Rory Stewart on Keir Starmer, Liz Truss and the ‘unseriousness’ of UK politics

The former Tory MP battled Boris Johnson for the party leadership

Listen | 46:09
Rory Stewart was one of the leading contenders to replace Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party but lost out to Boris Johnson. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Rory Stewart was one of the leading contenders to replace Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party but lost out to Boris Johnson. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Former MP, Tory leadership candidate, author and host of the UK’s biggest politics podcast, The Rest is Politics, Rory Stewart is today’s guest on The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast.

His gripping memoir Politics on the Edge is the jumping off point for a wide-ranging discussion:

  • How answering a call for new blood in politics led him to become a Tory MP.
  • His difficult relationship with David Cameron and disillusionment with the fundamental ‘unseriousness’ of UK politics
  • Minister of State for Northern Ireland Steve Baker’s statement that a border poll should need a supermajority to pass.
  • His disbelief and disappointment when Boris Johnson became his party’s leader and UK prime minister.
  • Liz Truss as a ‘Margaret Thatcher tribute act’.
  • Why Keir Starmer will be the next prime minister – and the two things he lacks for the job.

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