In short
Podcast Summary: The News Agents - "Is there really a plot to oust the PM?"
Episode Overview In this episode of *The News Agents*, Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel, and Lewis Goodall analyze the recent political turmoil surrounding UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the alleged coup plot involving Health Secretary Wes Streeting. The discussion delves into the implications of Downing Street's crisis response, the nature of political briefings, and the personal narratives surrounding political figures.
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Key Topics Covered
- Allegations of a Coup
- Crisis Response from Downing Street
- Reports emerged suggesting a plot to unseat Prime Minister Keir Starmer, allegedly led by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
- Downing Street released statements claiming the plot was unfounded, creating a media frenzy.
- Wes Streeting's Denial
- Streeting categorically denied any intentions of a coup, asserting that the briefing from Downing Street was misleading.
- Media Reaction
- The episode discusses the peculiar phrasing used in the Downing Street briefing, with references to "tinfoil hats" indicating a defensive stance rather than a strategic one.
- The Role of Morgan McSweeney
- Chief of Staff's Influence
- Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff, is scrutinized for being potentially out of line in his aggressive defense of the Prime Minister.
- Discussions arose about whether McSweeney is more powerful than the Prime Minister, given the nature of the briefings.
- Implications for Leadership
- The hosts highlight the tension between the Prime Minister's authority and McSweeney's actions, questioning who is truly in charge within Downing Street.
- Discussion on Leadership Dynamics
- Starmer's Leadership under Threat
- The panel speculates on the vulnerabilities of Starmer's leadership, particularly in light of potential challenges from within the Labour Party.
- They consider the timing of any leadership challenges, especially post-budget discussions and upcoming elections.
- Reactions from Labour Figures
- The hosts analyze comments from Labour politicians, including Kemi Badenoch, about Starmer's confidence in McSweeney, emphasizing uncertainty in his leadership.
- Interview with Christine Flack
- Insights from Caroline Flack's Mother
- The episode features an interview with Christine Flack, discussing her documentary centered on the media treatment of her daughter, Caroline Flack, and the implications of celebrity culture.
- Christine shares her struggles with the media portrayal of her daughter and the legal system's decisions regarding her case.
- Calls for Media Accountability
- She expresses a desire for a second part of the Leveson Inquiry to address the issues surrounding media ethics and accountability.
- Final Thoughts
- Reflection on Media and Celebrity
- The episode concludes with reflections on how media narratives shape public perception and the challenges faced by individuals in the public eye.
- The hosts and Christine Flack emphasize the need for change in how stories are reported and the importance of fairness and truth in journalism.
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Key Takeaways
- Crisis Management: The Downing Street response to the coup allegations illustrates the complexities of political communication and the risks of defensive briefings.
- Leadership Questions: The episode raises questions about the stability of Keir Starmer's leadership and the power dynamics within his team.
- Media Responsibility: Christine Flack's insights highlight the ongoing issues of media ethics, particularly in relation to high-profile individuals and the impact of public scrutiny.
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Additional Resources
- For more insights and updates, visit [The News Agents website](https://www.thenewsagents.co.uk/).
- To listen to the episode, say "Alexa ask Global Player to play The News Agents."
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This summary encapsulates the major discussions and insights from the podcast episode, providing a comprehensive overview for readers interested in UK politics and media narratives.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02Christine Flack:This is a Global Player original podcast.
0:30Jon:came from number 10. Nowhere else his toxic number 10. The person responsible for the culture in number 10 is his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Does the Prime Minister have full confidence in him?
0:43Christine Flack:Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are absolutely focused on delivering for the country. And let me be clear, of course, Mr Speaker, I've never authorised a tax on cabinet members.
0:52Jon:I appointed them to their post because they're the best people to carry out their jobs. Where has all this talk of attacks, briefing, plotting come from. In the last 24 hours, a crisis has grown out that we simply never saw coming.
1:08Christine Flack:So is he in charge of the Downing Street operation or is someone else? Is his position stronger or weaker? It certainly looks like the latter. And what is going on? Who is running the country right now? Welcome to the News Agents.
1:29Christine Flack:The News Agents. It's John. It's Emily. And last night, we suddenly see reports that Downing Street is warning off the Health Secretary we're streeting against mounting a coup that we didn't know he was planning, that Keir Starmer would fight any leadership challenge, that it would roil the markets if Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were to stand down and everybody get back into line. And it sounded tough, but it also sounded just a tiny bit mad. It sounded completely mad.
