Is Rishi Sunak about to sack Lee Anderson over Rwanda rebellion?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
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Summary
60 Tory rebels are currently off signing amendments to Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill including - checks notes - his two deputy chairmen who are on the government payroll.
What message does this send out? And why havent they resigned their posts if they cannot even back their Prime Minister?
Rishi is trying to fend off ANY amendment but he is - checks notes again - in the process of hiring extra lawyers, with 5,000 more sitting days - to make sure every individual migrant appeal gets fast tracked out of the way. Is this really the best use of our overstretched legal system?
And, we look at the effect boundary changes could have on the election and - if you're looking for Iowa caucus coverage we have a whole episode on the US elections on our sister podcast The News Agents USA out this evening - find it here.
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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. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.9 | If you don't want to go to Rwanda, then don't come to this country. It's that simple. |
| 0:17.1 | That was G.B. News is Le Anderson, opining on Rwanda, except that he's also an MP, |
| 0:23.6 | Conservative MP, he's also Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party. And what he's expressing, |
| 0:30.3 | and what he's expressed, and what he has signed is in absolute contradiction to government policy, which kind of raises a question. |
| 0:39.8 | How can he possibly still be in his job as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party? |
| 0:45.0 | Lee Anderson is one of a kind, but he is not alone, |
| 0:48.1 | because another Deputy Chairman, Brendan Clark Smith, has also said Hillback Amendments, |
| 0:54.2 | and they are being joined by the former Prime Minister himself, Boris Johnson, |
| 0:58.4 | who is also willing to give his support to some 60 or so, we think, rebels, |
| 1:04.7 | who are trying to change Rishi Sunek's mind. |
| 1:08.3 | What's Rishy going to do about it? |
| 1:10.1 | And is he ever going to sack anyone? Welcome to the |
| 1:12.9 | newsagents. The Newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. It's Lewis. And in the House of Commons |
| 1:22.5 | right now, as we sit here in the Newsagent studio. They are discussing the Rwanda bill, |
| 1:28.0 | and these amendments which Rishi Sunak does not want. |
| 1:31.5 | And these amendments have been drafted on the right of the Conservative Party |
| 1:35.2 | by people like Robert Generic, who was the immigration minister, |
| 1:38.4 | and have got the support of a wide range of Conservative MPs, |
| 1:41.9 | also kind of former Brexit rebels, who are now allying themselves |
| 1:46.8 | to this particular cause. Yeah, and this all relates to the safety of Rwanda |
... |
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