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The New Statesman | UK politics and culture

Will Boris Johnson’s new No 10 operation save him?

The New Statesman | UK politics and culture

The New Statesman

News & Politics, Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Anoosh Chakelian, Ailbhe Rea and Stephen Bush discuss the latest events in the crisis surrounding Boris Johnson, including the appointment of the MP Steve Barclay and the former GB News presenter Guto Harri to key Downing Street jobs.


They explain why the resignation of Munira Mirza from the No 10 Policy Unit was so important and whether the appointments are simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.


Then, in You Ask Us, they answer a listener’s question about why Boris Johnson commissioned the Sue Gray report in the first place.


If you have a question for You Ask Us, email [email protected]


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:07.0

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0:30.4

Hi, I'm Enouche, I'm Alfan, and I'm Stephen. And on today's episode of The New Statement

0:34.9

podcast, we discuss who's in and who's out at number 10, and you ask us, why did Boris Johnson

0:41.0

launch the Sue Gray inquiry in the first place?

0:43.8

So, we're recording after a weekend and the couple of days before that of drama in number 10.

0:55.9

I think this is the first time I've spoken to you to, we did speak to Andrew Mara a bit about this

1:00.3

on the previous episode about Manir Imersa and a number of other aids, and the Prime Minister's

1:06.5

Principal Private Secretary, the tops of civil servant in number 10, resigning. And over the weekend,

1:12.1

there's been a few appointments to his team. Steve Barkley, who's the minister in charge of the

1:17.3

cabinet office, is going to be his chief of staff. And Gito Hari, who was, who was his chief of staff,

1:23.5

I think, during his first time as London Mayor is now going to be his director of communications.

1:28.9

And we've already had a bit of an insight into the state that the Prime Minister is in through a

1:34.5

rather strange interview that Gito Hari's given, haven't we, Alva?

1:38.9

I don't even know how to summarize it, just we're seeing lots of tweets from this briefing where,

1:43.9

you know, he bounced into the office. First of all, as he went into dining streets,

1:48.4

people asked him what he would do first, and he held up this test go bag and said,

1:53.4

I'm going to give everyone a healthy snack, which has charmed the nation apparently,

1:58.2

or certainly has charmed a lot of journalists from what you can see on Twitter. And then he said

...

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