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Hello and welcome to The Edition, the Spectator's weekly podcast where we discuss some of the most interesting and intriguing stories within our pages each week with the writers behind them.

I'm Lara Prendergast. The Conservatives like to say that their road to electoral victory is steep and narrow, but has Nigel Farage broadened

out that path for them this week? Plus, is it time to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants?

And finally, we ask whether baby boomers need to apologise for crimes against young people.

First up, in this unpredictable election, one key figure has been keeping Tory campaign managers up at night.

Nigel Farage would no doubt split the Leave vote and could deny the Tory as a majority.

But that will change this week when Farage stood down Brexit Party candidates in Tory held seats.

So, other Tories now on track to win the election.

Katie Balls speaks to James Forsyth, together with the UGov pollster Marcus Roberts. James, partly because everyone, I suppose,

is scarred by the memories of 2017. Very few conservatives want to talk or say the word

majority. But you write this week that the chances of a Tory majority have

increased. Why is that? I think they've increased for two reasons, principally. The first is

Nigel Farage by withdrawing Brexit party candidates from all Tory held seats has made it easier

for the Tory to defend those seats.

But perhaps more importantly, he's also given the Tories a very powerful squeeze message on people

planning to vote for the Brexit party in those Labour held seats that the Tories need to win a majority.

He has told them that Boris Johnson is trying to get Brexit done. Otherwise, why would he have stood down the Brexit Party candidates in Tory held seats? He's basically told them that Boris Johnson's deal is Brexit. And he's admitted that voting for the Brexit party might mean that you don't get Brexit at all and you get a Corbyn government. I mean that the Tories will find that very helpful in the final weeks of a campaign when trying to squeeze that

Brexit party vote down in those Labour-held marginals that they need to win. I think the other

opposition politician who has been doing sterling work from a Tory perspective is Nicholas Sturgeon.

In Scotland, she is constantly talking about how she will use a hung parliament to get in the ref two.

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