They says b.b.c. Radio 4 now just before the week in Westminster. With a look ahead to tomorrow morning. My castaway is the actor Wendell Pierce best known for his role as Detective Bunk Moreland in the wire he was brought up in punchy train park a newly built African-American suburb of New Orleans Park was created in one $955.00 and became an incubator of talent of teachers and doctors and lawyers it was separate but he had a dividing line which actually the still exists today between the white neighborhood and black neighborhoods segregated so we took something ugly and made it beautiful Wendell Pierce my castaway he's passionate about music so do join us to hear his Desert Island Discs tomorrow morning at 1150. Iceland famously welcoming to visitors but did you know that it's also a place where even the Prime Minister will take your call as Lesley Cohen discovers in from our own correspondent in half an hour but 1st here's the economist with the week in Westminster. You might recall the gushing Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady back slapping Henry Higgins I thought that you would rule it I doubted you do it but now I must admit that succeed you did the mood among Boris Johnson supporters in the Commons this week was equally triumphal and the man himself seemed pretty pleased with his achievement of arresting and Huish Breck's it was draw a deal out of the e.u. They said that we couldn't we couldn't put the withdrawal agreement and we did they said we couldn't get rid of the backstops and we did they said they said we couldn't get a new deal and they said they wanted and then they said they said that we never get a true part of it and it was. Was to stop it in some part of it was part of its. But not so fast Professor Johnson the withdrawal Act passed its 2nd reading comfortably but a mission calling on M.P.'s to fast track it through the House in just 3 days failed the do or die pledge by Halloween that's been quietly retired and no the e.u. Is mulling Abraxas extension of up to 3 months for a man in a hurry that's not a welcome prospect so Johnson had another trick up his sleeve plans for a snap election in the run up to Christmas the bricks missed in between those home deliveries and nativity plays in the hope of a steady majority to ratify Bracks 8 that's put the opposition in a tricky spot divided over the wisdom of an early poll and opinion is divided on Johnson himself is he a make my day bruise or smashing his way through the opposition or a slippery manipulator ducking do you scrutiny I brought together 2 experts in Bristol Rigi the conservative m.p. And former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell who's kept a close eye on a man he considers a protege and Johnson's biographer Sagna panelled how did Andrew think the Pm had fed this week I thought this week it was very clear both in his performance other spots box and in Prime Minister's Questions. That he increasingly has the mastery of the house and looks like a leader who knows what he's doing in very difficult circumstances and of course the circumstances are incredibly difficult because the government has no majority in the House has incredibly strong feelings on all this stuff so you've observed pretty critical I think is a biographer for a long time now what's your assessment of Johnson in Downing Street well I'm afraid he sort of lived down to my expectations I really had hoped that he would show us his statesman like size I find it difficult to see as I find it difficult to see the same picture as and you have a much I try I find the way that he sort of his bullying his aggression in the House of Commons makes me feel question Council I can see that it makes but equally female M.P.'s but not just them uncomfortable too I think also we thought the point where can we really trust what he says at the dispatch box we look at the issue for example about checks on trade between North and Great Britain and he said there won't be any checks and then Steve Buckley the Brecht secretary confessed that she would be checked so then I think he tried to call them by different names so I think we've got the problem but you always have with Boris Johnson So Andrew that call criticism there. For her now is that he's not trustworthy and you know the only person to raise he's a bit slippery I think you know this week if you look at the House of Commons this week where there was criticism of many people in the house including him over the humbug on that very very very difficult evening statement I think that yes going back to the tires corrugation in the big all it is is a big big day in the Commons yes very bitter but I think you know the really has moved on the atmosphere has moved on quite a lot in the House of Commons and I think he really has grown into the job but he looks like an author of leader let's look at. The other way Boris Johnson has done a lot of things that I think you seem to be suggesting when you were writing the biography that he was temperamentally incapable of doing building a team in number 10 when he seems to have done that people think that perhaps it would be brutal but he certainly built a very disciplined team he's got the e r g on side he's negotiated a deal with the e.u. Lots of back slapping from a lot of people who didn't seem terribly pleased to see him become prime minister in Brussels I don't underestimate him in some ways I've always said that I think he has and I think one of his great guess is salesmanship I mean he seems to be able to sell anything to anyone but that is by telling them what they want to hair and then when the next lot come in the room tell them what they want to hear which is why of course he's fallen out with the piece spectacularly because you simply couldn't reconcile what he promised them with what he promised they are you know then is that also dog trees or maiden did that wasn't just something that Boris Johnson Well currently reading making that the problem the reason why it stuck both of them is it's probably a problem that simply cannot be sold it can't be what it appears to be to support it I mean and that's when it comes up against reality that's always been the issue I think it's very unfair you make a point it is a good salesman the fact he's a good leader he led London extremely well he's probably the only Tory politician in the country who could have got elected twice to lead as mayor of London at that time and he showed great leadership skills when he was there as a one nation leader and that's what many of us hope once Bracks is out of the way he will deliver for the country if he wins the next