2:12Jon:Where did all this come from? Well, it came out of nowhere. I mean, it came, we should say that Pippa Crue from The Guardian, I think, broke the story, first of all, around seven o 'clock. But I was getting calls a couple of hours later from people who could not believe the briefing that had gone out from Downing Street that used this very curious phrase, which is about fighting back. And the phrase that kept on being used was we've got our tinfoil hats on. I remember thinking that's not the actual phrase. You don't say tinfoil hats. You say tin hats. So clearly the person who had spoken to at least four or five journalists was the same person because they kept on using this slightly odd phrase.
2:56Jon:And when I asked a Downing Street insider where this defensive line had come from, he said very categorically, not the prime minister. He said that Keir Starmer would be horrified by the briefing that had gone out. And the words that they actually used were Keir Starmer is a keep calm and carry on person. He would not want this to be inflaming a situation that possibly doesn't even exist. So let's just analyse what's going on here. The first question is, is there or is there not a plot that might take place after the budget at the end of November that has West Streeting, the health secretary, as pretender to the crown?
3:43Jon:West Streeting vehemently, categorically denies that. is there somebody in Downing Street who is either preemptively trying to end this plot, but is going out on a limb and saying stuff that Keir Starmer hasn't authorised, or, you know, more charitably, were they just cornered? Were they cornered by a lot of journalists asking the same question at the same time? And they thought, I've just got to shut this one down. And they did it in a rather combative style, sort of slightly inserting themselves into the stories they did.
4:16Christine Flack:So, again, I spoke to someone very senior who's at the centre of the Downing Street operation last night and I got a message back. Background focus of number 10 is on delivering on mandate from election. This is all hypothetical speculation. PM won a massive majority and is focused on governing. Would he fight a challenge? Of course. Would any challenge be irresponsible? Yes. But government is focused on delivering on people's priorities and on where's specifically brilliant health secretary on key priority for the government. So that was later on in the evening when they started to realise that this was going badly, badly wrong.
4:52Christine Flack:I think and I've spoken to someone else again this morning. I think that the plan, such as it was, was just to seep a few lines into a columnist's piece for the one of the newspapers for The Guardian or The Times or whatever.
5:09Jon:Which plan? The Wes plan? No, the Downing Street plan.
5:12Christine Flack:The Downing Street plan was just back off everybody. Prime Minister is not going anywhere. He's not going to stand down. The Prime Minister is standing firm. I think they thought they would be able to get that out in a subtle, slightly under the surface kind of way, below the radar, but just have it out there on the record. And of course, if you give a briefing saying, I'm not going anywhere, I'm standing firm, all the plotters back off, it's going to be front page news. And sure enough, it is on the front pages of most of the newspapers this morning because if the prime minister was trying to make himself look tough by this it's made him look weak and vulnerable and rather brittle in the process so maybe we
5:58Jon:should spell out what the accusations are and frankly you have to take everything with a pinch of salt because there are competing i guess egos and competitive frameworks that these stories are hold in. But there is a proportion of Downing Street that think, frankly, that Morgan McSweeney has got ahead of his skis on this one. Morgan McSweeney is the chief of staff, the man who has been by Keir Starmer's side, who's been very good and very combative in sorting out who Keir Starmer's enemies are, quite frankly, and getting rid of them. So there are those now in Downing Street who say, who believe that Morgan Sweeney slightly went off on one.
6:35Jon:In other words, thought he was helping the Prime Minister, thought he was doing the right thing by slamming down wares or saying that Keir Starmer was ready for a fight, thought he was solidifying his position, but maybe inadvertently just ended up sounding too defensive and slightly ridiculous with a story that nobody even knew about before we got the defensive crouch, right?
6:59Christine Flack:But that is where it gets, I think, to a fundamental question about governing, which is, is Morgan McSweeney now more powerful than the Prime Minister? How can it be that Keir Starmer stands up in the Commons and says, I would never attack any of my Cabinet colleagues, and we know that his Chief of Staff was? Either Keir Starmer's in charge or Morgan McSweeney's in charge. And I just think it makes Keir Starmer look ludicrous if the line of defence is, I didn't say any of this, nothing to do with me, and I would never authorise such things. Well, Morgan McSweeney has done it. And remember, this is...
7:35Christine Flack:Well, we don't know he's done it.
7:36Jon:I mean, the briefings are that he has. We should just step back from that.
