Which version of Rishi Sunak will Britain get?
Daily Politics from the New Statesman
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rishi Sunak attended his first PMQs on Wednesday 26 October, and seemed to buoy up his divided party with Johnsonite attack lines on Labour – but can he hold on to unity and win back the country’s trust?
Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Rachel Cunliffe, Rachel Wearmouth and our business editor, Will Dunn, to discuss Sunak’s first few days in charge, the fallout from his reappointment of Suella Braverman, and what to expect from the now-delayed Autumn Statement.
Then, in You Ask Us, they answer a listener’s question on whether Sunak’s past mistakes show he’s out of touch.
If you have a question for You Ask Us, go to newstatesman.com/youaskus
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman Hi, I'm Anouche. I'm Rachel Cunnelleth, and I'm |
| 0:09.3 | Rachel Weervos. And on today's episode of The New Statesman podcast, we reflect on Rishi |
| 0:13.6 | Sunaks' first week as Prime Minister, and you ask us, is he too out of touch to be Prime |
| 0:18.9 | Minister? We're in Rishi Sunaks' first week as Prime Minister, he's been given a bit |
| 0:32.0 | of a soft landing, I think. Tori MPs were rallying around him at PMQs, and he's had a few |
| 0:37.3 | favourable write-ups in the right-wing press. No surprises there. And obviously the most |
| 0:41.5 | important thing about whatever he does for the country will be on the economy, which |
| 0:45.7 | is what. I'm sure all our listeners care the most about, and it's most important for |
| 0:48.9 | the country, but we will talk a bit about the politics first. There's two things that |
| 0:52.5 | seem to be dogging him in this first week. The first courtesy of our amazing Deputy |
| 0:57.7 | Political Editor, Rachel Weemouth, is that accusation that he diverted funding from deprived |
| 1:03.2 | urban areas to places like Tumberidge Wellswood, which we have from the Horsesmouth. We have |
| 1:07.2 | a video of him boasting about that to a conservative association over the summer. Here, Starmer |
| 1:11.4 | asked him about this at PMQs, and Lisa Nandi, the shadow leveling up secretary, has written |
| 1:16.7 | to the Conservative Party to ask them to investigate. And then secondly, there's the appointment |
| 1:21.9 | of Suella Bravaman back as home secretary, having left the post, having had to leave the |
| 1:27.5 | post only a week earlier for breaking the ministerial code by sending sensitive government documents |
| 1:33.2 | from her personal email address to someone who wasn't supposed to see them. So these |
| 1:37.1 | two things seem to be big question for the supposed integrity that Rishi Soonak spoke |
| 1:42.0 | about having when he was outside number 10, making his first speech. Should we start |
| 1:46.3 | on the first thing, Rachel, as we have you here down the line, obviously your scoop has |
| 1:51.3 | been very useful for Labour, but still causing trouble for Rishi Soonak a few months on. |
... |
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