Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. Together we can truly make America great again. We are in for an unpredictable but fascinating four years. And we're going to be following every twist and turn for the first 100 days. We'll be bringing you the latest updates and analysis. First thing every morning. So join me, James Matthew. Me, Martha Kallet. And me, Mark Stone. For Trump 100, every weekday at 6am. Wherever you get your podcast.
Hello, good morning and welcome to the podcast from Polisco as a guide. It gives you everything you need to know about the day ahead in British politics in under 20 minutes. And I just wanted to say the briefest of thank yous to everyone who makes this podcast happen at unholy times of the day across two amazing companies to everyone who listens and to absent friends. Well, the almighty Jack Blanchard, the almighty Jack Blanchard.
I was going to say the mighty Jack Lanchol, but maybe he's been deified because last night we got the award for presenter of the year at the Political Podcast Awards. So thank you to everyone. Anyway, we really do face forwards, not back on this podcast as Tony Blair would say in the 2005 general election. So let's get on with the day.
My name is Dan Bloom, political editor at Politico. And with me, of course, is the award-winning Sandcoats of Sky News. So I think you've already nearly knocked over your rewards trophy this morning, haven't you? You're incitement. I broke number four up. I almost did again today.
It's Thursday the 30th of January and Rachel Reeves is touring the TV studios right now, selling her growth plan. There's important new legislation on border security being published in the Commons, or at least the government says it's important. It'll be a political row either way. And we've got Yvette Cooper, the home secretary facing grilling's later.
And the assisted diet bill is coming under scrutiny once again. But, in truth, it's a slightly odd day, isn't it, Sam, in British politics, because everyone is pausing to pay respect at the funeral of John Prescott in Hull? That's right. The whole political agenda today is being bent around. I mean, quite right, because of the massive figure.
around the fact that the Labour Party has up sticks and headed to Yorkshire this morning to pay tributes to the Deputy Prime Minister. And so what that means is that the Chancellor's morning round is actually taking place in Hull, so it will all be down the line from there. And I can see some people are actually presenting programmes from there. Yvette Cooper actually pre-recorded her interviews launching her bill yesterday so that she could be up there. And so we thought, why not? Let's make this podcast join in two
So I know it's a little bit indulgent, but really the funeral is the most interesting thing going on in British politics today. The stories, the gathering together of the Labour family all in one place. So all the way through this episode, we are going to have the reflections and stories from, you guessed it, none other than Sky News' John Craig and he'll be here all the way through this episode. To be honest, I can't get enough of his stuff.
I think John Prescott and I had a love-hate relationship really. I loved him and he hated me. I mean he used to, he was, when he used to come down to the PLP meeting, parliamentary Labour party meetings from the House of Lords to the big committee room 14. He would always go, press, press, F in press, F in press. And of course I was always one of the journalists there.
And because the esteemable John Craig was always there and is always there, as it happens, if you switch on Skurnies today, he'll be there in Hull at the funeral. You'll be hearing from him throughout today's podcast with his stories that I will promise will brighten up your Thursday. John's stories are the stuff of legend in Westminster and so are John Prescott's stories. So I'm sure that'll be a good one. So Prescott, of course, died in November. He was 86. He was the MP for Holley's for 40 years, Deputy Labor Leader for 13 years, Deputy PM for 10 years,
under Tony Blair and of course we're going to have the pretty much the entire new Labour family turning up at the service today. It's more than 300 family, friends, colleagues. You should start seeing arrivals kind of mid-morning and then the funeral starts at 12 o'clock.
And we had Kiyastama already, who should be there, paying tribute overnight. He said that Prescott's place in our history is assured, not as he expected for that one famous moment. He's of course talking about that punch in real, but for his fighting spirit across an entire lifetime of service. You can say you can expect that punching clip to be played again and again today, but it is about more than that, is there? You've been doing a ring round of figures talking about John Prescott, Dan, what did you find?
Yeah, so my playbook colleague, Andrew McDonald, has talked several people, including Peter Mandelson, didn't always get on with John Prescott famously, did he? But he revealed that he had this kind of call with him, not long before he died, actually, where John Prescott said to Peter Mandelson that he realized how badly Mandelson had been treated, including by Prescott. And he said, I'm sorry for what happened, and I forgive you.
