Theo Usherwood
@theousherwood
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Thoughts and ideas (infrequent at times) based on more than 12 years covering UK politics. DMs open.
London
Joined January 2011
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Hoping to be allowed home today.
Just a short note to say thank you for all the love. I felt it so strongly during the darkness last week.
I so desperately want the wonderful NHS staff who saved my life, to save the lives of thousands of others too.
Please stay at home.
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Keir Starmer to Boris Johnson: “Twenty-four hours at A&E used to be a TV programme. Now it’s his policy.”
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The Tory candidate Helen Hurford in the Tiverton by election has just locked herself in the dance studio at Crediton sports centre.
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Miss A, a Savile victim, has told me: "To have the PM say this... I was furious . It was like he was using it as a flippant thing for other people's purposes.
"It triggered all the flashbacks, the memories. I can't begin to tell you how upset I was. It was so unnecessary."
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Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg come out for Liz Truss.
“She’s probably a stronger Brexiteer than both of us.”
Jacob agrees.
*Liz Truss campaigned for remain in 2016.
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Regulator doesn't agree with Health Secretary shocker.
Matt Hancock: “Because we’ve left the EU, we’ve been able to move faster."
Dr June Raine, MHRA boss: “We’ve been able to authorise supply of this vaccine under provisions under European law which exist until January 1st.”
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Bannon to me off-air: "Fuck you. Don't you fucking say you're calling me out. You fucking liberal elite. Tommy Robinson is the backbone of this country."
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November 29, 2019
PM: “Read my lips we will not be raising taxes on income, on VAT or National Insurance.”
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Standing in my kitchen tonight, having done bath time and now cooking dinner with my wife, I’ve nothing but gratitude to the wonderful NHS team who saved my life.
Tonight, members of that same team will be working a 12 hour shift to rescue the hopes and dreams of others.
The radio presenter
@theousherwood
reveals how over 11 days the virus crushed the breath out of him - and brilliant NHS staff brought him back
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I don't know if the Tory press office are taking a day off today but...
Sadiq Khan to
@LBC
: "If your obsession is growth the easiest way, the quickest way, to get growth is to join the single market...
"By joining the single market, you increase growth almost overnight."
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James Cleverley to
@LBC
: "(Liz Truss) is doing exactly what she said she was going to do."
Nick Ferrari: "I don't recall her saying she would tank the economy. I must have been out that day."
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Labour source tells me BBC informed them Boris Johnson would do an Andrew Neil interview next week.
Turns out no such agreement had been reached.
If Tory leader isn't subjected to same scrutiny as Mr Corbyn, but his team was told he would be, that's a problem for the BBC.
Almost a clean sweep of the front pages in the morning for the
@afneil
interview with
@jeremycorbyn
- only pesky Daily Star swerved it I gather. Political interviews really matter and make a difference.
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Gordon Brown to Rishi Sunak on
@LBC
:
"There is hardship and they don't hear.
"There is suffering and they don't see.
"There is pain and they walk on by."
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By allowing somebody into your home to do a job, you're helping to keep another household financially viable.
By inviting your grandma over for a cup of tea, you're not.
Sorry to go against the grain, but it really is that simple.
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Ferrari: "Who's next, Paddington Bear?"
James Cleverly: "Nice line Nick, but the point is I've been consistent...."
Ferrari: "You've not been consistent. You've been pro-Boris, pro-Liz and now pro-Rishi."
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Incandescent rage on the
@LBC
switchboard.
Judy, from Brentwood: "I'm a complete Conservative and total Boris supporter but I'm leaving. I'm done. I will be Keir Starmer.
"What have we been doing? This makes me so angry. He's got to do what's right, like everybody else did."
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Nicky, a nurse in Leeds, has rung into
@LBC
in tears. For her, the 1% equates to less £3.50-a-week.
"I was there holding people's hands as they were dying. It's a true kick in the teeth.
"There're qualified nurses who've gone and worked at Aldi because they get more."
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Glen, from Sidcup, has rung into
@LBC
.
He rejects the Government’s demands to get Brexit done.
“When my grandchildren ask me in ten years ‘why did you do this?’ I don’t want to reply ‘well, we got a little bit bored’.”
