TODAY: UK ELECTION SPECIAL | Former Speaker of the House John Bercow on the future of #ukpolitics

benefit fraud my friends is overshadowed by the phenomenon of tax evasion there have been 14 prime ministers in my lifetime to date Harold McMillan Alec Douglas Hume Harold Wilson Ted Heath James Callahan Margaret Thatcher John Major Tony Blair Gordon Brown David Cameron Theresa May Boris Johnson Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak I say this without any pride because, like all of you, I care passionately about the state of our power and our country, which the last three mentioned have dispossessed more than any other I can remember and who I believe which is truly sad as far as Alexander Boris defl is concerned, without any competition, he has been the most disgraceful and corrupt of our prime ministers, a disgrace to the prime minister's office and to many people who considered themselves good, loyal and decent conservatives .

Liz, I trust that I am Fear is living proof of the argument that one must know oneself and, with the greatest courtesy to Liz, it should have been completely obvious to her, although she may have served as a member of a government, she clearly did not possessing the range of equipment necessary to be an effective prime minister was obvious to me, it was certainly obvious to you, unfortunately it was not to her and I say this not in a spirit of adom abuse but because I think it reflects the reality that she she was literally, and disastrously for each and every one of us, the most incompetent holder of the job in the history of the UK Premiership and that could possibly explain why she survived only 49 days in office and, as far as Rishi Sunak, let's just say this.

I found it perfectly polite when she was a junior minister responsible for local government. He had good interpersonal skills. He was well regarded in the

house

. He was effectively briefed for Question Time sessions etc., and I have no personal resentment towards him. I just think he qualifies for the description of the most out-of-touch Prime Minister we've ever had and having started well and I think he started well with the Windsor framework and trying to save from the rubble of Johnsonian ineptitude some semblance of an Irish-Ireland deal. North that would make commercial and political sense. He has retreated.

Actually, the right honorable gentleman, the member for Richmond Yorkshire has been reduced to his position and I think that is reflected in the terrible qualifications that he now has, so that is the first part. From the context, we have had three prime ministers in a Parliament showing some internal discomfort in a party and contempt. I think for the electorate, the second part of the context is that the government has collapsed the economy in a way that has been personally painful. This is not an absurd joke, this is a personal pain for millions of people who pay enormous bills with energy, but in particular with their mortgages, I am sorry to say that they have decimated the public sphere in the sense of a deterioration and deficit in the quality of the public service.

Services of a type and on a scale that I have not witnessed in my 61 years on this planet and in the process I believe this disreputable triker has eroded public trust in politics; Now public confidence in politics has not been high for quite some time. time, but public confidence in politics is now really at rock bottom and I think those three individuals bear a large part of the responsibility, so it will not surprise you to know that I would very much like to see a change of government and I am confident that there will be I am not a pollster I am not a sixist I have no experience I know that the main opposition party needs a swing of 12.7% to win a majority, a considerably larger swing than the AC team Tony Blair fought and won in 1997 and it is even larger than the cattle gained in 1945, so it is a huge mission and the scale of K Arma's responsibility should not be overlooked or despised or underestimated, but I think it is eminently achievable in some of those of you with many memories may remember that Barbara Castle mentioned in her Diaries probably with a bit of cheek because it had been a private conversation, but that's what the Diaries say, isn't it that Jim Callahan, who was not a friend of hers and she was not a friend of him, had I told you?

In the run-up to the 1979

election

, Barbara, we're going to lose and she said, "Oh, that's not the fight." I know the prime minister and he said no, of course, I'll do my best, of course I will, she said she, but once in a generation. There is a radical change in British politics and you can fight as hard as you can but there is nothing you can do to resist it we are in a time like this and the conservatives are going to win my point of view my sense my hunch my instinct my antenna I say it Me He says we are in that position now.

I think people are so completely disgusted with being fed up and lacking any kind of empathy with this government that they are going to go to the polls in significant numbers and there will be a change now. It's not my responsibility here. to regurgitate Labour's commitments there will have to be a Manifesto, its cost will be carefully calculated, its scope may be quite limited, but let me say this politely. K Starma and his team have already made it clear that they propose economic stability, which above all means they will not accept reckless bribes in the form of unfunded fiscal guts that would have to be reversed within a few months and possibly a few weeks of taking office, not They are going to do it and I think they are absolutely right not to do it. a limited commitment to try to strengthen the National Health Service in terms of the number of operations that can be carried out, they want to secure our borders and have

special

ist investigators and transnational cooperation against criminal gangs to try to ensure that our asylum system is restored. for some semblance of credibility, capability and fairness, they want to have cheap energy, they need a fight against anti-social behavior to be part of their central script and it is, and I think it is very important, not without controversy, nothing can be done without controversy, the labor party. says that we have such a shortage of

special

ist teachers in our classrooms and I speak with some feeling about this, since with my wife I had three children who have gone through the state education system, that we are going to hire several thousand more specialist teachers and I will finance it by withdrawing the charitable status of Independent Schools, which, frankly, is a historical anomaly anyway.

