it's very similar to the row over dominic cummings.g a distraction. you've clearly got disagreements within the team and obviously they've made the decision that despite her enormous experience and the fact that she was brought on board to help labour prepare for government, they've been out of power for a very long time. that clearly it's not worth it anymore because she has become the distraction. so that seems to be the story. but of course, what it calls into question is the power of unelected people around the prime minister. and i think this really goes back to tony blair's time in parliament. before then, i don't think anybody really knew who the officials in downing street were, who were running a prime minister's diary, who were doing their press. that wasn't kind of part of the package of our politics. now, it very much is. and i think speaking as a former mp, it can be quite frustrating sometimes when you are the elected one, you're the one who's been put into the house of commons by constituents and yet actually the feeling

you've got dominic cummings describing you as a shopping trolley . you've got shopping trolley.e still not forgiven you for partygate. rightly or wrongly . now for partygate. rightly or wrongly. now you're for partygate. rightly or wrongly . now you're saying for partygate. rightly or wrongly. now you're saying on lockdowns. i'm not saying that lockdowns. i'm not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing. i'm sure they had some effect . but sure they had some effect. but were they decisive in beating back the disease, turning that wave down, all i can say is i am no longer sure which all sorts of amounts to you. having mismanaged this pandemic quite badly. >> well, on the contrary, i would say, actually, if you look at what we did in that period and, and, and beyond, it was absolutely outstanding. >> we haven't just got cummings's analysis of it. we've also got sir graham brady, who's come out with his own memoir. he's saying at one minute you were sort of cursing the two metre rule. the next you were asking him as he was a covid sceptic, how many people would you let die? >> but i

you've got dominic cummings describing you as a shopping trolley.ple still not forgiven you for partygate rightly or wrongly. now you're saying on lockdowns , i'm not saying that lockdowns, i'm not saying that lockdowns, i'm not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing. i'm sure they had some effect. but were they decisive in beating back the disease? turning that wave down, all i can say is i am no longer sure which all sorts of amounts to you. having mismanaged this pandemic quite badly. >> well, on the contrary, i would say that actually, if you look at what we did in that penod look at what we did in that period and, and, and beyond, it was absolutely outstanding. and the, the, you know, on, on lockdowns and the efficacy of lockdowns. i know that , you lockdowns. i know that, you know, sainted colleagues on gb news and you and viewers will have different opinions about the whether they were the right thing to do. >> the suggestion is that the cure was worse than the disease . cure was worse than the disease. >> and i've heard that so let me, you k

he dispensed with dominic cummings , but then with dominic cummings, but then didn't have another adviserthat meant count, carrie. and so that meant that when, you know, there was a lot of trouble , there was nobody lot of trouble, there was nobody to say, shut up for us. you know, don't speak, boris, until we've actually established the facts. don't go off and say things that you're then going to have to qualify and then dash it prequalify, you know. shut up man. nobody said that to him. nobody said it to him. so every time he opened his mouth, he made things worse. >> and i know you'll be looking forward to nigel farage's memoirs. after all, he is the leader of the party that you now support. but will you be reading boris's book? >> oh well, i've already read the excerpts in the in the newspapers and i've enjoyed those tremendously. it's everything i thought. i mean, he doesn't care what he says and he's got a tremendous sense of humour . so i he's got a tremendous sense of humour. so i never read any extracts without laughing and thinking, yes, you know, so i thinking, yes, you know, s

a long way to go, and i'm not sure that we are at the same stage as, you know, kind of when dominic cummingsly he went around briefing against boris. >> no, i don't imagine sue gray will brief against keir starmer. i don't think that's her, her style. but i think you've touched on two things that are very important. one is where does power lie in downing street? and you're implying that it lies with mcsweeney rather than with starmer , which is very than with starmer, which is very undermining for a leader and the other is that a leader's strength is partly dependent on his loyalty to his supporters and his advisers. and if, as an adviser, you think i won't be supported, then you become less loyal . one of the great things loyal. one of the great things about working with boris johnson, and actually some would say this was a fault of his, was that he was always loyal to the people who were loyal to him. and i certainly found that as a as a minister, and that gave him great strength because people he'd been loyal to be loyal to then went out to bat for him. he wouldn't go out to bat for keir

>> well, they never had a problem talking about dominic cummings. complete hypocrisy from itv quite frankly. and all of this reminds me of that headline. and i think it was the daily mail where it said rishi sunak said 100 days starmer will ruin britain. well, he was absolutely right, wasn't he? he was absolutely right. sanctimonious starmer has sat on this moral high horse for many, many years . this moral high horse for many, many years. he's this moral high horse for many, many years . he's pointed the many years. he's pointed the finger. he said he's going to clean up politics well, like you said, look at the rap sheet. look at the rap sheet. this is one of the most crony governments i've seen and they are up to their eyeballs in it. >> well come on, jesse, look, you know, this is just saying. >> just be honest, man. >> just be honest, man. >> don't hold back. don't hold back. >> come on. look, you know jj is starmer not is he not already done worse stuff than boris johnson ever did. >> i don't think so. the problem? here's the problem. when bor

and that's not really that different from, you know, the situation we saw with dominic cummings whenually, is that when it happened with dominic cummings, everyone on the labour benches was saying this was a complete and utter chaos. >> it's a sign that boris johnson hasn't got a grip and he needs to go. he's employed a lunatic behind the scenes and this just shows what a terrible leader he is. and the difference is that now this is happening with sue gray, everyone is saying, oh , well done, sue. saying, oh, well done, sue. you've managed to complete all of the matters in hand and you can just shuffle off now, possibly to the house of lords. >> well, i'm not sure i've said that. i think it was inevitable that. i think it was inevitable that she had to go and i would be the first to accept that, you know, they've not had the most brilliant of starts. there clearly have been things that have gone wrong. i think the comms have been really poor. i think their ability to anticipate the attacks that were likely to be made on them have been poor, and i think it is true they need to tighten