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Tory MP: “You know who they’re starting to talk about now?”
Me: “Who?”
Tory MP: “Theresa May.”
Me: “You’re taking the p@“*?”
Tory MP: “No. She’s competent. She’s boring. She’ll calm things down.”
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Nick Ferrari: "Why did you vote against the outlawing of smoking in cars containing children?"
Health Secretary Therese Coffey to
@LBC
: "Probably because I don't think it is the right to be doing to be telling parents how to handle the situation."
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Will Walden, former adviser to Boris Johnson, tells
@LBC
: "For Boris the calculation will be not what is in the national interest, it will be what's in my interest."
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Slow hand clap
@MayorofLondon
and
@TfL
- you’re on your knees financially, a world-renowned graffiti artist gives you a mural worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, in time.
Try to monetise it? Nah. You remove it. Well done everybody.
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Penny Mordaunt - Thursday morning: “This country doesn’t need goal-hangers, it needs centre forwards.”
Rishi Sunak - Saturday evening: “Gary Lineker was a great footballer and is a talented presenter.”
Number 10 starting to feel nervous.
This one isn’t going their way.
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Adam from Bury, Greater Manchester, has rung into
@mrjamesob
.
His wife is a contact tracer. As part of her job to find contacts of those with Covid-19, she’s made two phone calls since May.
Neither of the calls were successful. Nevertheless she’s been offered overtime.
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Rachel Reeves: “Never before have people paid so much in tax and got so little in return.”
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Understand the men in grey suits will tell the PM this evening that he has to leave or face a second confidence vote.
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Tory MPs very cross in the Commons over lifting of the fracking moratorium.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: “It is sheer Ludditary that opposes (fracking).”
Mark Menzies (Con, Fylde): “There’s nothing Luddite about the people of Lancashire or Fylde.”
Yikes...
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Dr David Nicholl, consultant neurologist who took part in drafting Operation Yellowhammer, rings in to ask JRM what level of mortality rate he would be willing to accept in the event of a No Deal Brexit.
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Can't remember a former PM shredding the decision of the current PM from the same party to this extent. Ever.
Theresa May is FUMING... the former PM goes for Michael Gove
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🚨🚨🚨Warning to Tories about a Boris Johnson come back.
Privileges committee inquiry into partygate slated for beginning of November.
Talk of it sitting four-hours-a-day Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for three weeks.
“There are so many witnesses who want to come forward.”
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Two statements:
1). We won't open up the NHS to US pharmaceutical firms or lower consumer standards to secure a trade deal with the United States.
2). Donald Trump can't wait to do a trade deal with the UK.
Taken together, it's impossible for both statements to be true.
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Sadiq Khan tells
@LBC
that Cobra hasn’t met since May 10.
He says he has not had any contact with the PM since then.
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If you're going to criticise the BBC, I might gently suggest this is where you take aim.
If journalists can't walk outside and tell you if it's raining, then there is little point in having journalists.
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What’s extraordinary about this impending Lib Dem win is that North Shropshire is not Chesham and Amersham.
This is Leave country.
Five years on from six in ten voters in North Shropshire voting for Brexit, the party of remain will now represent it in the Commons.
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Ian Blackford: “Isn’t it the case that Scotland can’t afford to stay in the failed Westminster system?”
PM: “What could be more foolish than a project that envisages trade barriers within the UK?”
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Wes Streeting to
@LBC
: "I can't believe after 12 years in Government, the Health Secretary is presenting a two-week wait to see a GP as some great news for patients.
"When we were in Government, we guaranteed GP appointments within two days."
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Speaker Lindsay Hoyle says it is a “matter of regret” the PM will be making a statement about lifting the lockdown on Sunday.
He says such statements should be made to the Commons first so MPs can scrutinise the decision.
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Just logged on to find one cabinet minister made up a Labour tax plan, whilst another stood on stage indulging in the 15-minute city conspiracy theory.
Meanwhile, the Tory mayoral candidate suggests the Jewish community are frightened of Sadiq Khan.
Like, seriously…
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Lisa Nandy on
@LBC
: "Reading the papers this weekend, I felt like I had banged my head and woken up in the 1970s."