7:40Christine Flack:Yes, and so, you know, and the person I spoke to wouldn't identify anybody as being responsible for it. He said, I never name names of people within the operation of Number 10 Downing Street. So I've got no sourcing that it's Morgan McSweeney. But as you're right to point out, Emily. Yeah, exactly. That an awful lot of people are pointing the finger at Morgan McSweeney. It's worth saying that the resignation of Peter Mandelson, again it was morgan mcsweeney who was critical in getting peter mandelson to be our ambassador in washington and was pushing that promotion before and the announcement before the enhanced vetting process had been completed where they might have come across all these emails from and between him and jeffrey epstein so it's not the first time that morgan mcsweeney's role has come under scrutiny with people saying, hang on, have you got too much power?
8:33Jon:And so that, I guess, is a long way of bringing you to where we are this morning. Kemi Badenock going for Keir Starmer's jugular, asking if he's going to stand by McSweeney, asking if he has full confidence in his chief of staff. And listen very carefully, because Starmer doesn't exactly say that he does. A person responsible for the culture in number 10 is his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Does the prime minister have full confidence in him? Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are absolutely focused on delivering for the country. And let me be clear, of course, Mr Speaker... Absolutely focused on delivering for the country.
9:13Jon:What he says is he would never brief against his cabinet colleagues. He doesn't say whether McSweeney stays or goes.
9:20Christine Flack:There's been a later lobby briefing where they have seemed to suggest that Keir Starmer does have confidence in Morgan McSweeney. I would just say that Keir Starmer had confidence in Peter Mandelson and the next day Peter Mandelson was sacked. So having confidence one day and being out of the job the next day, not impossible. I'm not suggesting that will happen. But of course, as luck would have it or irony would have it or as fate would have it, Wes Streeting was doing the morning round of interviews this morning and apart from some kind of slightly clunky metaphors that he used, he was pretty clear that there was a toxicity in Downing Street and it needed to be dealt with.
10:05Jon:You'll forgive me for asking about the rumours of the coup. So what is going on? The allies of the PM saying that if there's a leadership challenge after the budget, the PM will fight it. So what, is there a leadership challenge? What's happening?
10:17Christine Flack:No, and I think whoever's been briefing this has been watching too much Celebrity Traitors and this is just about the worst attack on a faithful I've seen since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final. It's totally self-defeating briefing, not least because it's not true. And I don't understand how anyone thinks it's helpful to the prime minister either to suggest he's fighting for his job. But at a time when, last time I saw him on Monday evening to talk about violence against women and girls and how we tackle it, he's fighting for the country and trying to turn it around from the absolute mess that we inherited.
10:49Jon:So what's your message then to people who have been briefing this? What would you say to them?
10:53Christine Flack:Well, firstly, I'd like to commend them for at least taking on board the feedback about sexist briefings, because we've seen this before. Lucy Powell, Bridget Phillipson, Angela Rayner could go around pretty much the entire cabinet table. So at least they're picking on one of the boys now. But in all seriousness, it doesn't help anyone. It's not true. And I think my frustration actually about the first, you know, almost 18 months we've been in government there is a good story to tell about the change we're delivering, the promises we're keeping, the difference we're making. But would your viewers this morning know that we promised 2 million more appointments in the NHS and delivered 5 million?
11:31Christine Flack:I'm not sure they would. Would they know that we delivered 2 ,500 more GPs in our first year, not 1 ,000? I am... Not sure they would. But the serious point is, yes, I'm deliberately trying to make sure that people do actually get to hear the message of what we're doing. I will get you special about the NHS. But the point is these sorts of Westminster bubble process stories, boys getting carried away. These are things that distract from our ability to get across the message of the change we're making, the difference we're making on things that voters actually carry. And the net effect of that is you have West Streeting on the television this morning not looking weaker, but surely looking stronger.
12:09Christine Flack:He's saying this is all a terrible distraction. What on earth are people doing talking about all this process stuff in number 10 Downing Street? I want to be talking about waiting lists. I want to be talking about extra GP appointments. I want to be talking about all the other things that, you know, he says he's doing as health secretary. And I don't know whether the aim was to take him down a peg or two or to clip his wings or whichever other metaphor that we're streeting might choose to describe what is going on. I just don't think it's worked. I think that West Streeting looks like a proper grown-up and that some of the people in Downing Street look rather fevered in what they've done.
