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Episode details

Radio 4,29 Oct 2022,28 mins

Available for over a year

Isabel Hardman from The Spectator reviews a dramatic week in Westminster following Rishi Sunak's arrival in Downing Street. The former Conservative Cabinet minister Greg Clark discusses the Prime Minister's first few days in office with the Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire. As Northern Ireland prepares for new elections to Stormont, the former DUP leader in Westminster Lord Dodds explains why his party refused to share power with Sinn Fein. Also in this week's programme, the SNP's Brendan O’Hara and Conservative MP and former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers debate legislation to remove the legal status of all retained EU law by 2023. Not since the early 1980s have three former prime ministers sat in the House of Commons. The veteran documentary-maker Michael Cockerell, who interviewed Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Edward Heath, joins Catherine Haddon from the Institute of Government to reflect on whether Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss's presence on the backbenches will be a help or hindrance to Rishi Sunak. Editor: Peter Snowdon

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