Trouble on the backbenches? Tory Leaders and their MPs
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite winning a large majority at the last election, Prime Minister Johnson’s relationship with his party is an uneasy one.
Just a few months after achieving its long term aim of leaving the EU, the Conservative Party seems ill at ease with itself and the sound of tribal Tory strife can be seen and heard.
Is this just the way it’s always been: a cultural and historical norm for Tory leaders and their backbenchers? Or is there something else going on?
In this edition of Analysis, Professor Rosie Campbell assesses Boris Johnson’s relationship with his own party and asks why Conservative backbenchers can be such a thorn in the flesh of their leaders.
Will this Prime Minister go the same way, or can he buck the trend?
Presenter: Rosie Campbell Producer: Jim Frank Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:42.0 | Hello and thank you for downloading this edition of An podcasts. In this edition Professor Rosie Campbell of King's College London looks at the |
| 0:55.1 | sometimes fractious relationship between Conservative leaders and their backbench |
| 1:00.1 | MPs. I'm standing outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Just |
| 1:06.7 | behind me are the committee and tea rooms where politicians meet talk and form |
| 1:11.4 | alliances and just a stone throwaway is Downing Street where |
| 1:15.6 | Boris Johnson delivered the biggest electoral majority for the Conservatives |
| 1:19.7 | since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. The elation of last Christmas, after the stonking majority and oven-ready Brexit deal, now feels a long time ago. |
| 1:32.0 | Since then, the COVID-19 crisis has upturned everyone's predictions for 2020, |
| 1:38.0 | and some of the Prime Minister's backbenchers are unhappy, |
| 1:41.0 | amid U-turns, and even questions about competence. |
| 1:45.4 | I'm Rosie Campbell, and in this edition of analysis I'm asking, does this |
| 1:50.0 | griping and rebellion simply reflect the usual tensions between the party leader and his MPs |
| 1:56.6 | made worse by the pandemic. |
... |
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