24/09/2016 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

With me are the political commentator, Jo Phillips

and the Political Editor of the Sunday Express,

Distinguished company with which to review the front pages. The Sunday

Telegraph has an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair and

he says enquiries into abuse of British troops should never have

been ordered. David Cameron is quoted in the Mail on Sunday. London

Plaza Mayor Sadiq Khan claims in the Sunday Times that divisions in the

Labour Party could lead to a split. And the Sunday Express says the

detective who brought Christopher Halley well to justice may have

killed the missing chef Claudia Lawrence. -- Christopher Halliwell.

The Sun reports that Zoe Ball and Norman Cook are separating after 18

years together. Let's start with the Sunday Times.

The big story of today was the real election of Jeremy Corbyn. The

Sunday Times says a purge now could kill Labour. It's not really

surprise on. Sadiq Khan is the most senior elected Labour official in

the country. He is not in Jeremy Corbyn's shed their cabinet so he

can speak out with a great degree of seniority. He is obviously saying

what many people are thinking that the purge of MPs who are not loyal

to Corbyn by the Lamenting group would see a split worse than that

which led to the setup of the SDP with the gang of four -- the

momentum group. Mr Corbyn was not talking about a purge. As Jo said,

we would not expect him to come out and say now let the purge begin! We

do know behind the scenes that he is keen to get the former members of

the Shadow Cabinet who left in the summer back on board. There are some

who are willing but I know there are others who feel concerned that the

boundary changes are on the horizon and they will face deselection. Last

week we saw a list going out of uncooperative Labour MPs which many

of them saw as a bit of a hit list and they feared this would be used

by Momentum supporters to go after them and that is making them feel

reticent about rejoining the party. The attempt by MPs to dethrone

Jeremy Corbyn has backfired because he has ended up with a bigger slice

of the vote and a stronger not weaker division. He has 61% of the

vote which is 2% more than last time, a competence of victory. But

he still does not have the support of his MPs in Parliament. It is

great, Jeremy Corbyn is clearly very popular. So is Mary Berry and lots

of other people. Clearly popular amongst the registered supporters. A

YouGov poll yesterday was clear that Labour members who joined the party

prior to 2015, it was Owen Smith who was far more popular amongst them.

And without the support of the Labour Party in Parliament, he is

not effective as Leader of the Opposition. Whether or not they

allow the elections to Shadow Cabinet, that will be the testing

point. Let's shift the focus from the Labour Party to the Conservative

Party. A couple of papers have stories detailing the divisions

between David Cameron and Theresa May. The Sunday Times have a story,

what is that about? That is the Sunday Times political editor who

appears regularly on this programme, Tim Shipman, who has a book coming

out shortly, which is a chronicle about what went on behind the doors

of Downing Street during the referendum campaign. One of the

things he is saying in this book is Theresa May told Cameron he should

not push ahead with the months for an emergency brake on migrants

coming to Britain. He is using this as a division within the Cabinet to

suggest that Cameron and Theresa May were at loggerheads over Brexit and

she had not been supportive of his plans to shore up support for

renegotiation. However, if you read on, what it is basically saying is

there was this plan on the table for this emergency brake which was going

to be introduced at the last moment to shore up support and ultimately,

Cameron was told he would not get away with it. Obviously, he would

not go ahead with something which would essentially be blown a role

spree by the rest of Europe almost immediately. -- a raspberries. The

Mail on Sunday have information by someone who used to work at the BBC

and now he has a book which is being serialised in the Mail on Sunday,

again about the divisions between David Cameron and the extent of his

frustration by Theresa May's refusal to back him on the EU referendum. He

begged her to come off the fence but she refused and one of Cameron's

allies questioned whether she was secretly and enemy agent. They don't

waste time! He has only just come out of Downing Street, got his

knighthood and here comes the book. I do think you should have a little

degree... You will not be reading it? I am sure I can read the

explosive extracts if I want to. It is all written in this hyperbole

about bombshells and explosive revelations. It does not tell you

anything you did not know. But nine minutes before Boris Johnson put

himself at the head of the Leave campaign, he had reassured Cameron

in a secret text, it could not be that secret because Craig Oliver saw

it and read it, it is really about the shenanigans behind the scenes

with David Cameron, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson. Theresa May has been