election can I move you both on to whether Boris Johnson has changed since he has been in office since July is Prime Minister be seen the progression Sometimes it seems that he started out with ruthlessness looking for conflict is in some ways now a softer approach a bit more collegiate 100 Mitchell is going to night school. Well I think he's established himself and having established himself he doesn't perhaps need to labor that point quite so much as he did when he 1st came from as well I've always thought that Boris would be leader of the Conservative party if I put him on the candidates list back in 1992 in the teeth of John Major's opposition actually but I've always thought the Boris has something which most of the politicians simply don't have a maybe it's leadership skill maybe it's the deep persuasion and so on he was talking about when she described him as a very good salesman but he's got it and I think the country needs a bit of that enthusiasm and hopefully his one nation you know liberal beliefs that will come to the fore after the election the people being the putting you know we have to look at what he is in fact planning and you know we've got some incredibly harsh immigration rules coming down the line we've also been promised that there are going to be 40 new hospitals but then in fact it turns out they're only going to be 6 so I just don't see the me to these claims about being a One Nation Tory but I also do want to go back to what he did as mayor of London where he was to the left of where he is now but I wouldn't say that he was a great leader that in his one great test was doing the riots of 28 left when if you remember I mean these are really serious rites and people died and he refused to come back for a whole day for several days and then when he did he was completely out of his depth he simply could not empathize with those people I remember in particular headdress in class who was telling him about a brick being thrown through her Cylon window and he just looked uncomfortable I think he didn't recognise that we're talking about the same person really I mean you know when he was in under the proof of the pudding is in the eating he got reelected for a 2nd term and after all he was the man who if you didn't invent he certainly heavily marketed the national living wage earners now put up the national minimum wage by the largest amount over how close is he to coming across for it could still go. Off Track Yes of course it could go wrong and we're clearly moving towards a general election and for the 1st time in my political life British politics is not broadly divided between left right Labor Tory It's divided between these 2 very hostile camps of leave and remain and almost anything could happen in this election but I do think he is doing what he promised to do he has got the Dio over the line he has managed to get it through its 2nd reading in the House of Commons these are big big achievements one thing I would say about Boris Johnson is that he does have a great talent for luck I mean you could say he makes his own luck but what's most important is kindly reignite this country so if I didn't fracture it I don't see him as the person to do that I think that is the most important job of any leader right now. And Andrew Mitchell So a general election is in the air that we can be sure yet when how and what might ensue are easier prospects and how might a snap election let alone a Christmas one go down with a vote is I saw the wisdom of the political analyst and polling expert David counting most in 1st with a snap elections would different from normal ones well it's rather a mixed review if you look at the Fabrice 74 election it was one which had he called because he wanted to resolve the question that he put to the British people who governs Britain it was a good question but the trouble for him was that actually the campaign as it developed turned into something very different so I think those who call for snap elections have to be careful what they wish for because they can have a life of their own and they can divergent off in different directions which wants to Sara Lee playing to the strengths of a party that's convened the election what's the effect of an election is dominated by Bracks What does that throw up well it certainly focuses on a fairly narrow front whether that can be sustained is another question let's argue that it can. Johnson will be playing to his core vote as best he can he's hoping to energize conservatives he's also hoping he can squeeze the bricks at party b. Who currently in the polls have about one in 10 of all voters hoping to put to them the proposition that you know not unrealistic that Niger frog will not be the next prime minister so only the Conservatives are in the game and they're the party they can best trust against labor to secure the Brecht's that they want and what about the prospect for Labor if this you know really did go ahead whatever their reservations have been as it were Labor is in a bit of a difficult price at the moment at the moment their polling is on average about 25 percent now that's 16 points down on where they were in 2017 so that's pretty grim and what they'll be hoping to do is to energize their people will be hoping to proclaim that the conservatives on offer at this election are very right wing and they'll be a great threat to the n.h.s. And to education and a whole raft of policies also they won't be able to deliver a really good breakfast that's a good outcome for us the difficulty is that they've lost a lot of voters and how to get them back is not an easy proposition What do you reckon with this election it's likely result in the Jora to govern which is after all the reason for trying to rush do it if I had to bet the mortgage on it which is always the test in our family I would say that the Conservatives must be favorites to be the largest party without question with a possibility of actually gaining a majority they have problems in Scotland they can have to make up seats there that they might lose but they could pull it off I think for labor the difficulty is going to be that 2017 they had the biggest swing of middle class voters to labor in 2017 since $979.00 according to Mari and I have a feeling that a number of those voters especially young voters are now much more skeptical about Jeremy Corbyn So I think that's going to be a. Real problem for you but to match anything like what I got in 2070 fascinating thing about Christmas election is how would it actually happen in practice most polling stations are is supposed to be who's doing nativity plays it's been