The Politics of Protest: Suella Braverman vs the police
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why did the Home Secretary write a newspaper column that puts her on a collision course with both the UK’s most senior police officer… and seemingly the prime minister?
In this week’s podcast Amol and Nick look at the politics of protest – and what exactly Suella Braverman is trying to achieve by taking on the police, ahead of a proposed march through London on Armistice Day calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They’re joined by Neil Basu, who served for thirty years in the Met Police, including as national lead for counter-terrorism. For many years he was deputy to current Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds 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.
If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news 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 has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The producers are Tom Smithard and Stephanie Mitcalf. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Studio direction from Phil Bull.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | The thing about recording news podcasts is that the news often changes while you're recording the podcast. |
| 0:10.3 | What we know as we sit here, Nick, is that you and I presented the Today Programme, |
| 0:13.5 | we're radio for this morning, and we were both very struck by a remarkable piece by Swellabruburn, |
| 0:17.6 | the Home Secretary, in which she attacked directly the Metropolitan Police. |
| 0:26.3 | I have never read anything like it. Not quite true. I've read it often in the pages the telegraph of the mail or the spectator magazine. In other words, an attack on the police for being |
| 0:31.7 | too woke by a columnist or a polemicist. But I have never in all my years of covering politics |
| 0:37.3 | seen a serving |
| 0:38.6 | home secretary, somebody who's after all responsible for the policing in this country, |
| 0:43.1 | attack the most important police officer in this country, in effect, by saying that his force |
| 0:49.1 | takes the side of one set of protesters and not another. And this is about some fundamental issues. |
| 0:54.8 | Who we are, about the freedom to protest, |
| 0:57.0 | about the politics of protests. |
| 0:59.1 | This is about Suella Brabman versus the police. |
| 1:01.7 | Let's do it. |
| 1:18.0 | It's Amol and Nick in the Today podcast studio in London. |
| 1:29.2 | And as we speak, I'm looking at my phone again and again to see the latest development in a row not just pitching the Home Secretary against the police, but pitching the Home Secretary against the Prime Minister. We know that the Prime Minister met Sir Mark Rowley |
| 1:34.2 | earlier this week. We know that Suella Broughman was not in the room. And we also know that |
| 1:38.6 | this morning, she's written a piece which we now can say was not necessarily what number |
| 1:43.8 | 10 we're expecting to see |
| 1:45.8 | in the pages of the Times. |
| 1:47.5 | Which explains quite a lot, because one minute you get the sense that the Prime Minister |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.