12:47Jon:Something else has happened this morning as well. A few weeks ago, when Lucy Powell accepted her award from the, I think it was the Spectator Parliamentary Awards, she jokingly, ironically thanked Morgan McSweeney because Morgan McSweeney was backing her opponent, Bridget Phillipson, and she said, it's all thanks to Morgan McSweeney that I've become the deputy leader. When Wes Streeting acknowledged that Lucy Powell was right, which is what he said in another interview, I think he was also telling us that he felt the briefing was coming from Morgan McSweeney. And what this has inadvertently done is bring many of the sort of Lucy Powell supporters on the left closer to Wes, who is seen as a Labour figure on the right, on the sort of Starmer right.
13:31Jon:And so, I mean, I'm sure this wasn't intended 24 hours ago, but somehow he has built a broader coalition within Labour than the one that he started with before those briefings went out ahead of him.
13:44Christine Flack:Yeah, and that was pretty clever because if he's, you know, he's seen as the ultimate Blairite minister, him and Peter Kyle are seen as the kind of heirs to Blair in the current cabinet set up. We know there are Blairites in the number 10 operation. West Streeting has been able to go out on the media today to say whoever's behind the briefings should be sacked. And by the way, soft left, I'm with you. I like you. And, you know, so I don't know what they've done.
14:11Jon:So let me be really, let's get away all the bubbly stuff, right? And just say, as we sit here today, do you think that Keir Starmer's leadership is under attack before the end of the year? From those you've been speaking to, do you think it's under attack, you know, before Christmas? Do you think it's not under attack at all? Or do you think this has just been kicked down the road?
14:31Christine Flack:I think there is profound disillusionment with his leadership. And I think there is a general view... Within the Labour Party. Within the Labour Party, within the Cabinet. that he doesn't have the political smarts, the political savvy to turn this around with, you know, either in the pre-budget or post-budget communication space. And do I think it will happen post-budget? No, because I think it would be, you know, so sudden it would look like total panic. Do I think there is a moment of vulnerability after the May elections and what happens in the Senate and what happens in Scotland? Absolutely bloody right.
15:08Jon:But you think not before May?
15:10Christine Flack:I think that it would have to be something astonishing. And if Keir Starmer decides he's going to fight, which is the message from last night, then it will be bloody and messy and Labour will be in an even worse position at the end of it. And so for that reason, I don't think this year.
15:26Jon:We should say that the rules around challenging the Labour leadership have changed in recent months. For anyone to topple the Prime Minister, they would need the support of 20 % of the parliamentary Labour Party. That's about 80 MPs. I mean, that is still a lot of MPs to support one candidate.
15:46Christine Flack:and in a moment Christine Flack the mother of Caroline Flack who took her own life after a prosecution which many people think should never have taken place
16:16Christine Flack:Discover how today's story affects your life.
16:19Jon:Listen on our free Global Player app or the new LBC app.
16:23Christine Flack:LBC, leading Britain's conversation.
Read the full transcript
16:30Christine Flack:The News Agents. Well, Christine Flack, thank you so much for being with us. I'm guessing a documentary like this, given all that you've been through, is quite a difficult thing to decide to do because it just stirs everything up again.
16:49Jon:It does, but it was also a chance to get answers. I was getting nowhere, really. I knew that things had gone wrong. People have acted quite badly. You know, the media, the things they printed and there was just no comeback. There was no truth then put out. so yes it was difficult and I had to ask like my other children do you think it's worth it and um and also their children because they're of an age now you know 18 and 16 and that they're going to get comments but they agreed you know do it and I'm so pleased I did well let's start at the beginning and just ask what were the questions that you wanted answering I wanted to know, first of all, why the police were determined to go against the CPS's first decision.
17:48Jon:You know, they said it wasn't in the public interest. It wasn't domestic abuse. It was common assault, if anything. And they really didn't want to go ahead with it. But for some reason, someone that night was determined to get a charge brought against Caroline. and it was the first time that this detective inspector had ever gone against a CPS decision. I was then talking to someone that had worked in the domestic abuse part of the Met and she was working at the time in a different part but she couldn't understand why they were bringing charges. She was being told to let people off that had even brought a knife to a scene against their partner because it wasn't worth it we won't get a prosecution so that first of all then also at the inquest the coroner brought up so many things that made me start thinking well why did that happen why didn't that happen because she questioned everything that happened and also just the you know the things that were written in the media that people believed and no matter And what you said afterwards, they were out there.