It shows that under this quite tough bruiser exterior, there was a complicated figure there wasn't this one. Yes, but bruising is what John Prescott sometimes did best. And well, John Greg is back because he remembers just how fractious that Mandelson Prescott relationship was at point. Not the press ever thanked you for putting it in the papers.
At the 1995 Labour Party conference in Brighton, I'd written a story for the Daily Express, I was political editor, about a dispute between John Prescott and Peter Mandelson, over who was going to give a flagship radio interview on the Friday morning, the Flust Day of Conference. Of course, you'll remember that John Prescott always gave his Led Dawson style speech on the last day of the Labour Party conference.
Anyway, we splashed the story. Prescott was furious, and when he went up on the platform, he was brandishing this huge pork pie, which he'd got from a local butcher. And he was going, lies, lies, porky pies. He even pursued me into the press room. We brought with actually a Sky News crew and a BBC crew. Anyway, I wasn't going to accept the pork pie and give him the pleasure of humiliating me.
And he ended up making rather a fool of himself. And I learned very recently that all his press people had said to him, don't do that, John. Anyway, I went and took the pork pie back to the Daily Express office and presented it to the editor, Sir Nicholas Lloyd. But we had great fun. We put in the paper the next day. We put a big picture of Prescott with his face in a pork pie. And for every time he saw me after that, he said, oh, it's the pie, man. It's the pie, man. Porky pies.
Well, if it was John Prescott's intention to embarrass John Craig, well, I have to say that John Craig was telling that story with gusto up and down the office. There'll be more John Prescott stories at the moment from John Craig, and there are other John Craig John Prescott stories he has that perhaps don't make a family friendly podcast. So grab him if you see him.
Yeah, at least it wasn't only John Craig though. I was talking to someone who worked on the whole Daily Mail all those years ago yesterday, and he didn't want to speak to them either. He would be asked kind of normal local paper questions and say, I do not speak to the whole Daily Mail. The person who worked there couldn't even remember why this was, it was some feud that was lost to the mist of time.
But, you know, he did love Hull and his constituency and he always ate in the same Chinese restaurant in Hull. It was kind of famous and had him as a regular customer. There were claims that he used to go once a week. So he's a really interesting figure, but he was also very aware of all this kind of
Snobbery, as his supporters would call it, and judgment from people who were kind of more true to type in Westminster. When I was going through yesterday, I dug out this great story from the Telegraph at the time about how when he was standing in at Deputy Prime Minister's questions, he spent basically the entire week preparing with a team of 14 people and even rang up Tony Blair, who was in New Zealand at the time to kind of ask him for advice, because
Actually, you know, he was quite nervous about how he came across at the dispatch box and he was quite cautious about presenting the right image.
I think that theme of protecting his image was something that was quite important to John Prescott through his entire political career, whether it was Rouse about who was going on the radio, as we heard with Peter Mandelson, or a sensitivity around how people talked about him. He was determined never to be underestimated or to be seen to be somebody who could be underestimated.
But that didn't mean he didn't have his moments of absolute drama. The biggest one of all came in the general election in 2001. I remember watching it on Sky trying to work out whether flesh had been contact with flesh. But let's let John Craig tell that story.
but yeah he was great copy over the years I mean everybody will remember of course the punch in the during the 2001 general election when of course he punched a man in real when the man think through an egg or a tomato or something at him and the story goes that when Johnny Blair said John is John when asked about it and the story is purely apocryphal I'm sure that Prescott said to him
Well, Tony, you said I should connect with the voters. So I think there'll be quite a lot of people saying that John Prescott was about much more than that incident. John Prescott himself made that point before he passed away in one of his final interviews. But the truth is that in many ways that does symbolise all the different bits of his time in high office, not least that that episode could happen. And today, I suspect the consequences would be very different.
But back in 2001, he was such an integral part of the Blair Project that I think there was very little question that Blair would do anything other than back him rather than sack him. Deputy Prime Minister has come in other sort of stripes, shapes and sizes. I suspect, Dan, that if Angela Rayner was to copy John Prescott's behaviour and maybe make fist contact with a voter, she might not be in the job for quite as long as John Prescott?
Yes, although she did talk called the Tori's scum if you remember, and she's still in a job now, which is not quite punching someone, but it's kind of some of the way there. It's interesting though, isn't it, the question of how much is Angela Raina like John Prescott? She's kind of danced around this question herself. She's sometimes said that she's inspired by John Prescott. She sometimes said she was trying to be the new Barbara Castle.
