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Dec 2023
56m 4s

Sunak feels the walls closing in

PODMASTERS
About this episode
As Sunak squirms in the Commons and the COVID Inquiry, we wonder what will sink him first. His defence of Eat Out To Help Out The Virus? Or his own impossible-to-please backbenchers? Plus, how would the Tory Right’s feverish fan-fiction plan for a Boris Johnson-Nigel Farage Dream Ticket play out?  • “The last Tory leader who said ‘Unite or die’ was Ian Dunc ... Show More
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