19:07Jon:You know, there was this Caroline Flack had beaten her boyfriend with the lamp. They knew that wasn't true. The police knew that wasn't true. And just all these things. And this, to me, lovely daughter that loved life, loved her career, was just dismissed as this domestic abuser. and I thought no I can't you can't let that those lies stand you can't so I spent yesterday with a
19:41Christine Flack:friend he's a policeman and he said I said I was going to be interviewing you today and he said oh that was a classic NFA and I said sorry I don't even know what that means he said no further action if if if the partner if the partner isn't complaining and doesn't want a prosecution and it's a common assault we would just put that down as an nfa no further action required so why do you think caroline was prosecuted did you get a satisfactory answer to that never never because as as your friend would know if he's been in the police or your relative scrupulous notes are kept notes were not kept as to why this detective inspector wanted to go against the cps decision she never met caroline i mean caroline was in the cell for
20:40Jon:hours she'd already been in the hospital for hours having her arms looked at and just her mental state and I said at the inquest to the detective inspector what did you think of Caroline's mental state what did you she said I never met her she never read any of the reports she said Caroline hadn't admitted guilt and yet the very first first thing Caroline had said when the police got there because they thought maybe Lewis had done something and she didn't want them to think that she said no I did it I caught him with my phone I did it so that was the very first thing she said when the police got there and the coroner brought that up as well in at the inquest so do you know I don't know why why they you know proceeded with the charge well maybe I I don't know I'm just trying to figure this out myself as you speak to me Caroline Flack was guilty of being famous
21:39Jon:yeah maybe but don't you hate to think that's the case well i'm just yeah of course but you know
21:45Christine Flack:is it is it that they felt that here is caroline flack you know celebrated famous tabloid fodder god if we don't do anything against her people will think oh the justice system and maybe you know and people burnish their careers on prosecutions yeah yeah you know i i whether
22:05Jon:they were frightened because there's you know of the domestic abuse situation in this country where so many people get off they thought oh this would be an example but what it did it turned it on its head prosecuting something like this but still letting and you know you know you're in the news how many people walk away after assaulting their partner, be it a man or a woman. But Caroline and Lewis didn't even live together. He was gone. He went. So there was no harm going to come to him. And she was a 40-year-old woman and never, ever been charged with anything before. There was no history of domestic abuse.
22:48Jon:so the decision you know the decision making just didn't ring true to me so you did a previous
22:58Christine Flack:documentary which looked at caroline's travails with mental illness and you know problems of stardom that come with it and you've decided to come back again at this do you think that it is possible to change perceptions or do you think it's kind of baked in people have made up their mind now they've read what they wanted to read and you know i i i'm just asked that because i'm i work in the media and i kind of think you know people are so set in their opinions these days that it's almost impossible to get anyone to say oh yeah actually you know what i might be wrong
23:35Jon:about that i think you've got to look at the people because i think the people that write the horrible things online, the journalists. I mean, one did it yesterday on her birthday. She wrote about this film. The only one, every other journalist that saw it, you were moved and were sorry. And I had one phone call from a chap from the Daily Mirror that knew her really well, and he just apologised. He said, you probably don't even want to talk to me. And I said, no, I do, because I want you to right the wrong. but there was still a woman on the Daily Mail that put something on in her column that was vile and do you know what?
24:15Jon:That's what stuck in my head and that's what I think Caroline was reading, the bad bits. But I think anyone that does that, well, they won't change their mind but I think decent people will change their mind. They will look at it and say, oh, I was wrong. You know, that isn't what happened and we've proved it. and I'm one of those people I read a headline and I used to say to Carrie oh fancy them doing that mum you don't even know them how can you say fancy them doing that you know because they're not like that she knew them and and usually she'd get over things but this was just too it was she was ashamed you know she was ashamed of what they said about her and she was ashamed of herself really having you know showing herself up and she wouldn't talk about the reasons why she you know her mental health and everything and I don't think she should have to you know I don't think you should have to bare your soul for people to believe you.
25:18Christine Flack:So tell me this you you talked about how you needed to get buy-in from your other children and from your grandchildren as well about whether this was the right thing to do. If one of your grandkids said, God, I want to be in showbiz. I want to be famous. I want to have my name up in lights. Would you say, don't be so daft, it just brings a whole lot of other problems with it?
25:43Jon:No, no. But I don't know any of my grandkids that would. But I still, I don't think, if you love doing something, and Carrie loved it, she loved her job, this shouldn't put anyone off. What we've got to do is not change, you know, people going into the sort of show business. We've got to change how the media report stories. There's got to be a comeback if they tell lies. There's got to be.
