What's this down to, Chairman? Morning.

Good morning, Nick.

It's down to good leadership from Kemi Baird-Knock.

It's down to having a good team behind her and a good plan to take the country forward and persistently holding the government to account.

And we've got lots more work to do.

Reform will have their own problems, which has helped as well, of course, not least the... £5 million fishy donation that Nigel Farage seems to have received.

But nevertheless, we're focused in our own game and we've got lots more work to do to convince the British public that we're the right people to represent the country.

Do you think you've been forgiven?

I haven't been, unless I'm being harsh, I haven't been massively impressed with the detail that he manages to find.

I think that's right.

And I think Charlie alluded to it a few seconds ago when really this explains why he's been avoiding scrutiny all these months.

And that was the first attempt he had yesterday, first opportunity yesterday, to come to Parliament and explain his economic vision.

But as you said, Jeremy, he was all over the place.

There was no clarity, there was no central narrative in terms of what he was going to do.

What you need in any organisation is the right leader, the right team and the right plan.

How does she now, in this new parliamentary term, sort of really kick on if this poll is to be believed? How does she win back the trust of the British people?

The number of small boat crossings are down." What an absolute ridiculous response, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, you've...

In life, you've gotta confront the brutal facts, and the brutal facts is we haven't solved this problem.

We felt we had the right plan to do that.

It's gotta be a detention, deportation.

W- uh, you're right to, to be cynical about France, about its ability to stop those boats, and in fact, as you and Christian were saying, they're actually shepherding boats across the channel.

Do the Tory party believe it would be possible to get by it this quickly, or is it gonna be a tortuous process leaving this agreement?

I mean, a little bit of fairness to Nigel Farage, would you have turned up at a by-election if you had to be photographed with 30 oddballs?

Probably not, but I wouldn't have put myself in this position in the first place, Ian.

Um, we should never forget that this election, this by-election, was about one thing and one thing only, and that's a £5 million donation gift, personal donation gift landed in Nigel Farage's bank account.

And as you were saying earlier, quite rightly, there are rules in Parliament about accepting any kind of monies, not least 5 million quid, and, uh, um, probably the declaration of those kind of monies.

There was a process for that.

The investigation was taking place.

The parliamentary standards commissioner was investigating whether Nigel Farage had broken the rules or not.

But you, I, I mean, you talked about the cost of this and the taxpayer responsibility for it, but your party would like another by-election, right?

Going forward, is this the sort of terrain we can expect to see the Tories fight Reform on? Because there's often a lot of debate within your party, can we out-Reform Reform? Should we try to out-Reform Reform or, or should we have our own sort of distinct identity whilst battling the sort of baggage of 14 years of Conservative government that does still haunt the party among not just the public, but a lot of your members as well, who thought that the party was too left-wing while it was in power? Is sort of sleaze and donations and that area where you're going to come for Reform and try and regain that ground as the most popular right-wing party in the UK? Because of course, at the moment, the polling shows Reform still is taking up that space.

space.Yeah, this isn't a, a Reform thing.

I don't care who'd have taken five million quid before the election in a time period that was regulated and, and needed to be declared.

Any other party leader would've said the same thing.

This is not a Reform strategy.

Our strategy to deal with Reform is the same strategy to deal with the Lib Dems or Labor or anybody else, is Conservative policies.

Kemi demonstrably is a proper Conservative.

Do you want to dispel that rumor, or perhaps there's some truth to it?

subsequentlyGoing forward, is this the sort of terrain we can expect to see the Tories fight Reform on? Because there's often a lot of debate within your party, can we out-Reform Reform? Should we try to out-Reform Reform or, or should we have our own sort of distinct identity whilst battling the sort of baggage of 14 years of conservative government that does still haunt the party among not just the public, but a lot of your members as well who thought that the party was too left-wing while it was in power? Is sort of sleaze and donations and that area where you're going to come for Reform and try and regain that ground as the most popular right-wing party in the UK, because of course, at the moment the polling shows Reform still is taking up that space.

Yeah, this isn't a Reform thing.

I don't care who'd have taken 5 million quid before the election in a time period that was regulated and, and needed to be declared.

Any other party leader would've said the same thing.

This is not a Reform strategy.

Our strategy to deal with Reform is the same strategy to deal with the Lib Dems or Labor or anybody else, is Conservative policies.

Kemi demonstrably is a proper conservative.

Do you want to dispel that rumor or perhaps there's some truth to it?

So what are you gonna do about these closet yellows, Kevin Hollinrake?

Well, we agree on this.

Reform were 32, today they're 25.

We were 17, today we're 19.

No, we agree on that, so we're more, more than halved the gap.

But you tell me who those Lib Dems are.

But I'll tell you this, Kemi Badenoch has said that every single candidate, whether they're a sitting MP now or a future MP, will sign a memorandum of understanding, a contract with the Conservative Party that says, "You will le- have signed to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

What can the Tories do about that?

And there's another question, Dave.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

In this increasingly dangerous world, the space domain is critical, so I welcome the 3.2 billion pounds set out for space in the defense investment plan.

The plan refers to Skynet 6A, the first military satellite to be designed, manufactured, and tested completely in the UK, beginning at Airbus in my constituency of Stevenage and supporting 3,000 jobs across the country.

Hear, hear.

So does the Prime Minister agree that we must develop both the UK's sovereign capability in space and the British jobs that already power it?

What do you make of what's happened with the Labour Party? Do you want, do you think Keir Starmer should stay?

[inhales] Well, that's a matter for the Labour Party, isn't it? I mean, well, uh, first thing I'd say is, um, governing is tough.

You know, it's not, it's not easy.

And, um, and I think to be fair, though, Keir Starmer's making it more difficult than it needs to be.

Um, [clears throat] he's got a huge majority.

He should be able to do whatever he wants, and yet every time he comes up with a decision, he s- he ends up reversing it a few weeks later, um, due to pressure from our side, but also from his backbenchers.

So I don't see how he can properly lead a country like that.

backbenchers.Was it a mistake to spool through prime ministers in the way that the Conservatives did?

And can I just say, actually, just for legal reasons, I have to point that Peter Mandelson denies he acted criminally.

No, but you can't deny that Keir Starmer appointed him as the ambassador for the U- uh, the UK to the US, a man who'd had to resign twice in scandal.

So it was a poor decision.

The Chagos Islands, a poor decision.

W- the winter fuel allowance, the removing of that from, from pensions, a poor decision.

The family farm tax, family business tax.

And this is why the government is falling apart under the leadership of Keir Starmer.

I do