But she was taking advice from John Prescott, you know, I think she said that he was telling her, you've got a voice kid, use it, you know, trade on and kind of make a thing of the fact that you do have a bit of a different background to other people in Westminster. And she is also that kind of link with the unions, isn't she? She's the human touch, the foil to maybe a leader who is sometimes considered a little bit kind of a luff or out of touch as Tony Blair sometimes was.
And is she happy with that status? Was John Prescott happy with that status? You know, I was talking to someone who knew him. Yesterday, he was saying that he was the link into the union general secretaries, but he wasn't always happy with that. He kind of didn't want to be known as this one trichponian. At the same time, the general secretaries would sometimes bypass him and go straight to Blair and Brown. So do you think we see any of that kind of complicated politics being repeated now, Sam?
I think that the job that John Prescott did was to establish that you could have a big, valuable deputy prime minister and the various holders of that office since then have really benefited from the way that John Prescott established that as a sort of
as a post in that mold in the way that I don't think it really had existed. This is something of a counterweight to the Prime Minister, somebody who sort of tickled a different little bit of the electorate, and somebody who was also able to flex their bustles across bits of Whitehall, but really their principal job was helping shepherd the politics, and particularly party politics, when a political party is in government.
and sort of hold the whole thing together. I think those elements of the job are ones that survive to Angela Reyna today, particularly when Labour is in power. I think that's what the debt to Prime Minister when that post exists does. And I think that those elements of the job and that mantle has been taken on by the current incumbent, who I'm sure will be in Hull today.
Now, you're probably at this point wondering what on earth the rest of the day holds as far as political news and we've got a job to do, so we'll just run through some of the stuff quickly. Later today, Yvette Cooper's home office is introducing one of their election manifesto Biggies, the big bill to give counter-terror-style powers to smash the gangs, a phrase that you've heard over and over from Keir Starmer.
and from the Home Secretary. And as it happens, Yvette Cooper has done a round of interviews to speak about this and there are crime stats out today. But although I know all the details, and I've even read the transcript of the interview between the Home Secretary and our very own Rob Powell, all the embargoes absolutely forbid me from telling you anything that is in that interview or really going into much detail about that legislation.
So we can't really talk about it too much longer. The embargo situation is frankly a bit nuts either about their shiny new bill or maybe they don't because it's all quite techie powers. It's unclear whether they'll make any difference at all. Anyway, details and facts to back up the speculation are banned because of the late afternoon embargo, which all seems a bit nuts to me. Dan, why has this happened?
Yes, this is just how the government's spin-doctory works. I'm afraid what's happened is people want Rachel Reeves to have a bit more airtime in the papers for her speech, and they don't want to have another big story in the papers. That is kind of overshadowing the coverage, the fallout of that growth speech yesterday. It hasn't entirely worked. There's a big leak of the details in the Times. It's going to be very controversial later in the day because it's a big or political hot potato for the Tories this one.
but largely it has worked, you know, we've been looking through the papers this morning and they are pretty much dominated by that growth speech. The Leeds of Columns, not totally negative, you know, you can't argue with a growth plan, but there are loads of questions about how long this is all going to take. I saw Rachel Reeves herself say last night that she wants this consent order for Heathrow signed in this Parliament. That runs until 2029 and you don't even start digging and rerouting the M25 till that's done.
And the papers, you know, are also making the office point that was covered pretty well yesterday that, you know, her budget three months ago today raised taxes on business and business is still very upset about that. And some of those tax rises kind of are yet to come in. So the Tories are going pretty hard on that, aren't they, Sam?
They are. Well, to be honest, I do really feel like this speech had a longer lead in time than the new runway he throw. If I'm being honest, I am completely re-used out. I read the papers pretty much covered this morning and I couldn't see any new facts at all. There are a lot of people going through some of the arguments that we've spent days on this podcast going through.
