'We're looking at a December election:' PMQs analysed | 07.06.23

what we're just going to feel more and more of as we sort of have the long inexorable slow March to the general election which more and more I think about it I fear is going to be in December or January do you really yeah I do I do I think why because I think there's a year ahead of necessary yeah yeah I mean like you know I mean it's because they repeal the fixed term Parliament site they hadn't repealed the fixed term parliaments that we're actually looking one in May right because um it had to be four and a half years but because they repealed it theoretically it can be January 2025 and although I suspect it won't be in January I've had to put money on it I wouldn't say it in January because it means you'd have a sort of campaigning period probably over the sort of Christmas New Year I just think that you know with no shift and well I hope I'm wrong as well but I think there's two on the other hand I've got a book here in November well and I do understand number 10 have put that in their group they have a major concern is a major concern I would hate to clash with you so yeah I think that you know with no apparent shift in the polls I just think the Temptation should just play it as long and long and long as possible they always do you know governments when they're reaching kind of end assuming that this one is you know they always was Major in 97 or brown in 2010 you know they just hope something you know there was an mrap poll today which said that labor were on course were 140 majority you know I think that's maybe a bit far at the market than usual though bigger sample than usual and you know there hasn't been a part we sometimes obviously get so distracted by the sort of day-to-day inevitably but you know the conservatives haven't been ahead in a poll now I think since 2021. so you know we've got structural big structural forces which appear not to be moving and I just think the Temptation particularly given what we know about with the economy and the fact the economy is not getting better as fast as the government had hoped an argument in some sense is getting worse the Temptation will just be to play it long but I thought what you you saw in that really was just the kind of you could feel the weight of 13 years yeah you could fit one question after the other about one different element of policy which is either been problematic or is struggling or has been you know scandalous or whatever it is and none of them fault or anything even soon as fault it might sort of stretch further much further back in time but there is just so much ammunition to try and sort of thread a message together it doesn't necessarily mean labor of doing it particularly successfully but they have a lot of ammunition that they can put into the revolver to you know political revolver to Fire and you know I think you could just sort of see that at pmq today you've got a fan in Finchley Lewis oh really Peter's just talking about your family Peter texting to say Lewis is very very good which is pretty much the only featuring the only enthusiastic message to come in in the context of pmq is Dave in Bristol well that was pathetic Steve says he sounds like a ventriloquist dummy Lester says not a single question answered yet again Julie thinks dad and sounds even more complacent and condescending he makes sunac uh seem a fraction less mechanical John in Medway this is pathetic Danny painful experience listening to this I don't know why we bother uh and this this one is brought we've got a producer in Waiting saying it's time to stop carrying pmqs James they haven't answered a question in six years yes doubting more so than sunac possibly because he moves very very quickly to I mean trying to answer a question about the covid inquiry by referring or or was it fraud he tried to answer a question by referring to Angela rain as if pods yeah look I mean on the covert inquiry in particular I mean I cannot for the life of him I mean you know we've been discussing this for a week now I cannot quite for the life of me work out what the political strategy for sunac is on this I I fear and I think conservative and peacefit that he is genuinely kind of trying to follow a quite Arcane kind of point of principle about this stuff that he's almost certain to lose in an almost slightly technocratic kind of way you know trying to we must establish about the precedent for this is and probably also trying to play for time to hope the inquiry will be delayed a little bit longer and it's working but if that is the case I mean that is just absurd because ultimately whatever they may officials may think whatever he may think about the principle of handing this stuff over every single expert says that they are very very likely to lose it so what is the political gain there is no political gain at all all there is it just allows as we saw as we predicted him as as uh Rayna did exactly in that session it just allows labor to construct a narrative to say they're trying to hide something they're trying to hide something from you and even now if they decide and I wouldn't be surprised by the way if in the next week or so they do just decide to hand it over but then the damage is done I think there is just this there is this whenever you talk to conservative MPS they'll sort of slightly roll although they are grateful in a sense to sunac for restoring some stability you know things don't feel like substantial every day like they basically did for the whole of 2022 um it only goes so far there is a fear that this is a guy whose politics does not extend very far or reach very deep and that includes his sort of political antenna and includes how he perceives politics and although they're you know they think that the five pledges that he's made are good and they're easy to understand and the government has done quite a good job in communicating them whether that takes you it might take you up to the election but what's after the election and right now there's very little sense of that there's not a lot of bottom he rose without Trace as well didn't he really I so I'm fascinated by people um like that it's almost as if well I've made all my money I'm still young the obvious path for me to go down now is politics which doesn't speak of a passionate policy core does it yeah look I think a lot of the sunac Premiership and a lot of the election will basically come down to the very modern thing about Vibes I don't think there is there is there isn't much um I mean one of some of the reports today from the from the prime minister or trip to Washington a lot of the sort of Lobby reporters there saying you know in the Huddle that is done where reporters sort of gather around that's the Prime Minister loads of questions on playing them all saying the only time that he really kind of lit up was talking about Ai and this doesn't surprise me with sooner because I think there is a sort of there's a bit of the kind of Wilson white heat of Technology about him right I think that his sort of sounded a bit like Harold Wilson uh Bound in your pocket yeah um yeah exactly not Harold Wilson but the technology yeah and the technological argument and he has this kind of he's this kind of you know Silicon Valley Pasadena kind of California guy at heart I think and you know I think one of the great questions and again conservative MPS asked us a lot but works why did he back brexit yes what what is it because on so many levels there was so much about him you you could sort of seem far more in the kind of Cameroon in many ways he is in that and yet there is this slight Oddity about him why