Dale speaks to Alex in London about the new Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch and the upcoming US Election
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday. My name's Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.
00:08I'm joined by our Westminster correspondent, Alex Brown. Alex, plenty to talk about as always.
00:15We'll get on to that quickly. Firstly, front page of the Scotsman today.
00:21And we land on anger at lack of places for additional support needs children.
00:26This is an exclusive story from our education correspondent, Callum Ross.
00:30Callum's been writing a fair bit about this issue over the past six months,
00:34certainly issues around getting enough staff to manage additional support needs students across schools.
00:42We know the school sector as a whole is under pressure.
00:46There will be further funding and spending pressures as we move towards the Scottish budget in December.
00:53So plenty to write about there. You can see and read the full story from Callum at Scotsman.com.
01:01Alex, Kemi Badenoch, we found out on Saturday is new Tories leader.
01:07Now she's already been getting criticism within 48 hours.
01:11I've seen about various comments, including Partygate, which she said was overblown,
01:19which perhaps didn't go down well with members of the COVID bereaved group.
01:23But just talk me through, I guess, her election, the challenges for her now and what she needs to prioritise.
01:33Well, I mean, it was quite a difficult election and it wasn't one that she won at a canter.
01:39There were many gaffes along the way. And those were the sort that kind of lost her support.
01:44She was never the favourite. But I think losing James Cleverley,
01:49who was maybe the centrist's choice of the small C Conservatives.
01:53And when it was up to her and Generic, the small C Conservatives,
01:56the One Nation group who actually refused to endorse any of the candidates,
01:59had their hands forced and basically voted for her to stop Generic.
02:03And I think that was a real theme of this leadership. It was a stop Generic campaign.
02:07I spoke to numerous MPs who said they didn't want any of the candidates, actually.
02:12These are Conservative MPs, sitting Conservative MPs, who didn't particularly support either of the candidates,
02:16but could not face having Generic as a leader, so had to act.
02:21And I sat at the table while different Conservatives, some of those who were backing Ben Nook,
02:25tried to convince the MPs I was with that actually they should come round and support her.
02:29And the things she's saying, and she has made mistakes. I know maternity pay was a big gaffe.
02:35I think Partygate is a classic example, again, of where she says something,
02:39and then straight away after the MPs on the broadcast rounds have to say,
02:43well, that's not quite what she meant, what she was saying was.
02:46And I think that's going to be one of the huge challenges for Kemi Badnok.
02:49I think it's going to be about, Ben Nook even, I think it's going to be about messaging,
02:53because so often she has a tendency to say things that are not received well, such as,
02:57you know, when she said civil servants should be arrested.
03:00That was a joke, but it didn't land well. She has a tendency to make news.
03:06And as a leader, and that sounds really silly, especially in our profession,
03:09you're not supposed to make news. You're supposed to have a policy and announce it,
03:13and then that's what they're supposed to talk about, not something else you said off the cuff,
03:16some dig or some barb that becomes a top line. And she has a tendency to do that.
03:21As for her priorities, it's going to be about party unity.
03:24It's going to be about bringing those people over, not just convincing those who supported her
03:28to stop Generic, but convincing those who weren't sure that actually I can bring people across.
03:33I can bring over Generic supporters. I can bring people across and make this a universal,
03:38you know, a big church once again. We've already seen she's appointed her chief whip.
03:43That happened late overnight. By the time our readers are watching this,
03:46I think we'll probably have more appointments of the Shadow Cabinet variety.
03:51You'll be able to read about that on The Scotsman later, I think probably late afternoon.
03:55I think we're being realistic. These things always take time.
03:58And picking a Shadow Cabinet party unity, that's the huge challenge for the new Tory leader.
04:04Will Labour be quite happy that she's ended up as leader, if they had a choice between her and Generic?
04:12Yeah, well, I think they would have been happy with either.
04:14I mean, the framing and the things they've both done are so gaffe-prone.
04:19I think the day that she was elected, a Labour MP was tweeting that Labour want to do more
04:24to improve the rights of women, improve access to maternity pay and increase it.
04:29Whereas Bainock had made a joke about, well, perhaps not a joke.
04:34She'd been critical of maternity pay and said, you know, the state goes too far.
04:38It's the framing of it is really easy. I mean, she's a very combative performer.
04:41She's a very, very aggressive. And who knows, a time when the Tory party is so diminished,
04:47it has fallen so far. That sort of anger might help, but she is so gaffe-prone.
04:54All the Labour MPs I've spoken to are popping corks and think that whoever won, it was a great revolt for them.
05:01Basically, once Kevley was eliminated, they stopped worrying.
05:05I think it will be fascinating to see the first prime minister's questions up against Starmer.
05:10They've just seen two very different characters.
05:13So it will be interesting to see about how they exchange barbs in the Commons.
05:17Alex, talking about Starmer, he's up in Glasgow today.
05:21Just tell us a little bit about what he's doing up here.
05:24He's announcing an extra 75 million pounds to tackle the gangs that are helping bring the illegal boats over.
05:32I mean, they're not legal, but you understand the premise.
05:34They're bringing boats over of refugees. That's taken to 150 million.
05:40There will also be, I think, 300 specialists, 300 staff and then an extra,
05:45I think, 100 specialists to help crack down on this.
05:49It's a whole part of his narrative about how he's being tough on immigration, hard borders,
05:54trying to convince those who may be tempted by reform that Labour can tackle this problem in a way Tories can't.
06:01I think the issue is, much like the Rwanda scheme, though perhaps to a lesser extent,
06:06it's still not entirely sure this is actually going to work.
06:08I think one of the former heads of the Border Force said this morning that this policy won't work.
06:14This tactic isn't actually going to reduce numbers and it will just have more people failing to stop the boats coming over.
06:20So he's trying to address the issue of illegal migration.
06:24But there are questions as to whether it's going to work. But it's all about optics, right?
06:29He's he's won on like the budget was actually, if you take a step back from it, quite left wing.
06:34But when it comes to the borders, the party's adopted a pretty right wing rhetoric.
06:38They have put on the Tories clothes to win support.
06:41And I think that's something that they'll be maintaining through this parliament.
06:45Alex, thanks for joining us.
06:46You can read all the latest from Westminster, including those shadow appointments,
06:52as Alex referenced, at Scotsman.com as we head throughout today.
06:56Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow.
07:02Thanks, everyone.