“About 10 years ago, I hacked into a Labour MP’s website and I changed stuff in there to say nice things about Tories.”
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Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke "Kemi" Badenoch is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2024. Badenoch previously worked in the Cabinet for prime ministers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024. She has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Essex, previously Saffron Walden, since 2017.
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politics · British politician (born 1980) · politician · author · software developer · also Kemi Badenoch, Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke, Olukemi Adgegoke Badenoch, Oluwakemi Badenoch, Badenoch
Born 2 January 1980 · Q21592171
97 published statements · 0 followers
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12 photos · 1 audio · 1 video
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Kemi Badenoch's victory speech after the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election
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Kemi Badenoch debates socialism vs capitalism
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I know how much the Prime Minister has come to enjoy our exchanges—in fact, in the King’s Speech debate he told me that on difficult days my input was “always a ray of sunshine.”<span id="vol786_col24" class="cross-reference" data-house-id="1" data-column-number="24" data-volume-number="786" data-external-id="04F8ACBE-1873-45F0-9D0D-4B1378E27B78">—[<em>Official Report</em>, 13 May 2026; Vol. 786, c. 24.]</span><span id="926" class="column-number" data-column-number="926"></span> He might n
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“About 10 years ago, I hacked into a Labour MP’s website and I changed stuff in there to say nice things about Tories.”
“in the old sense – increasingly, whether you are high income does not drive your voting patterns. Educated voters are moving left, and many private sector voters on average incomes are moving right.”
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“those who warned that gender services in the NHS had been hijacked by ideologues been listened to instead of gagged, children would not have been harmed and the Cass review would not have been required. Our responsibility is to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again.”
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“there were terrible things that happened during the British Empire, there were other good things that happened, and we need to tell both sides of the story”
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“s party and asserted the defections were actually a”
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“There is a big difference between an 18 year old from France who”
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“a track record of promoting women”
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“to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant”
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The National Scot: What Kemi Badenoch’s 70-minute Fringe interview didn’t say about Scotland
UA.NEWS: Badenoch rules out Conservative coalition with Reform UK
Daily Mail: Kemi Badenoch 'thrilled' to have sold more tickets than Nicola Sturgeon to Edinburgh Fringe Festival show
GB News: Kemi Badenoch brands Reform defectors as 'dishonest' while attributing blame for Conservative struggle
Scottish Daily Express: Scotland in 'very dysfunctional' relationship with the SNP as Kemi Badenoch vows Tory comeback
Shropshire Star: Kemi Badenoch rules out deals with Reform as she blasts ‘dishonest’ defectors
GB News: Kemi Badenoch blasts Labour for dithering over huge North Sea gas field
The Scotsman: Kemi Badenoch hits out at Swinney over business-class flights to World Cup
Mshale: Keir Starmer Sets Out Nuclear Power Plan And Kemi Badenoch's First Major Policy | BBC Newscast Canadian Auto Parts Settlement (k2hkivDkze)
Daily Mail: Kemi Badenoch accuses Labour councillors of leaving flagship town hall with £137million budget gap while ministers its funding by 40 per cent
London Evening Standard: Kemi Badenoch under fire for appointing former antisemite as adviser
The Sun: Scrapping Net Zero power grid drive would leave families £540 a year better off, says Kemi Badenoch
Bishop's Stortford Independent: Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch calls for cut in fuel duty to continue
Daily Express: Kemi Badenoch joined an Establishment stitch-up to make a mockery of voters
Daily Express: Kemi Badenoch could scupper Andy Burnham's dream of Labour rule into 2030s
The Independent: Kemi Badenoch’s popularity is rising – but voters still unconvinced by Tory party, new poll shows
Yorkshire Post: Kemi Badenoch right to question the Government on defence spending
Mshale: Finlay Tarling Last Video Before Passing Volta Tour The Portugal Kemi Badenoch (8g44crwOzn)
lbc.co.uk: Kemi Badenoch calls for Government commitment to 3% defence spending goal
Yahoo: Kemi Badenoch: backing a former neo-Nazi
Chronicle Live: Kemi Badenoch backs calls to keep Newcastle seven-year-old's killer behind bars
Daily Express: Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch face a battle for survival - there can be only one winner
UnHerd: Kemi Badenoch is the real loser of the Clacton by-election
Mshale: What Happened To Former Kenyan Rugby Star Daniel Adongo? Kemi Badenoch (PAFZKCrPpX)
“I know how much the Prime Minister has come to enjoy our exchanges—in fact, in the King’s Speech debate he told me that on difficult days my input was “always a ray of sunshine.”<span id="vol786_col24" class="cross-reference" data-house-id="1" data-column-number="24" data-volume-number="786" data-external-id="04F8ACBE-1873-45F0-9D0D-4B1378E27B78">—[<em>Official Report</em>, 13 May 2026; Vol. 786, c. 24.]</span><span id="926" class="column-number" data-column-number="926"></span> He might n”
