The Scotsman Bulletin Monday November 04 2024 #Badenoch

The Scotsman

Dale speaks to Alex in London about the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch and the upcoming US Election

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday. My name's Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.

00:08I'm joined by our Westminster correspondent, Alex Brown. Alex, plenty to talk about as always.

00:15We'll get on to that quickly. Firstly, front page of the Scotsman today.

00:21And we land on anger at lack of places for additional support needs children.

00:26This is an exclusive story from our education correspondent, Callum Ross.

00:30Callum's been writing a fair bit about this issue over the past six months,

00:34certainly issues around getting enough staff to manage additional support needs students across schools.

00:42We know the school sector as a whole is under pressure.

00:46There will be further funding and spending pressures as we move towards the Scottish budget in December.

00:53So plenty to write about there. You can see and read the full story from Callum at Scotsman.com.

01:01Alex, Kemi Badenoch, we found out on Saturday is new Tories leader.

01:07Now she's already been getting criticism within 48 hours.

01:11I've seen about various comments, including Partygate, which she said was overblown,

01:19which perhaps didn't go down well with members of the COVID bereaved group.

01:23But just talk me through, I guess, her election, the challenges for her now and what she needs to prioritise.

01:33Well, I mean, it was quite a difficult election and it wasn't one that she won at a canter.

01:39There were many gaffes along the way. And those were the sort that kind of lost her support.

01:44She was never the favourite. But I think losing James Cleverley,

01:49who was maybe the centrist's choice of the small C Conservatives.

01:53And when it was up to her and Generic, the small C Conservatives,

01:56the One Nation group who actually refused to endorse any of the candidates,

01:59had their hands forced and basically voted for her to stop Generic.

02:03And I think that was a real theme of this leadership. It was a stop Generic campaign.

02:07I spoke to numerous MPs who said they didn't want any of the candidates, actually.

02:12These are Conservative MPs, sitting Conservative MPs, who didn't particularly support either of the candidates,

02:16but could not face having Generic as a leader, so had to act.

02:21And I sat at the table while different Conservatives, some of those who were backing Ben Nook,

02:25tried to convince the MPs I was with that actually they should come round and support her.

02:29And the things she's saying, and she has made mistakes. I know maternity pay was a big gaffe.

02:35I think Partygate is a classic example, again, of where she says something,

02:39and then straight away after the MPs on the broadcast rounds have to say,

02:43well, that's not quite what she meant, what she was saying was.

02:46And I think that's going to be one of the huge challenges for Kemi Badnok.

02:49I think it's going to be about, Ben Nook even, I think it's going to be about messaging,

02:53because so often she has a tendency to say things that are not received well, such as,

02:57you know, when she said civil servants should be arrested.

03:00That was a joke, but it didn't land well. She has a tendency to make news.

03:06And as a leader, and that sounds really silly, especially in our profession,

03:09you're not supposed to make news. You're supposed to have a policy and announce it,

03:13and then that's what they're supposed to talk about, not something else you said off the cuff,

03:16some dig or some barb that becomes a top line. And she has a tendency to do that.

03:21As for her priorities, it's going to be about party unity.

03:24It's going to be about bringing those people over, not just convincing those who supported her

03:28to stop Generic, but convincing those who weren't sure that actually I can bring people across.

03:33I can bring over Generic supporters. I can bring people across and make this a universal,

03:38you know, a big church once again. We've already seen she's appointed her chief whip.

03:43That happened late overnight. By the time our readers are watching this,

03:46I think we'll probably have more appointments of the Shadow Cabinet variety.

03:51You'll be able to read about that on The Scotsman later, I think probably late afternoon.

03:55I think we're being realistic. These things always take time.

03:58And picking a Shadow Cabinet party unity, that's the huge challenge for the new Tory leader.

04:04Will Labour be quite happy that she's ended up as leader, if they had a choice between her and Generic?

04:12Yeah, well, I think they would have been happy with either.

04:14I mean, the framing and the things they've both done are so gaffe-prone.

04:19I think the day that she was elected, a Labour MP was tweeting that Labour want to do more

04:24to improve the rights of women, improve access to maternity pay and increase it.

04:29Whereas Bainock had made a joke about, well, perhaps not a joke.

04:34She'd been critical of maternity pay and said, you know, the state goes too far.

04:38It's the framing of it is really easy. I mean, she's a very combative performer.

04:41She's a very, very aggressive. And who knows, a time when the Tory party is so diminished,

04:47it has fallen so far. That sort of anger might help, but she is so gaffe-prone.

04:54All the Labour MPs I've spoken to are popping corks and think that whoever won, it was a great revolt for them.

05:01Basically, once Kevley was eliminated, they stopped worrying.

05:05I think it will be fascinating to see the first prime minister's questions up against Starmer.

05:10They've just seen two very different characters.

05:13So it will be interesting to see about how they exchange barbs in the Commons.

05:17Alex, talking about Starmer, he's up in Glasgow today.

05:21Just tell us a little bit about what he's doing up here.

05:24He's announcing an extra 75 million pounds to tackle the gangs that are helping bring the illegal boats over.

05:32I mean, they're not legal, but you understand the premise.

05:34They're bringing boats over of refugees. That's taken to 150 million.

05:40There will also be, I think, 300 specialists, 300 staff and then an extra,

05:45I think, 100 specialists to help crack down on this.

05:49It's a whole part of his narrative about how he's being tough on immigration, hard borders,

05:54trying to convince those who may be tempted by reform that Labour can tackle this problem in a way Tories can't.

06:01I think the issue is, much like the Rwanda scheme, though perhaps to a lesser extent,

06:06it's still not entirely sure this is actually going to work.

06:08I think one of the former heads of the Border Force said this morning that this policy won't work.

06:14This tactic isn't actually going to reduce numbers and it will just have more people failing to stop the boats coming over.

06:20So he's trying to address the issue of illegal migration.

06:24But there are questions as to whether it's going to work. But it's all about optics, right?

06:29He's he's won on like the budget was actually, if you take a step back from it, quite left wing.

06:34But when it comes to the borders, the party's adopted a pretty right wing rhetoric.

06:38They have put on the Tories clothes to win support.

06:41And I think that's something that they'll be maintaining through this parliament.

06:45Alex, thanks for joining us.

06:46You can read all the latest from Westminster, including those shadow appointments,

06:52as Alex referenced, at Scotsman.com as we head throughout today.

06:56Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.

07:02Thanks, everyone.

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