In the end, what Rachel Reeves did yesterday was give us a very long list of projects that we'll sort of hold her to see whether she makes progress on making these things actually happen, and quite a long list of effectively of things that this government now wants to legislate for changes to the planning system and the like, but that will be quite hard
And the rest of the rhetoric, I kind of thought, was pretty much something that any chancellor could have done in the last, well, any of the talky chances, bluntly, would share 90% of the kind of argument that she made. If I'm being honest, Dan, actually, 10 minutes before Rachel Reeves' speech, I did put into an AI chat pot, rightly a speech of Rachel Reeves and growth.
and quite a lot of the rhetoric that actually the cruelers and the AI bots were able to come up with felt awfully similar to what Rachel was saying. So there was a little bit of scrolling as the speech was going on anyway, but he's all about the execution. She's given us some things for us to hold her to. So we'll do that. So on that note, I thought it would be a good moment to pause and just drop in the question in another context, of course, what actually triggers a Cabinet Minister to resign? Here's John Craig again.
I remember in 1992 when John Smith became leader of the Labour Party, succeeded Neil Kinwick. One of the first things that happened under John Smith's leadership, I think it was the Labour Party conference was in Blackpool. And Brian Gould, who had been seen as very much a moderniser, a Kinwick ally, resigned from the shadow cabinet. There was some difference, some morale between him and John Smith. And I remember saying to John Prescott, we were at the entrance, I think, to the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool.
I said, you're not in a resign, I don't be daft." Now, that absolutely isn't a question being put to Rachel Reeves today and anybody who thought we might be linking the two is completely wrong, but it was a nice anecdote from John Craig, nevertheless. There are a few other things going on today. There's the assisted dying legislation which continues to come under speculation. The times on its front page has a story about whether or not the MPs on the Bill Committee might be pushing to change some of the safeguards. This is the idea that a judge would have to authorize it.
As it happens, I know there's deep concern about this in government and nobody's quite sure how that's going to be resolved. There could be an amendment from government as soon as next week in order to change the safeguards that Parliament has said that it wants about assisted dying. But we'll have to wait and see the whole judge authorisation stuff is and has caused a headache, according to multiple government sources. Also, watch out for a film by my colleague, Ali Forceskewin Wales. She has been talking to the key players
Actually, the rise of reform could shake up the whole political kaleidoscope if they start overtaking other parties when we get to the Welsh elections. Next year, she's been talking to the first Minister of the Labour First Minister, who is using the argument that there's nothing Welsh about reform. Reform, of course, launched their manifesto in Murford-Tidville, birthplace of the Labour Party, so they're trying to
Create some links and myth building around there. They're sort of toe-holding whales. So that is one to watch as is Ali's film. But politics is all about the new and in with the new and out with the old, which is very much the theme of this podcast. And yesterday something rather unusual happened. All sorts of new MPs went to see the king. What happened next, Dan?
They were all lined up hundreds of them by all accounts in the state dining room in Buckingham Palace with Keir Starber and Kemi Badonok both there. I should say the state dining room has the two thrones at the end of the room. By all accounts Keir and Kemi didn't go and sit on the thrones, although that would have been much more amusing. And you have these MPs who basically only came into Parliament six months ago
trying to work out whether they should bow or curtsy, desperately trying to think of their thing to say when they had their eight seconds with the king. And most of them kind of, you know, managed to say where they represent. And if they're lucky, the king will say, oh, I went there, I went there. And then it moves on. And they kind of have this great moment where they have a three-course meal through canopays they have.
English sparkling wine and they enjoy the trappings of the state room and suddenly think that actually, yeah, being a politician isn't too bad. I talked to one Labour MP who said one of their colleagues arrived in a car with a slightly cheeky personalised number plate, which I don't think I can read out on air.
and another Labour MP who said, yes they did go to Buckingham Palace, but they had a far bigger privilege, brace yourself for this, listening to the Queen deliver her growth speech earlier today.
I do sometimes wonder whether meetings with the monarchs are better as stories told to friends rather than they are in the moment. Maybe that's cool. Maybe that's unfair. But that is always been my feeling on the very odd occasion. I've been allowed anywhere near. Anyway, that was the alarm. 20 minute alarm. Thank you very much indeed, Dan. We will be back with this podcast, whatever it's called, on Monday morning. Very early to give you everything you need to know about the day ahead in British politics. Have a lovely weekend. See you soon.
Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. Together we can truly make America great again. We are in for an unpredictable but fascinating four years. And we're going to be following every twist and turn for the first 100 days. We'll be bringing you the latest updates and analysis. First thing every morning. So join me, James Matthew. Me, Martha Kallet. And me, Mark Stone. For Trump 100, every weekday at 6am. Wherever you get your podcast.