“I thank the Prime Minister for that answer. No doubt, he will be disappointed that he will not be emulating his hero Harold Wilson in winning multiple elections. However, we all hope that he may be about to emulate him in another way: by being the Prime Minister when England win the world cup. That is something that every single one of us in the House should get behind—especially the SNP. <em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em> As Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister led his party to a”
“I thank the Prime Minister for that answer and for paying tribute to so many of the people he has been able to help. In fact, I remember when I started this job, the Prime Minister was very helpful to me, saying that I would not last the year. Life comes at you fast. <em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em> He spent a long time laughing at how I had lost control of my party; I think he should have been paying attention to his Back Benchers instead of mine. Everyone in politics would do well to rem”
“Can I start by thanking the Prime Minister for the way that he responded to the murder of Ann Widdecombe last week? This is the first opportunity I have had on the Floor of the House to commemorate her life. A lot has been said about how she died. I want to focus on celebrating the life she lived. Ann was a woman of high principle and profound beliefs, with a wicked sense of humour—a wonderful combination of being a serious person who did not take herself too seriously. She changed her faith”
“That is a lovely statement that the Prime Minister has just made to Pooja; I am sure that the whole House will agree. I think that the whole House will also agree that he gave a very diplomatic answer to the question I asked on advice to his successor. Having heard that answer, I say this to Labour MPs with as much goodwill as I can muster—<em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em>—we have been where you are. Changing Prime Minister is <span id="927" class="column-number" data-column-number="927”
“The Prime Minister may not think so now, but it is a tribute to him that not a single sitting Labour MP could beat him. Not the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) who could not count her taxes, not the right hon. Member for Sheffield Heeley (Louise Haigh) who could not count how many phones she had lost—“lost, lost, lost”—and definitely not the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) who could not count to 81. This is my last exchange with the right hon. and le”
“We understand it perfectly, and that is why—<em>[</em><em>Interruption.</em><em>]</em> Yes, we do. That is why the Prime Minister is leaving and so is his Chancellor. Labour Members are laughing and pretending, but if he was doing such a fabulous job, why did he resign? Defence of the realm is the first duty of Government. <em>[</em><em>Interruption.</em><em>]</em> Yes, it is the first duty of Government. I do not need to read again what General Sir Richard Barrons or Lord Richard Dannatt sai”
“Can I associate myself and those on the Opposition Benches with the Prime Minister’s comments about Venezuela, and also about the Lib Dems? <em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em> But seriously, the Chief of the Defence Staff made it known that the armed forces needed a minimum of £28 billion more to defend the country. Can the Prime Minister tell us why he thinks half that amount is enough?”
“The Prime Minister did not say that it was enough, and that was a very long list of things that he is not yet paying for. It is not right and it is not fair—certainly not to our troops, who put their lives on the line for all of us every single day. Three weeks ago, the Defence Secretary, the right hon. Member for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough (John Healey), resigned saying, “I am being forced to make decisions that would…increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country les”
“The Chief of the Defence Staff is an honourable man, and what he and the NATO Secretary-General have done is welcome the fact that the plan has been published—just that it has been published. They have been waiting for more than a year. The strategic defence review was last year. The Chief of the Defence Staff is an honourable man who is having to make do with very little. The threat level has dramatically changed in the two years that the Prime Minister has been in office. Since he took offi”
“The Prime Minister says that he is delivering this outside the Budget. That is right: it should have been in the last Budget. The strategic defence review was published last year. It should have been in the last Budget, not the next Budget. According to the intelligence assessment that the Prime Minister himself has said we have, there could be an attack on NATO by 2030, but this plan does not deliver until after that. Not only is £5 billion missing from his plan, but it relies on £11 billion of”
“It does not sound as if the Prime Minister has told the right hon. Member for Makerfield to find £5 billion. He says that any Labour Prime Minister would stand behind this plan. Let me tell him what Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, said yesterday. He said that the Prime Minister had chosen the “cheap option”, and he called the plan “woefully inadequate”. Let me tell him what General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the authors of his own strategic defence review, said yesterday: “we are”
Public attention spiked: 13,315 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.6× the usual 3,678, with 0 article edits.
