Tory morale plunges
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
Morale within the Conservative campaign is low and was damaged further this week after the party chair became the fifth Tory MP to abandon his seat in the north to fight for a safer seat in the south of England. The FT’s Whitehall editor Lucy Fisher gets round the table with colleagues Robert Shrimsley and Jim Pickard to reflect on the damage done and on those tax claims made by Rishi Sunak during the first leaders’ TV debate. Plus, the FT’s Michael Peel joins to discuss how the rest of the world views the UK.
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Audrey Tinline. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and audio mix by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:30.0 | Hello political fixed listeners just dropping in here to say before you enjoy the rest of the show |
| 0:37.3 | we recorded this chat before the apology from Roushe Sunak after he left the D-Day commemorations in France early. |
| 0:45.2 | The Prime Minister returned to the UK to do an interview attacking Labour's alleged tax |
| 0:50.5 | plans. More on those plans coming up. |
| 0:57.0 | Chicken runs and parachutes, the two buzzwords around the Tory campaign this week. |
| 1:01.9 | Confused will explain all. Welcome to political fix from the |
| 1:05.8 | FT with me Lucy Fisher. Well we're now well into the election groove and this week has seen |
| 1:12.2 | uproar in Tory activist circles |
| 1:14.2 | about a row over Tory Chairman Richard Holden's selection as he bags himself a |
| 1:18.9 | safe or safer seat. Now to analyse it all I'm joined by the F.T's Robert Shrimsley. |
| 1:24.1 | Hi Robert. Hello Lucy. And Jim Picard is here too. |
| 1:27.2 | Fresh off the Labour campaign bus. Hi Jim. |
| 1:29.3 | Hello. So we spent last week talking a bit about labors woes, but Robert for me the |
| 1:40.8 | latter half of this week has really been dominated by Richard Holden, |
| 1:45.1 | not necessarily a household name, but the chairman of the party, leaving behind his |
| 1:49.4 | Northwest Durham seat, which admittedly has been carved up in the Boundary Review, but had a majority of |
| 1:55.2 | less than 1,200, and fleeing 300 miles south for a safer seat in Essex with a 20,000 vote majority. |
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