you know, we haven't really had a definitive response to him on people like dominic cummings , michaele going to get sunak. and we're going to get that from 930. so i cannot be more, yeah, tune in everyone is a lot of fun and that's going to be very interesting. >> yeah. i'll tell you what i find intriguing about this whole thing, considering he was our prime minister and a lot of people, you know, say he should be back. he should be leading this country again, or at least leading a political party again. is he someone then when you talk about the book, people say, well, it's going to be i'm going to read it because it will be entertaining. >> it is such a good book. yeah, but it's got mixed reviews. but i had to speed read it and usually you speed read books under duress. yeah. this was some of it's laugh out loud funny, but then you have to ask yourself, does the book betray a lack of seriousness , which is lack of seriousness, which is what has been his undoing in the first place, is the best thing we can get from a prime minister or a foreign prime minister. >> the fact they're ent

you know how dominic cummings does? i bet she said shopping trolley. said shopping trolley. i can't confirm that. >> i know what i would pay to money see. cummings interviewing johnson. that'd be great, wouldn't it? that would . and wouldn't it? that would. and then sell their books afterwards. >> they should do that thing where they play chess and then box. you know that chess, boxing, chess. >> is that like a biathlon for intellectuals? yeah. >> you do chess and then you do one round of boxing. i don't see anybody really do that. yes, real. that's real. yeah. i don't see that. >> what, chess and boxing. that feel like. that's like lewis sheffield. >> i don't know what either of those things are. >> i know there's the chess and drinking one. you know, if you, when you take an opponent's piece you have to down a shot of vodka. so it's the great leveller. it's a kind of kamala harris equity all the way. >> it's a great leveller for russians. yeah. like we're already good at chess. and now we're going to beat you with our vodka at varne. >> it's very tru

as people like dominic cummings have pointed out, it's very hard to actually sack a lot of these peopleave the power to sack them, is it, nick? >> i mean, because i often think, you know, they always talk about the bonfire of the quangos and they never actually light the fuse, i think just blow the whole thing up. >> yeah. cummings has said he said something like a minister can only sack three people or something. there's all these, you know, rules with byzantine complexity in terms of actually getting rid of really. it's not so easy. you can just go in and clear them out or it would have been done by now. >> yeah, maybe. okay. well, i will defer to your judgement. i know very little about it. we're going to move on now to this terrible story in the daily mail. nick, you've got the details on this. >> yeah. this is psychologist, 53, who works at tavistock clinic, remains free to practice despite being caught grooming a schoolboy, 15, for sex in a park. and it's as bad as it sounds. this is doctor ross kennard, and he was entrusted to treat youngsters mental health as lead psychologist a

dominic cummings said that.d, if you go out, you should be able to deal with it with the navy. >> well, the problem for labour is they wouldn't appeal to all of their base by that, like they are in a position where all they need to do is like deport enough people to get a headline out of it, and then all of a sudden, look, we're the supporters, but the labour voters wouldn't like that. but within a lot of the people on the dinghies are voting labour. so yeah. no, i mean, within the big church of laboun mean, within the big church of labour, there are some people who probably do lean towards thinking that we shouldn't have borders at all, and you'd end up there's those, but i think most of them are secretly just say nice things at dinner parties , nice things at dinner parties, but actually just just want the water cannons out in their backyard. >> that's what i believe. yeah, yeah. >> nick, moving on to the times. what is youth demand? is it a protest group or a delivery service for bbc newsreaders? >> yeah, it'

>> well, i can't compete with that, but i was going to say dominic cummings for actually doing over emily about the eu's procurement policies over covid vaccines, she was totally wrong and she's made a fool of herself and he's corrected her. >> okay, go on then. >> okay, go on then. >> jonathan louise hague, transport secretary, for taking the universally popular decision of getting rid of the advertising board at euston, which was quite dangerous because people had to sort of flock to those much smaller boards to see their trains . and boards to see their trains. and the platform gets announced two minutes before the train leaves. and so you have quite dangerous overcrowding at euston. it's a terrible station, but on the flip side, she's now announcing likely that hs2 will in fact go to houston rather than terminating. oh yeah, in the middle of nowhere in west london. so at least let's just do one thing right with the long term infrastructure in this country, for god's sake. >> fine. oh yeah , good stuff >> fine. oh yeah, good stuff actually, that i am, of course, going for this week's w

but like dominic cummings, that became a boris johnson sort of arch nemesis.has very much become the story. and for people that think, oh , this is people that think, oh, this is just some westminster bubble thing, the reason it matters is because we've basically got dysfunction, things not working properly at the heart of number 10. and what we're seeing as a consequence of that is that the first three months of the labour government have been very, very bumpy indeed. we've had the donations row, which they don't seem to have been able to shut down, you know, coming at the same time, they're taking money from pensioners and there's been all sorts of briefings and counter briefings . all sorts of briefings and counter briefings. simon all sorts of briefings and counter briefings . simon case, counter briefings. simon case, the cabinet secretary, is very important. he's off. sue gray, the chief of staff, she's off. morgan mcsweeney, who was the mastermind? if you like, between labour's big victory , where they labour's big victory, where they got over 400 seats