The Master of Tory Secrets: What MPs Really Get Up To... (Simon Hart)

Why do the wrong people become MPs? How can we transform Westminster into a modern day workplace? How did Simon Hart’s time at The Countryside Alliance inform his politics?


Rory and Alastair are joined by the ex-Tory Chief Whip, Simon Hart, to discuss all this and more.

0:00 – Intro
1:28 – Political background: from Countryside Alliance to Welsh Secretary and Chief Whip.
2:06 – Fox hunting and House of Lords reform
6:08 – The decline of rural farming and political neglect of upland farms and smallholders.
9:26 – Brexit discussion
12:27 – Hart’s accidental rise into politics and rural roots
14:05 – “Being a Tory meant you could have a sense of humor”—Hart’s ideological shift explained
15:11 – What does a Chief Whip actually do?
18:40 – Parliament’s lack of pastoral care for new MPs
21:03 – Why Hart titled his book Ungovernable
24:00 – Why politics resists reform
25:19 – Rory’s rise was slow—was it a talent issue or the system? How reshuffles really work
27:05 – Candidate selection flaws
29:00 – Suella Braverman’s reappointment
33:06 – The 1922 Committee and letters of no confidence explained
34:43 – Working with Boris Johnson
36:49 – The Conservative collapse
42:51 – Why the party feels ungovernable
44:28 – Populism vs realism: why governments fail to deliver fast, and how expectations are mismanaged
45:57 – Hart’s theory: political will is the most important factor in getting things done
46:36 – Knighthoods
50:30 – Final reflections
53:25 – Debrief


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