did he about brexit and I think in so far as I mean to be honest he's never really articulated it particularly comprehensively which is one of the reasons why so many braxters preferred Lewis trust preferred his trust exactly the sort of the um the Zeal of the convert they preferred that to uh to this guy didn't articulate it particularly effectively but and so far as we can tell I think one of the reasons is because he perceived this kind of sort of lower regulation um sort of leaning in to kind of tech and all these sort of things that he didn't see the EU as a particularly good vehicle to do that it would be protectionist in that way the problem for him is in all of these ways as ever brexit comes back to bite which is that he may well apparently he's gone to Biden going to the US today because he really wants to talk to Biden about Ai and how it can be regulated and what the advantages are but of course and you know Brittany is a leader in AI but the problem is of course it's sandwiches we are now between these two big regulatory blocks the EU on the one hand America on the other and to some extent China from a distance as well it's much harder for the UK to exert much influence they're not allowed to say that in the conservative party now are you really exactly bears are in a very good column about it this morning which touches on um the Friendship is not the same as influence it's a bold strategic fact that brexit makes a British prime minister less useful to Washington which is one of the reasons the US opposed at the time under Obama because we were always that sort of conduit into uh Brussels and now the Germans are to some extent the French are all the Americans just have enough influence full stop there's attention as well between the personal and the political here isn't there because if he did secure some sort of meaningful cooperation on AI regulation and could cast the UK as having taken a a leading route unlikely though that is it's not going to win many votes in Wigan on a wet Thursday night no and again that goes back to what the point I was saying kind of what is what is the sunac vision what is it Beyond sort of studying the ship Beyond getting those five narrow some of the more ambitious than others but nonetheless in their own way narrow kind of technocratic things to make the state work a bit better than it has done what is because I mean you know the next government will be taking us into the 2030s assuming the parliament survives that long 2029 you know 2030. so you know there has got to be some kind of on both sides there has got to be some sense of where the hell this country is going and as I say most conservative MPS fear that the guy although he's very industrious hard-working that you know in many ways he's more decent than some of the those who've come before though perhaps the bar is quite low that it doesn't go in terms of the politics much further than that I should clarify I misunderstood you earlier when you said December for the I thought we meant this December oh no no no you were talking but a couple of my texts remain confused I'm getting quite annoyed it's sort of it's funny and tongue-in-cheek when I read out one complimentary text for Lewis Goodall but if that then prompts a flurry often then the ego of the presenter is such that it becomes slightly irritable news agency really enjoy is good oh lovely radio voice and such a clever presenter what am I chopped liver okay and care of that husk of yours okay Carolyn so it says more of Lewis Goodall please could you ask him to do a Russian accent do you do accents a lot on on the news I might avoid doing the Russian I went to see this new play about Putin last night and I'm a bit worried about doing Russia is that the one with Tom Hollander yeah I think I'm going to see that tomorrow I can't wait I'm like did you go as well I think they're pretty is it brilliant producer went last night as well um are we done is there anything well the the Murray Black's always fun isn't she is very good the other thing I thought was again we were talking about before is about this just up oil thing and again dowder mentioned a lot and you've seen Greg hands as well as chairman there is this very interesting hasn't received that well it's really quite a bit of coverage but it's a very interesting internal discussion that's going on within the labor party in the labor movement only the moment about new oil and gas extraction and we'll see you know Labor's policy to come out saying that they won't do have any more and there'll be moratorium under the next uh labor government in terms of new licenses and you heard Dowden they're basically saying he's taking his instructions from just stop oil there is a very live debate as I say and you've had the unusual situation and Dowden again referenced this where you've got kind of the Blair rights of the parties want to call for one of a better expression uniting with the more left-wing elements even the unite the union um basically saying that this is a bad policy it's stupid policy it's going to affect loads of jobs particularly in Scotland the Northeast and other places um as well and it is a very let's say live debate within the quote labor family at the moment and it alludes to I think what if there is going to be a labor government what one of the big kind of fault lines is going to be of that government which is the sort of politics of environmentalism and Net Zero because there's always been this assumption that in some way it's sort of good for the left because it probably involves more statism it probably involves the sort of just transition industrial reindustrialization and so on well it might do or it might not I mean macron has just had a report given to him in the last um week which basically says there is a huge danger in uh for lower income families and households in particular that if there isn't a rights with government support and the right kind of government spending that you know you phase out gas boilers you phase out um all sorts of kind of low um fossil fuels and so on that in many ways are cheap and you don't replace them properly with green energy and green investment then you end up in a situation where the process or transition to Net Zero is deeply unequal and that is something that the labor party is sort of I think should only just beginning to kind of get its head around but there is going to be it's going to be big for them it's going to be big for them and you've already seen the sort of oppositional forces we've seen Sadiq Khan in London with what's happened with you less you're seeing that sort of go across the country as well and you can totally imagine under a labor government moving on that zero a kind of farage East kind of backlash against it whether it's led by farage or someone like him where the politics of the environment Net Zero becomes much deeper than it does under a conservative government I think that's something to look out for they've already got their toughton street officers haven't they well they did the sort of Net Zero opponents and enemies thank you Lou it's always a pleasure

Channel: LBC

Views: 154,364

Keywords: lbc, lbc live, watch lbc, interview, interviews, politics news, british politics, uk politics live, live debate, debate, Brexit, James O’Brien, Iain Dale, Nick Ferrari, Johnson, Sunak, Andrew Marr, Marr, O'Brien, News Agents, uk politics, shelagh fogarty, tom swarbrick, lewis goodall, andrew castle, sangita myska, rishi sunak, david lammy, natasha devon, parliament, economy, analysis, debates, commentary, updates

Id: G0Z29uQUiQQ

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023