00:00I don't know what's going on, to be honest. How can you apologise to delivering a speech six weeks ago
00:04and a six-year-old lady decided to change your mind about the words you wrote when you agreed to?
00:07It's all very odd. I don't understand.
00:09Have you ever read out a speech you didn't agree with?
00:10Well, generally...
00:11Honestly? Come on, now confess it on Sunday morning.
00:14I actually believe. You don't have to say the words. No-one's forcing you to say certain lines.
00:18What I do think it is, is Keir Starmer wanted to try and come across as tough as dealing with the small boats crisis,
00:23wanted to set out a store saying we're going to deal with the situation.
00:26And here we are six weeks later, and he's abjectly failed.
00:29Small boat crossings have absolutely exploded.
00:31So he's trying to row back quickly from his words.
00:33I don't think there's anything wrong with what he said, and I have no idea why he's apologising.
00:37And as far as I'm aware, there hasn't been a big public backlash.
00:40I think most of the public said, at last.
00:42He's listening to our issues. He's understanding the problem.
00:45Well, I was there in the briefing room when he gave that speech, and I went with him to Albania on the Thursday.
00:50That was the big immigration week when they felt they were going to make some ground,
00:54maybe announce a deal, haven't done it yet, for a returns agreement
00:56or an offshore processing deal somewhere in the Western Balkans.
01:00Albania said no.
01:01He was trying to get on the front foot, I think, against the rise of reform and knew what he was trying to do.
01:05And it was surprising, the language.
01:07But GB News viewers welcomed it.
01:09Eve, what's your take on this?
01:10So I didn't welcome it.
01:11I think it was a pretty horrible thing to say, and I don't appreciate it.
01:15But what I think has happened...
01:16Isn't he right, though, the fact that people's neighbours are changing by mass migration?
01:19No.
01:19When people arrive there, then they don't know who they are.
01:22They are strangers to them.
01:23What is happening is we're seeing a social breakdown because we've lost our public spaces and our community cohesion.
01:28The solution to that is not to blame immigrants and people from ethnic minority backgrounds,
01:32but it's instead to look at what brings people together.
01:34But I think what you can take from what Starmer has done,
01:36and I think he's right to apologise because fundamentally it's not what the Labour Party should stand for,
01:42is that this way of doing politics, where you focus group it and you add a little bit from reform
01:47because you want to kind of shore up this, doesn't really work if you want to keep your party together long term
01:52because it's about values and it's about what Labour MPs are prepared to commit to and believe in.
01:56And if you don't have a party together, you've got nothing.
01:59Candice Holdsworth, are we being a bit unfair on the PM?
02:02Because the context is those arson attacks on his family car, on his home,
02:08which he's not living in right now in Islington,
02:10although family members are living there.
02:12There's a lot going on in the background, attacks on his family.
02:16He said that as much in Parliament and he gave a speech on the Monday after a very difficult weekend.
02:21Yeah, it's interesting you point that out and it's something that I would point out as well.
02:26I think he, to me, he just seems overwhelmed.
02:28I mean, this is like a time of crisis.
02:30I think any leader would struggle.
02:32I mean, you're constantly firefighting.
02:33There's so much going on.
02:35And personally, he seems exhausted.
02:37I mean, his popularity has plummeted.
02:38That's a lot for a person to deal with.
02:40But I must say, to row back so quickly, I mean, this is something you expect someone to say 30 years,
02:46you know, in their autobiography and they're thinking about all the things they should have done.
02:50This is weeks later.
02:51So this is someone, I think, who just isn't in control anymore.
02:54He's really, really, really struggling.
02:56But as I say, maybe the impact on his private life, sort of masked, he didn't see the risk.
03:00I mean, he said he didn't hold the speech up to the light, is that expression he used.
03:04I mean, Alexander, do you believe?
03:06No, I don't think.
03:07He's not blaming the advisers there.
03:08To his credit, he's blaming himself, not advisers, for writing the words out.
03:12But I think it goes back to what does he believe?
03:13And I think that speech he did six weeks ago, it's only six weeks ago, he seemed to have set out actually a concrete belief.
03:19Something's going wrong in the country.
03:20Mass immigration is dividing the country.
03:22We need to bring people together.
03:23That's your fault, by the way.
03:24Your government's fault.
03:25Well, I think when numbers came down, and actually numbers are now going back up.
03:28The Boris wave went up when he was in charge, Boris Johnson.
03:30And then we put measures in place and they've gone down.
03:32But now numbers are going back up.
03:33And suddenly he doesn't seem to be saying, OK, are you saying mass immigration is bad?
03:36Which he was saying six weeks ago.
03:38But now he seems to be saying, actually, it's not as bad as I made out.
03:41So what are we to believe?
03:43Is mass immigration bad?
03:44Is it good?
03:45Is it more nuanced?
03:46So I don't know actually where he stands on probably the most fundamental issue facing this country over the next decade.
03:51Eve, where does he stand?
03:53That's not clear.
03:54And Alexander's right.
03:55He believes in values.
03:56He's a Labour guy.
03:57But we don't really know what's at the heart of his belief.
04:00I mean, I've asked him before, are you Nigel Farage in disguise?
04:04I asked him that when they axed the aid budget and spent money on the defence budget, which is a reformed UK policy from last year's election.
04:11Yeah.
04:11I mean, I think it tells you, I think a lot when we see Labour politicians coming out with these lines, it doesn't seem very sincere.
04:18The public don't believe it.
04:19And ultimately, Labour cannot out Farage Farage.
04:21And it shouldn't try.
04:22But they're going to where the votes are, aren't they?
04:24They're not saying, come to us.
04:26We're this temple of left-wingery.
04:29They're going back to, they're trying to find where the votes are and bring them across.
04:33Again, what I was saying earlier, I think the Labour government's focus should be on improving people's living standards.
04:38And that will give them a second term.
04:39They cannot possibly beat Farage on this ground.
04:42So why would you try?
04:43Why would you lose your base?
04:45Alexander.
04:45Thank you very much.
04:46So thank you very much.
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