fascinating to see the revival of Nativity plays as one of the great problems of our democracy but it's I'm doubtingly true that a December election for the electoral ministrations who after all of the ones after to live for this would be immensely difficult and they're already saying how complicated that's going to be but I think the truth is that when governments decide that they're going to have them then it's like a truck in the rolls over all objections and it is John David cowling choppy week in the Commons has brought key Breck's it votes presenting some M.P.'s with agonizing decisions I brought together 2 M.P.'s known for independence of mind Sarah Liston who represents tautness and chairs the health and parliamentary liaison committees this year she's been the member of 3 political parties the conservatives changed u.k. And she's now firmly ensconced in the Liberal Democrat nest and Sarah champion Labor m.p. For rather him although she voted remain She's one of the group of Labor rebels in leave constituencies urging the party to back a deal and get Rex it done I asked Sarah champion how she'd navigated the competing claims of the week it's the hardest thing that we have to do I think and probably something that most constituents don't realise just how we wrestle with this I didn't sleep properly I found it difficult to eat I felt noisiest most of the time you're trying to 2nd guess the future you're trying to do right by your constituents by your party by your conscience and all the time you have a tidal wave of people telling you what you ought to be doing and just to clarify your position you voted in favor of the withdrawal bill 2nd reading but against the program. How did you decide where you were going to land this week. How I decided this week was I want to both honor my constituents who overwhelmingly voted to leave but I also want to get stability for the country both in terms of international relations but also in terms of our politics here so for me voting for a deal is the safest way that I can achieve that balance. It's there oh we're just in what about you sitting there for a different party who lived. Well this week for me has in some ways not being difficult because I feel profoundly that there's no version of bricks it that would benefit the n.h.s. Of science research social care and public health so for me I'd be making that case for some time so I don't accept that this is a good deal but I do think that people should have a final say which really should you be still though to a tool given that you have changed your party allegiance and you could have resigned will be in the process of resigning forcing a by election people might think they got you as m.p. On one ticket and they've now got you on it really different one that's why I voted to support the principle of a general election and I've explained that to my colleagues because most liberal Democrats have not done that but when I did change parties to the Liberal Democrats I said that I would expect people to have the final say or me just as like spec them to have the final say on the deal it is complicated because there's loyalty to constituents to party to your own conscience and perhaps also your 2 decisions that you made in the past that you have to square off if you change their champion How do you navigate that and how much is it being tested by Bracks and particularly in that labor context where we know that there is often a big split with labor leave constituencies and remain in peace I think our democracy has been tested by Breck that I think our party political system has been tested by Brecht it and I think the role and functionality of Parliament has been tested by breaks it and I'm not entirely sure we have reconciled any of those yet on a personal level it is extraordinarily challenging to try and on are all those different allegiances and yourself and I'm not sure any of us have done it to a satisfactory level I reflect on this quite a lot because I'm very. Dable pushing to leave and pushing for a deal and I wonder if I would be in a similar mindset had my constituency voted remain and I actually don't know the answer to that I my own person I think I've always been that since I came into Parliament My view is that it's an M.P.'s role is very much to look at the evidence and scrutinize the evidence and with there is Representatives not delegates and I think that's a really important principle a my big fear is that if we vote for the deal when the transition period is over that's when it will really hit home and some of the very serious problems that arise from it will hit home and people will be asking or why didn't you tell us and I'm I want to be able to look people in the eye and say I did everything I could because just ask you one more thing or really why you chose to go to another party you could have decided to run as an independent conservative and build up your your brand is it the sense that you need a party home and what is that choice as well of course the the difficulty is that when you are an independent you have less ability I think to work with a team of people on a range of issues not just bricks it and I was the very 1st m.p. To be selected by a fully open postal primary so if you like I was selected by the whole constituency people lots of different views and I think they've been used to me over the years being quite independent minded in my approach and I just felt that I could no longer continue with the Conservative Party I just couldn't do it what feel a bit weird on the ground given that you were in a believe constituency my constituency kind of reflects the whole country because it covers 2 local authority areas so in the South hands that voted to remain but the whole bay part of my constituency voted to leave so when I go out there people are interested to talk and yet occasionally people across with me. But it varies I was knocking on doors the other day and I like it was one person who was absolutely vehemently opposed to the position I took the house next door full of enthusiasm and so I think a lot of the abuse you get isn't reflected on how people are face to face do you think Sarah champion the M.P.'s coming into the referral trade of politics need more guidance on this kind of thing I read on the role of what it is to be an m.p. And that it is not simple and that events can reshape it did you get any you know I mean I came in on a byelection in 2012 and rather expected that there will be a job description a manual a hand a Hoover a none of that is true and what people don't seem to grasp is we're actually all self employed so