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This was my call with James earlier.
In short, the team who treated me needed time and space to come up with a combination of drugs to successfully fight the infection. They were a bit like code-breakers.
They couldn’t have done that if they were working amidst chaos.
Theo Usherwood has been in hospital for the last week. Today, he spoke to James O'Brien and had a simple message for everyone: stay home or the NHS won't be able to cope.
@mrjamesob
|
@theousherwood
|
#StayAtHomeSaveLives
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Deputy Labour leader
@AngelaRayner
has written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone to ask whether the PM has broken the rules by failing to declare the value of his holiday in Spain last month in the MPs’ register of financial interests.
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Labour MP for Brent North Barry Gardiner has now written to Met Commissioner Cressida Dick asking her officers to investigate parties at Number 10 in breach of Covid lockdown rules at the end of last year.
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Exc: Liz Truss held a belated 50th birthday dinner party for Therese Coffey, at her grace-and-favour residence Chevening on January 29th.
Two days later she tested positive for Covid, and had to cancel her trip to Ukraine.
Tory source: "So arrogant, so tone-deaf, so stupid."
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“How can you be so selfish?”
Desperate pleas from a woman on the A12 this morning, as she tries to make it to see her 81-year-old mother in Canterbury, who has been rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
Via
@rachaelvenables
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Ferrari: "This is a rum state of affairs. So the PM won't go to COP27 for the environment, but the Foreign Secretary will go to Qatar for the World Cup?
"Clearly football is more important than the environment to this government."
Therese Coffey: "That's not the case at all."
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Sanguine message from a Tory insider on where it all goes from here.
“We’re going to crash.
“If Boris gets to Xmas we can have an election in May.
“Other two (Sunak and Mordaunt) will be in equally beautiful trouble without a mandate.
“We’re fucked.”
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Thank you for everything, James… I am a bit dumb founded by the response from everyone so not for the first time, I am lost for words.
But if there’s one feeling above all the others, it’s just that I am very grateful to you and everyone at
@LBC
.
Actually, I find I need to say a few more words about
@theousherwood
, who is leaving LBC today to care for a loved one. You will have witnessed his professionalism, wit & patience on a regular basis. Especially in the face of childish badgering & teasing! And you will know 1/3
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Nick Ferrari's take on news MPs could delay Brexit legislation so they can spend more time scrutinising it.
"We have paid MPs £250,000 since the referendum and we are asking them to read 110 pages in three days. Is it really that much?"
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Guy Verhofstadt to Nigel Farage: "I saw him the last years in the European Parliament... and there he was defending Putin.
"I found it a shame, and I'm thinking to Winston Churchill who'd another opinion about the responsibilities of Britain, than Farage colluding with Putin."
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Mike Pickering, M-People founder, is speaking
@mrjamesob
He says “without a doubt” he’d have sent a cease and desist letter to the venue asking them not to play the song had he known the plan to play it.
Bobby Gillespie was in touch. “Thank god, I thought it was one of ours”.
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DUP suggesting they'll support a second referendum.... mumble, mumble, revenge a dish best served cold.
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Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of WPP, blames Brexit for sluggish growth in the UK compared to the rest of the world.
"I think we're in a very tough position post-Brexit. Covid papered over the Brexit cracks and we're now trying to deal with it."
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Dr David Nicholl responds to Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg claiming that he is as irresponsible at the anti-vaccine campaigner Dr Andrew Wakefield.
“I am speechless. I challenge him to repeat that outside the Commons and if he does I will sue him.”
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Not sure this PM trip abroad is going to last the full eight days.
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Liz Truss says she “sees a lot of support” for the idea of the Met Commissioner reporting directly to the Home Secretary and effectively removing the London mayor’s responsibility over policing.
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In a parallel universe, Owen Paterson decided best to keep quiet.
He accepted his 30-day suspension, the news juggernaut rolled on and nobody mentioned a recall petition.
Re-elected in 2024, Mr Paterson retired as an MP ahead of the 2029 election, taking a seat in the Lords.
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The last time I was at a Labour conference in Manchester, Ed Miliband gave his speech without notes and he forgot to mention the deficit.
