Could Labour's leadership chaos make Ed Miliband PM?
5/13/202642 min
A key cabinet member, Hilary Benn, was asked this lunch time if Wes Streeting was still the Health Secretary. Astonishingly he said he did not know. Is Streeting about to launch a leadership campaign? is Starmer preparing to fight him? And could all this chaos somehow leave Ed Miliband in poll position as PM?
Later, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner launches an investigation into Nigel Farage's undeclared 5 million pound donation from a crypto billionaire. What will they find?
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNick Ferrari· Soundbite0:00
[digital music] This is a Global Player original podcast.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:05
The messages I was getting back were basically saying, "Hold your nerve. We know what's gonna happen."
Jon Sopel· Host0:11
I don't think it was that smart of maybe number 10 friends of Keir Starmer to say, "Oh, Wes, he's bottling it. He hasn't got what it takes. He's gonna chicken out. He's gonna do a runner. He ain't gonna go through with it."
Lewis Goodall· Host0:26
He's haunted by the idea. He's always wanted to be Prime Minister from when he was a young man, and he is haunted by the idea that this is his David Miliband moment. The crown with his, with... is within his grasp, that he only needs the courage to pluck up the will and the courage to grasp it, and it will be his.
Emily Maitlis· Host0:42
Just on Wes Streeting, is he still the Health Secretary? Can we just confirm that?
Hilary Benn· Soundbite0:46
I, I, again, I don't know. I'm in your studio answering your questions, Sarah. Your, your- Well, that is my question ... well, why don't you ask him?
Emily Maitlis· Host0:54
Okay, but you, are you presuming he is?
Hilary Benn· Soundbite0:57
I, I, as I said, I don't know. I read a, I, I mean, I read a lot of speculation- I mean, if I asked you if Yvette Cooper was the Foreign Secretary, you'd say yes. Yeah, but I mean, I... this is not terribly productive use of our time if I may- Okay.
Jon Sopel· Host1:08
It sounds like one of those questions a doctor asks when they're looking for early onset dementia. "Do you know who the Prime Minister is?" This occasion, it's the Northern Ireland secretary answering a question about whether the health secretary is still the health secretary on the BBC this lunchtime.
Emily Maitlis· Host1:25
Why would that question be so pertinent