Theresa May

Yeah, and then all of the specifics about, you know, th- this unit and how is it staffed, and what about the expertise, and what about the budget, and-

And is it the same as the sort of thing that Theresa May said she was going to introduce after the Salisbury poisonings?

Mm.

I saw Deborah Haynes, the defense editor for Sky, retweeting an old BBC article from around that Theresa May era, where she announced [laughs] the same thing.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

When it comes to tackling disinformation, there's actually a whole host of bodies across government who've been doing this for many, many years.

So after the Salisbury attack, you had Theresa May set up something called the National Security Comms Unit.

In addition to that, you have the Research, Information and Communications Unit that sat within the Home Office, focused on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism.

You have the Joint State Threats Assessment Team, which is mainly MI5.

Oh, many people are saying that.

Theresa May's saying it.

Who's Theresa

May? She's a politician.

You know, when we were having all of the Brexit debate over here about what kind of Brexit we do, about how Brexit happens.

And then Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit means Brexit.

And it's like, well, how can Brexit mean anything other than Brexit? Of course Brexit means Brexit.

But she was just saying it, just wanted to shut people up.

When I first came into Parliament in 2017, we didn't have a majority.

You remember Theresa May lost the majority.

And we had Conservative MPs and Labour MPs just doing whatever they liked because they saw the opportunity.

And I want to make sure that everyone who comes in as a Conservative MP is on the same page, on the same agenda.

I want to see the British Prime Minister conduct himself or herself well on the international stage.

And, I mean, probably the most cringe-making was Theresa May.

Do you remember in that awful orange dress? And he held her hand.

I know.

Backwards.

Uh, Theresa May.

Yes.

Yes.

The interesting thing with Andy Burnham is I think he really enjoys those sorts of encounters with journalists.

both Keir Starmer and Theresa May, there was the sense that they hated it, that they did it through gritted teeth.

But with Andy Burnham, I think he genuinely likes trying to persuade people of his argument, trying to bring them on side.

So he gave pretty expansive answers on most things that he was asked.

David, come on.

Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, and now Andy Burnham.

Seven prime ministers in a decade, although I would argue Liz Truss doesn't count.

49 days, guys, come on.