He got hammered. Five years on, I wonder whether Boris Johnson will get the same treatment for mixing up the deficit and the debt.
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💵💵💵
NEW: Matt Hancock could see his £400k I'm a Celeb earnings "wiped out" if civil servants sue for breach of GDPR law.
Meanwhile, FDA union wants Government to "pursue" Hancock to recover the 100,000 WhatsApp messages.
Story on
@mrjamesob
just now...
🧵
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At lunchtime Number 10 said a whistleblower’s claim the PM and his wife were involved in the evacuation of Nowzad staff was “untrue”.
Just been passed a letter from the PM’s PPS Trudy Harrison to Pen Farthing to confirm Nowzad staff could travel to the airport to be evacuated.
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Health Secretary Therese Coffey's phone alarm has just gone off live on
@LBC
.
It's Dr Dre's hit, Still Dre.
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Mark, an A&E nurse at St Thomas’s, tells me a 19% pay rise will make the job easier as the NHS will be able to keep experienced staff.
As opposed to paying agencies to fill gaps.
Agency fee for a temp nurse?
That’ll be 20-30% on top of what the agency nurse actually receives.
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Understand Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is to make a statement in the Commons at 12.30 on Boris Johnson’s slur about Jimmy Savile to Keir Starmer yesterday.
Story will be on
@mrjamesob
after he’s made the statement.
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News from
@LBC
colleague: Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, hasn't been selected as an MEP. He only won 2,171 votes in Manchester.
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Barrister Karlia Lykourgou makes the case for strikes on
@LBC
, saying the current situation is unsustainable.
Last week she defended a client in a child cruelty case. She worked 15 hours and was paid £126. After chambers fees and tax that works out at less than £5 an hour.
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Just FYI, as a Bannon-appointed member of the liberal elite I am going home for brunch of smashed avocado and poached eggs.
And there will be no snowflake tears. x
Bannon to me off-air: "Fuck you. Don't you fucking say you're calling me out. You fucking liberal elite. Tommy Robinson is the backbone of this country."
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Will Walden: "James Duddridge, poor guy... Boris was messaging him on the way back from the Caribbean. 'Come on Dudders, let's go for it'. All the usual nonsense. I thought from the beginning it was all rubbish.
"They're clearly furious with him."
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Tory narrative this morning that the country needs an election to form a stable government in the national interest to deliver Brexit bears similarities to Tory narrative in April 2017 to hold an election to form a stable government in the national interest and deliver Brexit.
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Conservative party donor Lord Spencer says there are "many" benefits from leaving the EU when it comes to cutting regulations.
Top of his list:
"We should take away the cap on bankers' bonuses."
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Sir Ed Davey tells
@LBC
that after 44 days in office Liz Truss should not be entitled to the £115,000 annual allowance usually afforded former Prime Ministers.
"Most people have to work 35 years to get a full state pension."
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Turned out it wasn’t such a good idea to pick a fight with Gary Lineker.
🚨🚨New Voting Intention🚨🚨
Labour lead is twenty-three points in latest results from Deltapoll.
Con 27% (-4)
Lab 50% (+3)
Lib Dem 9% (+1)
Other 15% (+1)
Fieldwork: 10th - 13th March 2023
Sample: 1,561 GB adults
(Changes from 2nd - 6th March 2023)
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ERG holds its regular Monday meeting later in Westminster.
Senior member tells me they'll go "completely and utterly berserk" if there were any move towards a Swiss-style arrangement.
"For many of us, it's the defining issue of why we are in politics."
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Tory view from the North Shropshire count is that from looking at the contents of the ballot boxes that have arrived first, it looks like the protest votes have coalesced around the Lib Dems.
Conservative source: “We’re in trouble.”
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Government by pub snack.
13/10: Robert Jenrick says a Cornish Pasty is not a substantial meal, unless served with chips and side salad.
30/11: George Eustice says a Scotch Egg is a substantial meal, as it can be served as a starter.
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Wes Streeting: "Maybe after 12 years expecting the Conservatives to fix the crisis in the NHS is a bit like expecting the arsonist to put out the fire they created.
