Nick Timothy exclusive – ‘I won’t be silenced by Labour’
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sir Keir Starmer has called for Nick Timothy, the shadow Lord Chancellor, to be sacked after he described a Ramadan prayer event in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination” from an “Islamist playbook”.
The row has exposed divisions within the Conservatives. Leader Kemi Badenoch backed Mr Timothy, while James Cleverly, a fellow shadow secretary, distanced himself from the remarks.
Tim Stanley and Rachel Johnson are joined by the man himself to unpack the political fallout of his comments for the first time since they were posted and ask whether this is a debate about integration and public religion – or a misstep that risks deepening community divisions.
We want to hear from you! Email us at thedailyt@telegraph.co.uk or find @dailytpodcast on TikTok, Instagram and X
► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
Producers: Georgia Coan and Lilian Fawcett
Senior Producer: John Cadigan
Executive Producer: Charlotte Seligman
Video Producer: Andy Mackenzie
Studio Operator: Meghan Searle
Social Media Producer: Nada Aggour
Editor: Camilla Tominey
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. The Prime Minister is calling for Tory MP Nick Timothy to be sacked over his comments about Ramadan prayer in Trafalgar Square. |
| 0:18.8 | Timothy described the event as an act of domination and straight from the Islamic playbook. Is he standing up from British values or is he in flaming community divisions? We're joined by Nick Timothy himself to discuss his controversial comments for the first time. Welcome to the Daily Tea with me, Tim Stanley. And me, Rachel Johnson. |
| 0:49.3 | I'm delighted to be joined today by Rachel Johnson, |
| 0:52.3 | sitting in for Camilla. How are you? |
| 0:53.7 | I'm very well, thank you, Tim. |
| 0:55.6 | Good. And we're going to talk about the one man and the talk of the town. |
| 0:59.9 | And the one tweet that has dominated politics for the last week, such that the Prime Minister has called for the shadow justice secretary to be sacked, although Kemi Badernock has defended Nick Timothy, describing him as standing |
| 1:12.5 | up for British values. |
| 1:13.9 | Well, he is here with us right now. |
| 1:15.9 | Nick Timothy. |
| 1:16.9 | What did you say and why? |
| 1:18.9 | Well, I saw the footage of the Iftar that was on Trafalgar Square. |
| 1:24.7 | The Iftar is the movement that Muslims break their fast during Ramadan. |
| 1:28.3 | And I've attended Iftars. They're nice things. They're often very inclusive. |
| 1:34.3 | This event I think was different because they started the Iftar by performing the Azan, the Muslim call to prayer, |
| 1:42.3 | which says explicitly, there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his |
| 1:47.0 | messenger, which I think is a direct repudiation of other religious beliefs. And then there was |
| 1:52.2 | an area that was cordoned off on Trafalgar Square, so planned at advance, for mass ritual prayer. |
| 2:00.2 | And I saw that. |
| 2:02.3 | So I'll explain what the context of all of this is in a moment, I suppose, but I saw that and I described it as an act of domination. |
| 2:09.8 | Yeah. |
| 2:10.0 | Because I don't think that is appropriate for a shared civic space like Trafalgar Square. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Telegraph, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Telegraph and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.