aubrey , let's aubrey allegretti. aubrey, let's start with you., i'm exhausted watching it back. can you imagine actually doing it.7 he is a difficult person to interview. >> you did a great job of trying to keep him on track, and i thought he spoke with real sort of moral clarity about foreign affairs issues. so ukraine, about the support that he received from donald trump about the aukus alliance. but when it came to some of the big domestic issues, his handling of covid, whether or not he'd have made a better leader than rishi sunak and led the party to a victory at the general election and these sorts of things, he just seemed so sort of disorientated. and i'm still not sure that he's quite fully understood exactly why he was forced out of office. >> i don't think he understands , >> i don't think he understands, james, how angry the public still are about partygate . still are about partygate. there's this thing, he does this, i called it earlier, a merry go round of blame. at what point can boris johnson actually bnng point can boris johnson

and my thanks, therefore, to matthew lazar, anna mikhailova and aubrey allegretti.thoven. we'll be back in about three minutes. thank you very much indeed welcome back to sunday morning with michael portillo . i'm with michael portillo. i'm joined now by an acknowledged authority on ludwig van beethoven. he's already written seven books on the subject, and next week his eighth is released. it's called in search of beethoven, and it stands apart as a deeply personal account of john suchet's relationship with the great composer as he follows his footsteps from bonn to vienna. yes, i introduce author, journalist and classic fm presenter john suchet . hello, presenter john suchet. hello, michael, it's delightful to have you here. and you have, as i say, written now eight books on beethoven. so the question is , beethoven. so the question is, why beethoven? >> well, the word that is often used that i don't like is obsession obsessive because somehow there's something not quite right about that. the word that i quite right about that. the word thati use quite right about

aubrey allegretti , james price, aubrey allegretti, james price, eve pollard and matthew lazar. haskel. and we were going to reflect, of course, on the horrific anniversary of the october 7th attacks. but before then, we've got the news again with sam francis . with sam francis. >> camilla, thank you very much. just coming up to 9:30 and we start with some breaking news coming to us from the home office this lunchtime that a record breaking 973 migrants crossed the english channel in just a single day yesterday. that's according to official figures , just into us in the figures, just into us in the last few minutes. they arrived in 17 small boats, surpassing the previous record set in june of 882. saturday's surge also came as four migrants, including a young child, sadly died, making the journey across the channel. the total number of arrivals this year has now reached 26,612. well, it follows a new deal by the home secretary, yvette cooper and g7 ministers to tackle criminal smuggling gangs and some news also just breaking in the last hour or so on the conflict ongoing in leba

matthew laza former head of broadcast for the labour party , broadcast for the labour party, and aubrey allegrettif political correspondent for the times. i got to know alex salmond reasonably well in 2011, which was at the very height of his powers. i was making a documentary about him during the 2011 election, which , as i say, 2011 election, which, as i say, he won with an overall majority. under a system designed to stop any party achieving that, it was any party achieving that, it was a remarkable career. how do you assess it, aubrey? >> well, i mean , he obviously >> well, i mean, he obviously pushed scotland to the brink of independence and in the pursuit of ramping up what his sort of planned objective was up the agenda, he was very successful in that endeavour. obviously, ultimately, we know that ten years ago he came close. but ten percentage points separated? yes and no. and i suppose it's really been since that point that his sort of influence, his power has diminished and declined . but he has obviously declined. but he has obviously laid the ground for the snp to be able to remain in

we can talk to chief political correspondent at the times, aubrey allegretti. urky scandal that just whatever they try to do isn't going anywhere at the moment . going anywhere at the moment. >> no, because it's one of those issues that has sort of always existed in westminster. but has only become noticed. and i suppose taken on a new prominence in recent months. and that's partly because of the backdrop to this, which is rachel reeves sort of bracing the country for £22 billion worth of tax rises and spending cuts, and a squeeze to the welfare bill. but the reason this has gained so much prominence is i suppose, people looking at this and saying, is it a great look for politicians to be taking so many freebies at a time when people are being told we're going to have to sort of tighten our collective belts? lord alli is obviously the sort of flypaper, i suppose, for a lot of the criticism that's been levied at politicians. but his donations and his support for labour politicians goes back quite a long way. >> what do you make of sir keir starmer giving back £6,

aubrey , times, aubrey allegretti. aubrey, welcome to the show.do you think is going to be talked about today ? there's been a huge about today? there's been a huge backlash, of course, after the madison square gardens event, the comedian who spoke about puerto rico being a floating island of garbage. now that's had a significant impact. you'd imagine kamala harris and the democrat team making hay out of that. but more significantly, today , angel citron, he's the today, angel citron, he's the chairman of puerto rico's republican party, threatened to withdraw his support from donald trump's campaign unless there's a full apology. what started as a full apology. what started as a as a really poorjoke has now become a rather serious, diplomatic incident. >> certainly. and i suspect that this might be a case of damage limitation for the trump campaign. obviously, donald trump himself didn't make these comments, but they were made on a platform and in an arena where people were gathering to hear him and members of his family speak. >> and so this obvi