturn the two child benefit cap will push thousands more into food poverty.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:11.5 | I'd done four years. I'd done three years as security minister. That's seven years of, so 24-7. |
| 0:17.6 | It hadn't been quiet on my watch. so 2017 terrorist attacks, won a cry, |
| 0:22.7 | Salisbury poisoning and security, and then we did the refresh of contest and all that, |
| 0:27.8 | and then defence has never really stopped. And ultimately, I wasn't going to sign of the next |
| 0:31.8 | election. I think it's only fair to the sitting prime minister. That is Ben Wallace, outgoing |
| 0:36.4 | defence secretary, who |
| 0:38.6 | dropped a bit of a bombshell at the weekend by announcing that he was standing down, that he was |
| 0:44.5 | leaving Parliament, that he was going off to pass as new. And I spoke to him at a conference |
| 0:49.8 | earlier on today about that decision. And we've also been speaking to Jamie Oliver, chef, |
| 0:55.7 | campaigner, the man who you might remember turned the turkey twizzler upside down almost 20 years ago |
| 1:01.9 | in the hope of making our school dinners more healthy and our kids less obese. And he has a |
| 1:08.2 | warning for Kirstarmer today and K Stammer's two-child benefit policy |
| 1:13.2 | that he risks pushing more children into food poverty. Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:22.5 | The Newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. And I had been due to interview Ben Wallace at a conference that we |
| 1:29.8 | were both sort of chairing today, although my interview plan got ripped up at the weekend when he |
| 1:34.0 | announced that he was leaving Parliament, leaving... So rude. But of course, there was an awful |
| 1:39.4 | lot to talk about when we sat down together at the future of Britain conference. |
| 1:44.9 | I think you've taken the Sandra Bullock in speed element out of this, because about two minutes |
| 1:48.8 | before John was waiting for Ben Wallace to appear on stage, he was still at the MOD and we wondered |
| 1:54.0 | if he'd sort of crept into a bunker so as not to give the first exit interview to the news |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Global, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Global and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.