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“The fact is that if the Education Secretary knew so much about poor children, she would not have given them fewer teachers. Teacher numbers have gone down—<em>[</em><em>Interruption.</em><em>]</em> It is amazing; I have never seen this much excitement on the Labour Benches. They are cheering so loudly, while there are 400 knives stuck in the Prime Minister’s back. Shame on them. They don’t like it up them, but they know that what I am saying is true. There were times when the Prime Minister t”
“Once again I have to ask: if it is all so fantastic, why is the Prime Minister resigning? It is very generous of him to stick by his Ministers, because they did not stick by him. He can say what he likes, but the people of Aberdeen gave their verdict—they gave their verdict on his Energy Secretary by voting Conservative. To be fair, the Cabinet are not all traitors and deserters; some of them have been loyal—loyal and incompetent. Hands up if you think that the Education Secretary is doing a”
“The right hon. and learned Gentleman is the one who is resigning because of his MPs. There is no point trying to distract from that. Let’s be honest: the Prime Minister has made many mistakes, otherwise he would not be going, but he has also been let down—I am only saying what his staff have been briefing. He has been let down by an Energy Secretary who is killing industry, let down by a Chancellor who is killing jobs, and let down by Back-Benchers who do not understand that government is about”
Public attention spiked: 21,180 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.8× the usual 3,678, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Don't put Burghart here.
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“party aspect of it - socialising, drinks, hanging out with other young people”
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Full Fact rated the claim “Since Kemi Badenoch became Conservative leader, Reform UK has gained more seats in council by-elections than any other party.” It depends on how you count seats “gained”. Full Fact analysis of the available data on 121 council by-elections across Great Britain since last November suggests Reform UK saw the largest net gain in seats, but more seats changed hands to the Conservatives than to Reform UK. Labour won the most seats overall..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
PA Media rated the claim ““Kemi Badenoch has put pensioners on notice: the Tories would cut the state pension."” This is untrue, although what Ms Badenoch was talking about is somewhat unclear. At most she said that she would consider means testing the so-called triple lock, which decides how rapidly the state pension rises each year..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
That the terms "man" and "woman" in the Equality Act 2010 referred to biological sex and not gender or gender identity, Badenoch described the judgment as a "victory for all of the women who faced personal abuse or lost
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PA Media rated the claim “During this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions debate, Kemi Badenoch stated that the Conservative Party “protected the triple lock during all our time in Government”. Shortly afterwards, Labour MP Mark Ferguson wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Wrong. In 2021 the Tories didn’t uprate pensions in line…” In 2021, the Conservative government announced that the triple lock pension guarantee was being suspended for one year due to the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the state pension still rose, the increase was lower than the rise that would otherwise have been implemented. This temporary change passed the House of Commons with little opposition, and was not objected to by the older people’s charity Age UK..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Full Fact rated the claim “On 25 November Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party wouldn’t reverse the recent increase in National Insurance.” That doesn’t seem to be quite what she said. Speaking on Monday, Ms Badenoch didn’t appear to say definitively whether she would or would not reverse the increase. She did say “one of the first things that we’re going to be doing when we start our policy platform” is “look again” at the increase..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
PA Media rated the claim “Kemi Badenoch at PMQs complaining about 4-day week. She thinks staff get an extra day off – less hours for same pay! She fails to realise that 40hrs over 4 days is still 40hrs!” South Cambridgeshire District Council first trialled a four-day working week for some staff in January 2023, which has seen workers get 100% pay but only work around 80% of their hours. On November 8, a few days before Mrs Badenoch’s comment during PMQs, the council was sent a letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to say a letter it had previously sent with concerns about the four-day week scheme had expired and would not be reissued. On the same day, the Government withdrew guidance that said it does “not support a 4-day working week in local authorities”..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Full Fact rated the claim “Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative party leader, was born in Nigeria.” This isn’t the case. She was born in Wimbledon, London in 1980, although then spent much of her childhood in Nigeria, where her parents are from..
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Claimed: “The Chancellor’s Budget did not mention defence.” — rated The autumn Budget speech given by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on October 30 made specific reference to the Government’s defence plans. by PA Media.
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Awarded BBC 100 Women (2024).
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“If I am leader of the Conservative Party, we will continue to strengthen our ties with Israel and root out the tragic resurgence of antisemitism in the UK. We will be true to our values.”