"It's not going to happen. The longer we give them in power, the longer patients will wait."
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Michael Gove starts an answer about driving 60 miles to test his eyesight, just like Dominic Cummings said he did over the Easter weekend.
He gets half way through his answer, stalls, and then thinks there is a better answer.
Full exchange with
@NickFerrariLBC
here:
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Met Commissioner told
@LBC
earlier she needed a letter of complaint on parties in Number 10 during lockdown before deciding on any next steps.
*Could possibly include an investigation.
Labour MP Neil Coyle is now writing to Dame Cressida so she has that complaint letter.
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BREAKING: Supreme Court "unanimously" rejects Uber's appeal against earlier ruling that its drivers should be treated as workers and not self-employed.
*Massive implications for the gig economy.
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This seems off.
You can see the reasoning for a BBC director general facing questions from Government ministers.
And of course MPs from across the Commons will question a DG at a select committee.
But to turn up and take questions from one political party in private… hmmm.
SCOOP: BBC director general Tim Davie will address the next meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers.
To say this is highly unusual would be an understatement.
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Tory MP: “She fought the lettuce and the lettuce won.”
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What I find slightly odd about Tory MPs standing down at the next election is that you can still be of public service to your constituents (and beyond) in opposition.
Being an MP - and serving your community - shouldn’t be contingent on your political party being in Government.
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👀Lord Dannatt, former head of the Army, to
@LBC
: "The Government needs to think long and hard about the appropriateness of using military labour, which has less than a 4% pay rise, in effectively a strike-breaking role when people are looking for double digit pay rises."
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Working From Home in the Civil Service?
Rachel Reeves: "This sort of bullying behaviour from the Brexit Minister, that says people have to be at their desks for every day of the week and for every hour, is very old-fashioned."
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Jacob Rees-Mogg on
@LBC
now.... taking your calls on 0345 60 60 973.
Ferrari: "Pronounce on the health of the Chequers' deal..."
JRM: "The pulse is very faint. Brexit is a fundamental error..."
Ferrari: "Brexit?"
JRM: "Chequers.... Chequers is a fundamental error."
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Tory source says it’s looking like Westminster council has “gone”.
Hugely significant.
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A cut out and keep banner for Kim Leadbeater this morning.
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Nick Ferrari has just cut Matt Hancock some slack. If the Government gets to 90,000 tests today, he'll count it as a win for the health secretary and donate £100 to a hospice of his choice.
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Libby, a nurse, has rung into
@LBC
. She bursts into tears.
"We're burnt out. I feel like we're at breaking point.
"My family - people I know - are waiting for cancer services. It's not something we take lightly but where can we go if we don't have nurses?"
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Tory Red Wall MP: “Nobody in my constituency has a pension pot of £1m.”
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Michael, an Army vet, served in Afghanistan at the same time as Prince Harry. He tells
@mrjamesob
the prince should keep his military titles and protection.
“Here’s a royal who fought to protect his country and is now having his protection withdrawn. The irony is gob-smacking.”
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“If we don’t leave on October 31st, then there won’t be a Conservative party,” Rees-Mogg says.
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Sadiq Khan booed by the audience as he finishes his speech. They are very angry at the level of crime in London.
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This is the harrowing text
@ShelaghFogarty
read out on
@LBC
just now from listener, Denys.
Desperate situation but going by the current Home Office rules, his sister-in-law and her two children can’t yet travel to the UK without obtaining a visa first.
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Getting the impression senior people in Number 10 know the game is up.
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Keir Starmer tells
@LBC
the picture of the PM and his staff enjoying drinks in the garden of No10 is a "million miles away" from him drinking beer ahead of last May's local elections.
Nick Ferrari asks three times if he'll apologise.
Keir Starmer declines.
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Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd now turns his fire on
@LBC
.
"Your editorial policy needs to reflect on whether or not we want to be part of the problem, which is how Just Stop Oil manage to get their message out there so very successfully."
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Reporting what politicians say simply doesn't cut it when what they say is nonsense.
That doesn't mean it always happens. But it does happen. And when it does, it's the job of a journalist to not only say so but to say why it is nonsense.
Sounds high-brow but it's not.
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