Matthew Taylor

Theresa May: People voted from the heart, but I must be hard-headed After an outbreak of discontent in the Conservative party over her Chequers Brexit plan, the Prime Minister took to the Andrew Marr Show to defend her policy. The plan led to David Davis and Boris Johnson quitting the cabinet, and there are rumours that more ministers could follow in the coming days. There is also the possibility that May could face a vote of no confidence in her leadership at any point. Marr asked her if the Chequers Agreement was letting her party and the country down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Rp6DcB59I AM: There are an awful lot of Conservatives...

After an away day at Chequers on Friday, the Cabinet has finally agreed on a compromise approach for negotiating the UK's future Brexit deal. The proposals include a 'free trade area for goods', a joint institutional framework for the European Court of Justice and a 'common rulebook' to maintain high regulatory standards in a variety of areas. Environment Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent member of the official Leave Campaign, joined Andrew Marr to express why he felt his fellow Conservatives should now back the government's new strategy: AM: Is your message to those colleagues wondering about what to do next - 'This isn't perfect... but it is by far the best we can possibly get now'? MG: Yes. Critically, we have got to ensure that this country leaves the European Union in March 2019.

The Health Secretary joined Andrew Marr this morning for a discussion on the NHS, but it was Hunt's remarks about business that have caught the headlines. The pan-European aviation company Airbus and car manufacturing giant BMW have said that a no deal Brexit could potentially see them leave the UK, and the organisations have said that they want 'clarity' by the end of the summer. Hunt urged people to ignore these 'siren voices' and put their faith in the Prime Minister: https://twitter.com/MarrShow/status/1010812272715812864 AM: When you picked up the paper and you saw that Airbus was talking about leaving this country... what did you think? JH: I just thought it was completely inappropriate for businesses to be making these kinds of threats for one very simple reason.

Keir Starmer - Tory Remainers should vote with us The week ahead promises a showdown in the House of Commons as the government's EU Withdrawal Bill will face several key votes which could decisively impact the future of Brexit. The votes come after the bill was substantially amended by the House of Lords back in April, with peers notably seeking to keep the UK in the EU's customs union and to give Parliament a 'meaningful say' on the final Brexit deal. Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer joined Andrew Marr to discuss Labour's approach to the bill, with Marr highlighting that Labour was not seizing the opportunity to keep the UK in either the single market or the European Economic Area: https://youtu.be/E2nTJR66vSw AM: You've let the Prime Minister off the hook really, haven't you?

Andrew Marr returned to our screens this week after recovering from his kidney operation. His first interview was with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Chairman of the European Research Group and currently the bookies' favourite to be the next Prime Minister. Marr inquired as to how Rees-Mogg felt the government's negotiations with the EU were progressing, particularly regarding the present stalemate over potential customs arrangements post-Brexit and the knock-on impact for the Irish border: AM: [The Prime Minister] thinks this idea of 'We're not putting up a hard border, let someone else do it if they dare'... is irresponsible, and she's said so much to you. JRM: ...I think that is a mistake. I think that's the obvious negotiating position for us to have...

Yesterday, while the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was in full swing, Sarah Smith met with the Shadow Chancellor at the Labour party's annual State of the Economy conference. McDonnell gave a speech at the conference promising to crack down on poor auditing practices that had contributed to the downfall of the construction company Carillion. Smith asked McDonnell about the further changes that he wanted to see in British society: SS: You used to put in your 'Who's Who' entry that your hobby was fomenting the overthrow of capitalism... Is it now your job? The overthrow of capitalism? JM: Yes it is. It's transforming our economy. SS: There's a difference between transforming the economy and overthrowing capitalism.

The Business Secretary joined Andrew Marr this morning to keep alive the Prime Minister's aspiration for a customs partnership with the EU after Brexit. On Wednesday, the Brexit inner cabinet voted down Theresa May's proposal, which would see the UK government collect tariffs on behalf of the EU in return for greater access to the European market. Despite this setback, Clark argued strongly in favour of a 'customs agreement that has the minimum of frictions', as it would allow importation of important goods and materials 'without any checks at the border', something which he described as 'crucial' for British business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The fallout of the Windrush scandal has continued from the previous week, with Home Secretary Amber Rudd still in the firing line and facing calls to resign. Rudd has been criticised after telling the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that the Home Office did not set targets for removals of illegal migrants to the UK. However, a memorandum leaked to the Guardian states that the Home Office had actually exceeded a quota of '12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18', which Rudd later apologised for not having been aware of. Conservative party chairman Brandon Lewis, who was the minister responsible for immigration at the time, took to the Andrew Marr Show to defend his former boss: [embed]https://twitter.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary has called for the Home Secretary to resign over the Windrush debacle that has been dominating the newspaper headlines over the past week. The government has u-turned and apologised after threatening to deport Caribbean migrants who could not provide proof of their decades of residence in the UK, with some of those affected having been refused jobs and access to healthcare as a result. To add insult to injury, it was revealed that the Home Office had destroyed the landing cards for immigrants who arrived aboard HMT Empire Windrush, thereby removing a vital source of documentation. The government has since said that it will provide compensation 'where appropriate'.

The Foreign Secretary joined Andrew Marr to discuss the targeted missile strikes on chemical weapons facilities in Syria that took place during the early hours of Saturday morning. Although the US-led attacks were not intended to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad, and have reportedly seen no fatalities as a result, they have proved controversial, not least due to the likelihood of further strained relations with Russia. Johnson defended the government's course of action, which was agreed at a meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday: https://youtu.be/6hydxps3dDs AM: What is the mission, and have we really accomplished it?

The former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, the data-mining firm notoriously suspended by Facebook for harvesting details of up to 87 million Facebook accounts without their consent, has told Andrew Marr that the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU should be re-contested. Wylie's suggestion comes after it was highlighted that Vote Leave - the official Leave campaign - had employed the services of AggregateIQ (AIQ), a company which Wylie claims to have founded in order to support Cambridge Analytica. AIQ was also suspended from Facebook on Saturday for improperly receiving users' data, charges which AIQ denies.

Tom Watson - 'I am very, very sorry' about anti-Semitic mural Labour's Deputy Leader Tom Watson has told Andrew Marr that he is 'very, very sorry' about his leader's defence of a mural apparently depicting wealthy Jewish financiers playing Monopoly on the backs of enslaved members of the working class. In 2012, Jeremy Corbyn expressed disappointment that the mural, titled 'Freedom of Humanity', was to be removed by the authorities, comparing it to the destruction of work made by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Corbyn has since said that 'I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on, the contents of which are deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic'. Marr queried Watson as to why Corbyn has backed the mural in the first place: https://youtu.

Marina Litvinenko: ‘Lessons have not been learned’ The case of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, who has been hospitalised alongside his daughter after a suspected attempt on his life, has been dominating news headlines since it happened. Marina Litvinenko, the widow of the one-time Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who is believed to have been killed on the orders of Vladimir Putin in 2006, told Andrew Marr that she did not think enough was being done by the British authorities to protect former Russian agents now resident in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Theresa May - We are committed to no hard border with Ireland On the Andrew Marr Show today, the Prime Minister gave her first major interview since delivering her keynote speech on Brexit on Friday, in which she outlined the government's vision for the future in greater detail. Marr asked her about the negotiations involving the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, referencing remarks made by the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that the situation was similar to the boundaries of the Congestion Charge zone between different London boroughs: https://youtu.be/p4LWs3rOLcQ AM: Do you think that the borderline between Islington and Camden is a very useful comparison for the Irish border?