I didn't go to a public school or a fee-paying school. I don't envy the people who did it, except for the notion that they have some significant meaning. Feeling like Charities is trans is transparently absurd, so I know Kier will stand his ground if there is invective directed at him on that front and that's the gist of what they're saying now, it's limited but it will be funded and it will be credible. and based on my own experience in politics for over 40 years, I think I can safely say that it is better, especially when the level of cynicism and contempt for politicians is to under-promise and over-deliver, than to over-promise and accomplish little now.

I met when I was campaigning the other night for Marsha de Covos, the very witty and extraordinarily capable Labor candidate M who is seeking re-

election

in Basy, someone who said to me well, I wish the job prospectus was bolder and I said well, let's wait first . the manifesto and secondly, the key is to say what we mean and say what we say and know can be done. Extravagant auctions of promises that are subsequently resisted or collectively betrayed contribute to that erosion of trust that I myself just described and lamented, so I think it's better to be a little modest, a little discreet, and deliver than to overpromise. and bother people, and you know, I used to think charisma was very important, frankly, I don't think charisma is that important.

I think K Starma is a very decent guy, honest, upright, capable, with a good brain and solid values, and he is the main alternative without disrespecting people who have loyalties from other parties towards this government. Charisma, my hat, ladies and gentlemen. I think people are sick to the teeth. of people who could be considered charismatic public school players who think it's a very fun sport, what people, in my opinion, long for is a period of solidity, stability, quiet competition in running the country and, for my money , So it is. and based on my experience of seeing it in action, that is what a Starma Labor government would provide, so that is my position, but I fully respect it if you take a broader one: there are other objectives in policy than the limited list of promises that I took a brief tour of the world a few moments ago and I don't know about you, but as someone who has been quite fortunate in the course of his career and who is not a rich man but he is not totally impoverished, which bothers me in our country is that because it is relatively rich and has a large-scale economy, it is the most glaring indictment of 14 years of Conservative government: as we meet here

today

, 4.3 million children are growing up in poverty and when I looked at the statistics Before coming here, they showed that in the following year April 2024 3.1 121.00 people depended on the food banks congratulations and I mean it With all sincerity and respect to the trussle trust for the pioneering work it does and thanks also to all those who, from their limited available time and energy, decide to help in a food bank but, frankly, it is a scandal that we have to coexist with people who use every imaginable device they can to minimize the tax they pay and I would only say that the Safar waste and fraud are worried, we hear a lot. about benefit fraud, don't we know?

Of course it's wrong, it's an abuse of the system, people who should have resources are taken away from people who shouldn't and they should be persecuted and exposed and the money raised but and there is but benefit fraud, friends mine, it is overshadowed by the phenomenon of tax evasion and lack of tax evasion, clever tax evasion schemes designed to shift revenues in the short term, so what I would say is let's have a big public debate about the need to put at the forefront of public policy the fight against poverty and equity in our moral judgments between people who abuse the benefits system and those who cheat income because I believe that the latter, those who cheat income, are operating in a much larger and more egregious scale than the There is one issue that I have not mentioned until now, but I think I must.

Michael Heslin said the other day that he thought it was a dishonest election. I hope I didn't misspell what he said, but I think he did because the big issue on his mind the elephant in the room the issue of Brexit was not for the four of us well Michael will use his language I'm going to use mine I won't say what it is a dishonest election I completely understand why the parties that opposed Brexit, having struggled with the interstices of the system and the Manu I of the legislation and the negotiation process and seeing the result, want to try to calm it down and not return to the fry immediately?

I understand that referendums cannot be held over and over again in a short period of time, so I respect K st's position on the matter and, indeed, the Liberal Democrats who have been openly the most pioneering pro-Europeans and do not want to be carried out. be part of his pitch to voters that we would return to the European Union or the Single Market or the Customs Union. My point of view is more modest and is that we cannot escape the reality of geography or the fact of interdependence. To continue watching this video, click the link at the top left or the description below or visit I.V for more discussions and talks from the world's leading thinkers on

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