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Career landmark: member of the 59th Parliament of the United Kingdom (2024).
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Career landmark: Leader of the Opposition (2024).
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“We can not be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not.”
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“western values, the principles which have made this country great, and I think that we need to make sure that we continue to abide by those principles, to keep the society that we have now.”
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“It worries me when I hear people talk about wealth and success in the UK as being down to colonialism or imperialism or white privilege or whatever.”
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“moral clarity in dealing with its enemies and the enemies of the West”
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Career landmark: Leader of the Conservative Party (2024).
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After the appointment was completed, Anneliese Dodds, shadow equalities minister, said the government was engulfed in "sleaze and cronyism" and Badenoch should "come clean" about why she had not declared a political inte
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Badenoch gave a speech before the House of Commons in which she announced regulations stripping the ability of transgender migrants from certain countries to acquire documents in the UK to match those brought from their
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Badenoch referred to China's role on the world stage as a "challenge" rather than a "threat" to Britain and argued "Chinese people are different from the Chinese government and it is important to be diplomatic
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Describing her as the "darling" of many party members, in spite of "cooling enthusiasm"
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (2023–2024).
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Career landmark: Minister for Women and Equalities (2022–2024).
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Campaign: 2022 leadership candidacy.
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Badenoch, as Equalities Minister, approved the appointment of Joanne Cash as a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) board
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for International Trade (2022–2023).
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Career landmark: President of the Board of Trade (2022–2024).
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“Even when, you know, so, people hear about, you know like the whole bathroom thing, it”
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Vice News received leaked audio from 2018 in which Badenoch said "Even when, you know, so, people hear about, you know like the whole bathroom thing, it's actually more of an American thing but they have a similar proble
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Career landmark: Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities (2021–2022).
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Career landmark: Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (2020–2021).
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“I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba]. That's what I really am. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where the Islamism is, those were our ethnic enemies and yet you end up being lumped in with those people.”
Career landmark: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities (2020).
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Career landmark: member of the 58th Parliament of the United Kingdom (2019–2024).
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Badenoch abstained on a vote to extend same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland
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Career landmark: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing (2019–2020).
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Career landmark: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families (2019–2020).
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Badenoch admitted that, a decade earlier, as a prank, she had hacked into the website of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman; Harman accepted Badenoch's apology, but the matter was reported to Action Fraud,
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"Being middle class in Nigeria still meant having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school" and claimed that her family went through "periods of poverty" due to inflation
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Badenoch named Winston Churchill, Airey Neave and Margaret Thatcher as political heroes
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Career landmark: member of the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom (2017–2019).
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Career landmark: Member of the London Assembly (2016–2017).
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Career landmark: Member of the London Assembly (2015–2016).
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Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat in the London Assembly, but became a member of the London Assembly after Victoria Borwick was elected as an MP in 2015
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Badenoch stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election, where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list; Badenoch was not elected as Conservatives won only three seats
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And becoming a Fellow of Birkbeck in 2018
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Born 1980-01-02.
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I thank the Prime Minister for that answer. No doubt, he will be disappointed that he will not be emulating his hero Harold Wilson in winning multiple elections. However, we all hope that he may be about to emulate him in another way: by being the Prime Minister when England win the world cup. That is something that every single one of us in the House should get behind—especially the SNP. <em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em> As Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister led his party to a
I thank the Prime Minister for that answer and for paying tribute to so many of the people he has been able to help. In fact, I remember when I started this job, the Prime Minister was very helpful to me, saying that I would not last the year. Life comes at you fast. <em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em> He spent a long time laughing at how I had lost control of my party; I think he should have been paying attention to his Back Benchers instead of mine. Everyone in politics would do well to rem
Can I start by thanking the Prime Minister for the way that he responded to the murder of Ann Widdecombe last week? This is the first opportunity I have had on the Floor of the House to commemorate her life. A lot has been said about how she died. I want to focus on celebrating the life she lived. Ann was a woman of high principle and profound beliefs, with a wicked sense of humour—a wonderful combination of being a serious person who did not take herself too seriously. She changed her faith
That is a lovely statement that the Prime Minister has just made to Pooja; I am sure that the whole House will agree. I think that the whole House will also agree that he gave a very diplomatic answer to the question I asked on advice to his successor. Having heard that answer, I say this to Labour MPs with as much goodwill as I can muster—<em>[</em><em>Laughter.</em><em>]</em>—we have been where you are. Changing Prime Minister is <span id="927" class="column-number" data-column-number="927
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