26:14Christine Flack:And do you think you're any closer to that? I mean, in the course of this, I know you said you kind of wanted to get answers from the police. did you get any meaningful answers from newspaper editors or gossip columnists or all these people who write the stuff that have so upset you no that's a simple answer but as long as i've got out there what i've got out there you know that's all i can do i mean if you think of the sort of you know i've been a journalist for i'm not going to admit how many years it's been I'll say 40 plus years I've been a journalist and various times you've had the Leveson inquiry you you know the phone hacking scandals you've had all these different things and new codes of conduct that have been introduced and you know privacy laws and whatever else do you think it's changed at all or do you still think that if you're a celebrity you are there to be papped and no one gives much of a damn about the truth it's about selling the picture or selling the storyline?
27:19Jon:I think it's got worse. I really do. And I think the worst thing that, I mean, Matt Hancock did quite a lot of things, so it's not the worst thing, but him to stop the second part of the Leveson inquiry and then labour to get in. I met Lisa and Andy and she was, oh, she cried when she heard my story. She, you know, she's done nothing. We met her as a group of people saying look we need the second part of the Leveson inquiry it acted upon you know for everybody not just celebs for everybody and journalists journalists were with me you know that's that's the horrible thing that people think I'm against journalists like yourself I worked for regional newspaper for 30 years I know there's good journalists I know what the standards should be.
28:06Jon:But I think the same standard should be used in national press as well.
28:12Christine Flack:So why do you think when you met Lisa Nandy, she wasn't interested in a Leveson part two?
28:19Jon:I think she was interested. She found it very hard to give us a reason why they couldn't, you know, act upon it. Well, scared of the press. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this government, I'm so sad about it. that they're just as scared of the press as the previous.
28:38Christine Flack:So, Christine, let me ask you this. You've done this two-part documentary, which is out now on Disney+. Do you come back to this again? Or do you feel you've sort of achieved what you wanted to and you've made peace with yourself over these kind of things that have been burning at you?
28:58Jon:I don't think I'll do much more. I mean, I was approached by Disney to do it. I didn't go to them. And I feel lucky that Caroline was known enough that they would come to me to say, how are you getting on? And they could open a lot more doors than I could. And I think I've got the answers I needed from this programme, especially from Nazir Afzal. You know, what he said was really good for me. So I think that's as far as I can go now. it's out there if people want to believe it but I am very interested in Hacked Off the the group not to get too involved but I am interested and I watch you know if they if they can make a
29:43Christine Flack:difference it would be lovely and in terms of the rehabilitation of Caroline I mean what do you want people to know that they didn't know before?
29:59Jon:That she didn't hit anybody with a lamp. She wasn't a domestic abuser. She loved life. She loved her job. But she wasn't able to cope at times with different things. And I think if she'd been someone different, she may have just got over it. If the CPS hadn't pressed and pressed for her to go to court, she may have got over it. But she wasn't the person that they wrote about in the papers. And I think it was her birthday yesterday and her twins, twin sister. I think the amount of love that came through to me from her friends and people that knew her, they already know the truth, but I just want it more widely said and just for one newspaper to say do you know we got it wrong yeah christine fleck
30:55Christine Flack:you might have to wait quite some time for that but thank you very much indeed for being with us
31:10Christine Flack:the news agents are you going ahead and suing the bbc well i guess i have to you know why not because they defrauded the public and they've admitted it and their top echelon. This is within one of our great allies. You know, this is our supposedly a great ally. BBC have the government has a chunk of that one, I guess. But that's a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6th speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech. and they made it sound radical and they actually changed it. What they did was rather incredible. They're showing me the results later on, the results of what they did, how they butchered it up.
31:52Christine Flack:But it was very dishonest and the head man... That was Donald Trump last night on Laura Ingraham about, I guess I've got to sue the BBC. What happens, what the BBC's response is, is still awaited. But it is a devil of a decision for the corporation on whether to fight or whether to give in, because either way, it's going to attract huge amounts of criticism.
32:18Jon:On the News Agents USA, we're going to be discussing how America is viewing this right now and what it means in the context of all the other media organisations that Trump has gone after.
32:32Christine Flack:Bye-bye.
32:32Jon:Bye for now.
32:33Christine Flack:This has been a Global Player original production.
From the publisher
Late last night came a crisis response from Downing Street responding to a story no one had even heard. The suggestion was a plot - to unseat the prime minister - supposedly by the Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Streeting vehemently denied the plot. But a briefing went out from Downing Street suggesting Starmer was ready for the fight. What on earth is going on?
Later, Jon speaks to Christine Flack - Caroline Flack's mother - about her meetings with culture secretary Lisa Nandy to push for the second part of the cancelled Leveson Inquiry, and her new documentary into her daughter’s trial by media.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/