in Downing Street for a few months so now it is she was this, that, the

other. Some of it I have to say it does not ring true. Disinterest in

because it is kind of history. Yes, and rewritten history because

Theresa May is in power. Would she have been the focus of this book if

it was Boris Johnson who had become Prime Minister? This talks about the

fact that Theresa May was not being desperately supported and in one

decision she decided to go on holiday for a weekend break with her

husband rather than support Cameron. If you know something about Theresa

May, she was never off duty as Home Secretary. The idea that she would

flounce off on holiday and not be a full player in this is a little bit

far-fetched. Ultimately, she played an amazing game during Brexit. She

literally let all the other people in the leadership race take each

other out. It worked very well for her. The idea that David Cameron

said in January she could be Prime Minister in six months... In

January, it was going to be Boris. We are talking about David Cameron,

one former Prime Minister, let's talk about another former Prime

Minister, Tony Blair. The Sunday Telegraph are continuing their

campaign into a quarry is into alleged abuses of British troops in

places like Iraq and Palestine -- there enquiry is. -- Iraq and

Afghanistan. The Iraq historic allegations team was set up by

Gordon Brown. Obviously, it is of grave concern for service personnel

who have served in difficult circumstances in terrible places

that 14 years on they are being investigated and in some cases, the

particular case which came up recently about the Iraqi teenager

who drowned in a canal outside Basra in 2003, that was investigated in

2004 and the soldiers involved were cleared in 2006. It is the length of

time. You think troops should be investigated if there is an

allegation? I think there should be an investigation and we cannot on

one hand welcome, as I think everybody in this country did the

enquiry into Hillsborough which brought to light what people had

been saying for a long time, and at the same time say, well, we can't do

it because soldiers are above reproach. And it is not something

which Theresa May has not said. She has brought her top brass in to say

let's knock a few heads together and see what we can do to look at these

cases and bring this to a reasonable conclusion. We would not expect her

to draw a line under it and say let's not look at this. It is about

speed, I think. Talking of speed, we have not got too much longer. Let's

go to a couple of lighter stories. The Sunday Times, the Great British

Bake Off saga continues. You think that is a lighter story! The BBC is

threatening to rush out a rival show to the Great British Bake Off which

has gone to Channel 4. Not much has gone to Channel 4 apart from Paul

Hollywood. One man and his tent. Maybe Mary and Mel and Sue will do

it in a kitchen somewhere else. Is this what the BBC should be doing?

They are supposed to be an innovator. John Whittingdale said

ultimately what the BBC should be doing is not morning losing it to

Channel 4, just come up with a new show. But if they come up with a new

one it could be a breach of copyright on the formula. They could

call it take off. Or a cough. And from one hit BBC showed to Strictly

and we have Ed Balls. Doesn't he look lovely? Never mind Paul

Hollywood, Ed Balls and Mary Berry. Balls and Berry. But does he know

anything about baking? I am not sure he doesn't know anything about

dancing either. They said for a former Labour minister it is very

conservative dancing. Is he an example of a politician reinventing

himself? He lost his seat and now he's starring on prime-time

television. Whatever you think, it is tough when you lose your seat.

Some people manage to get on with it. Michael Portillo has had a very

successful career as a broadcaster, historian and travel writer and

still does the odd bit of politics with Andrew Neil. Ed Balls is

obviously keen on doing this side of thing.

He is the lighter side. He has said it will probably embarrass his

family. Bless him. We love a loser in this country. Will you be

watching him? Maybe. Thank you for the time being.

You'll both be back at 11.30pm for another look at the stories