Michael Gove on right-wing politics, the Tories and Trump v Harris
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2024
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After two decades in politics, including 10 cabinet positions under four prime ministers, Michael Gove is no stranger to the heat of a Conservative leadership contest. With Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick now going head-to-head in the final stage of the race to choose the party’s next leader, the Tory veteran joins Nick and Amol to give his assessment of the two candidates. What are their strengths and weaknesses? And what is the future - not just of the Conservative party - but the right more broadly?
Now out of politics, Michael Gove also discusses his new role as editor of The Spectator magazine, why he’d vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump and why he’d vote against changing the law on assisted dying in the UK.
If you have a question you’d like Amol and Nick to answer, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note on WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or send an email to today@bbc.co.uk.
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before and was also ITV’s political editor.
To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme, subscribe to The Today Podcast on BBC Sounds so you don’t miss an episode. You can also listen any time on your smart speaker by saying “Smart Speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play The Today Podcast.”
The senior producer is Lewis Vickers, the producer is Hatty Nash, research and digital production from Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Mike Regaard.
Transcript
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| 0:17.5 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:21.6 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:25.5 | Keep thinking about this fascinating conversation I had with a senior ally of Keir Starmer, |
| 0:31.9 | who said, you do know that despite this huge majority we've got, |
| 0:36.7 | we really don't assume we're going to win |
| 0:38.5 | the next election. And it wasn't one of those, yeah, yeah, you would say that, wouldn't you? |
| 0:43.4 | He started to refer to the low vote that Labour had got, to refer to the volatility in the |
| 0:49.5 | British electorate, to look around Europe at how well parties of the populist right were doing and really made |
| 0:57.8 | the point to me that we just cannot assume, as people have tended to do, if you get a majority |
| 1:03.3 | that big, like Thatcher, like Blair, you definitely get 10 years. And it got me thinking, |
| 1:09.9 | we're not talking enough about what the future of the |
| 1:12.8 | right in this country could be. Yeah, I mean, there is a Tory leadership race going on. You've said |
| 1:18.5 | on the mothership of the Today program, it's important not to caricature this as a kind of, you know, |
| 1:24.1 | just two people on the right of the party, because they're much more complex than that, Robert Generic and Kevin Badek. But in a way, isn't it, it's bigger than the Tory leadership, isn't it? It's about what is conservatism in our time? What is conservatism in an era where, as you say, authoritarian and populist, nativist figures often are in the ascendant? And yeah, I think we can both remember a time when being conservative didn't mean being Donald Trump. |
| 1:47.7 | And yet he... figures often are in the ascendant. And I think we can both remember a time when being conservative |
| 1:45.1 | didn't mean being Donald Trump. And yet his brand of politics is influencing how people |
| 1:51.7 | are the right of politics all around the world see themselves. And not just his brand of politics, |
| 1:55.6 | is it? We look around Europe. We've talked about this a few times, haven't we? And we see that in country after country |
| 2:02.5 | after country, parties that were branded far right, extreme right, call them what you will, |
... |
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