Alastair Campbell: 'He's damaging the country'

alastair campbell is with us now hello to you mr campbell you were very forthright in your views yesterday and still the prime minister is in power well he's in the building behind you i don't think we can call it in power we don't have a functioning government we don't have a functional prime minister and this is what happens when you put somebody like him in charge boris johnson is somebody who thinks the rules don't apply to him he's operated by that his entire existence and what you're seeing here is a single human being testing massive constitutional principles he talks about this mandate that he got from the british people he got the votes from the people of uxbridge he was the leader of the conservative party who won the election he therefore became and remainders as prime minister you can only govern with continuing consent of the people you can only govern with the support of parliament which is losing and you can only govern with the support of your cabinet which is losing as well and so he is now seeking yet again to say that the normal rules of life and the politics do not apply to him and he's damaging the country in a way that i worry is irreparable you've seen there with brandon lewis brandon lewis is gone i've been you know agitating against brandon knows for some time over the northern ireland protocol i think he should have gone some time ago because breaking international law on such a vital matter of public interest is frankly grossly irresponsible but how can you now have a functional government when that one of the biggest challenges this government faces who's he going to put into northern ireland now who can he actually ask to take this on so i just think that the whole thing is what happens when you get one narcissist i think probably sociopathic because this is now utter bunker mentality without any sense of responsibility to the wider world and these cabinet ministers fair play some of them have stepped up they've all got to step up and they've all got to say i'm sorry your time's up out you go off you go and we'll have to try and sort this mess out after you've gone they tried that yesterday it didn't seem to work well they tried it okay but you know that they're doing it in their own different ways michael gove seems went and said to him listen what are your times up and what was johnson's response it was to you know dig down deeper into the bunker take out the revolver and shoot michael gove there will be others in there i don't know if it's true that pretty patel has told him that he has to go i don't know i only realize you do or what people are telling you there's larry the cat on you on the doorstep larry the cat right now would be a better prime minister than boris johnson anybody on the planet would be a better prime minister than borrowers johnson why because he's not capable of governing this is what he lives for getting into massive scrapes and then trying to get out of them um tomorrow just reminds me of an article that boris johnson wrote when gordon bryan was holed up in number 10 seemingly clinging on for dear life it is you know perhaps something that desperate prime ministers do well i do think that was a very different situation gordon brown fought the election against david cameron the outcome was unclear yes david cameron got the biggest number of seats but he didn't get a majority and gordon i think behaved incredible responsibility responsibly and i actually was in the room with gordon brown when he was on the phone to nick clegg and i can remember word for word the words gordon said to nick clay nick we cannot keep the queen hanging around for ages you have to make your mind up and nick lake made his mind up to go with david cameron so i think that is completely different gordon brown was actually trying to make sure that the constitutional principles were upheld what's happening with this guy is he's sitting there thinking okay i've got away with lying to the queen about prorogation of parliament i wonder if i can get away with doing it again now the idea of this guy now leading the conservative party in the general election is frankly ridiculous he's becoming utterly ridiculous i think loathing of him is turning to absolute disgust but the only thing i care about in this is the damage that's been doing to the country i always get i talked to you yesterday i was getting hundreds hundreds of bids from news news organizations around the world this story is playing out right around the world we are a global joke and until this guy goes the world will continue to laugh at us and that will continue to damage us we are you know we rather call ourselves the mother of all parliaments and are a little bit superior when it comes to other parliaments around the world how come somebody who it would appear that almost all of the politicians that he represents want him out can still stay in power what does that say about our political system it says that our political system depends entirely on the honourability of the people we elect to positions of high office and this is what happens when you elect somebody utterly dishonorable when margaret thatcher was confronted by political reality of her cabinet colleagues saying to her sorry margaret you've been a marvelous prime minister for us you've been a great leader for us but time's up she went when theresa may was confronted by the reality of what happened to her she went people were tony blair when tony blair after 10 years in office but took a decision eventually that it was time to move on gordon brown was taking over he went there are certain pressures in politics and sometimes you have to lead on them other times you have to respond on them and i do think out of this there has got to be a fundamental review both of our political system and indeed of our media culture because i think the media and particularly the right wing press has a massive responsibility for getting this guy into office in the first place for brexit which is going to be his only legacy and that is the tragedy of this whole thing a liar and a crook was put into downing street to quotes and gets brexit done we're going to get rid of johnson but brexit we're going to have to live with for some time so that this is what's happened okay we put a liar and a crook into a position where in our constitution it depends on people who get elected to parliament being honorable he's utterly dishonorable he's a disgrace to politics he's a disgrace to parliament and to this country and the sooner he's out of that building preferably in the back of a black mariah the better well that's not going to happen as we both know but it's a good sign bite um is it him though or is it the people that are around him you know are the people around him strong enough to you know there's no hezer in there at the moment so there's nobody of his stature there's no elder statesman to go in and say time's up off you go well that is a problem but that's what happens when this goes back to who and what he is as a leader he is deliberately surrounded himself with weak people he's appointed the p there are people in that cabinet who wouldn't get a job you know as driving a van i mean they're just not very good people they're not very good at what they do can you imagine nadine doris in any other cabinet in history can you imagine suela bravoman is now talking about putting herself forward for the leadership i mean these are fourth-rate people so there may be people in there and it's and it's not the job people are saying why can't the civil servants get him out it's not their job they have to try to make things work as best they can i also i did an interview on irish radio yesterday and stanley johnson johnson's father was on still defending him still saying he's honest still saying he's honorable still saying he's the right person for the job i mean for heaven's sake or his family not going to step up is his brother not or his brother's not going to step up is his sister not going to step up this guy is doing massive damage to one of the most important countries in the world anybody who has access to him should be getting the message in for heaven's sake just you know do the decent thing do the honorable thing resign and let the country try to rebuild from the absolute chaos that you've created

Channel: Sky News

Views: 62,775

Keywords: SKY NEWS LIVE, SKY NEWS LATEST, NEWS, LATES, SKY NEWS, BORIS JOHNSON, DOWNING STREET, RISHI SUNAK, SAJID JAVID, CONSERVATIVES, TORIES, POLITICS, PRIME MINISTER, PM, resignations, PMQS, MICHAEL GOVE, Beth Rigby, Resignations, Quitting, Haemorrhage, Rats, Sinking ship, Alastair Campbell, Latest news, Headlines, Bulletin

Id: 8ajVw1MvbRY

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 07 2022