that we are the parliament that licensed cash for questions. that was the warning from my guest on political thinking this week chris bryant who chairs a house of commons standards committee. his words won him the plaudit of being the parliamentary speech of the year. he also secured a government u—turn and a change into the approach and standards. now, chris bryant is a labour mp, he represents one of the poorest constituencies in the country, yet his background doesn't suggest preparation for that. he was a public schoolboy, he trained to be a vicar in the church of england, and he was, at university, a student conservative activist. chris bryant, welcome to political thinking. you've now made me seem very odd already! in the words of stephen sondheim, "i've went from careered to career." i've made you interesting rather than odd! orweird. we are going to explore the interesting and the weird, perhaps. we are going to examine happy and sad. let's start with that speech. i, as it happens, by sheer chance, sat next to you and your husband as you got that accolade. you were told it was speech of the year. at the time you were delivering the speech, were you conscious this may be one of the speeches of your lifetime? no, completely not. i was completely mystified by what the government were up to. i had been predicting they would let it all pass because that's what has always happened in the past with every single report from a committee finding that a member of parliament has been up to no good. so i was mystified that jacob rees—mogg gave this 45—minute speech in which he basically tore up all the rules at the 11th hour in what is meant to be an independent disciplinary process — so no, i thought i'm still going to try and persuade people in the chamber and sometimes as mps we go, right, i'm just going to rant and get it off my chest and deliver my single transferable speech, but sometimes you do actuallyjust want to try and persuade everybody you possibly can. it's interesting that you say you were mystified. i felt you were angry, very much in control. you talked about what the government was doing as being immoral. you talked about it being the polar opposite of the rule of law. you were pretty cross. you were pretty cross too. i didn't feel cross, actually, i'm going to stick with the word mystified. it perplexed me that somebody could make an argument that owen paterson had not had a fair hearing and therefore we had to completely throw the whole process up in the air. he was the tory mp, the former cabinet minister at the centre of this, we're not going get into his case because you've done that elsewhere, but you felt that all the rules were effectively being torn up for the sake of one man. completely, and that's what they do in russia. i know when you had me on — you raised an eyebrow on the today programme when i used the word russia — but it's true. when you suddenly change the rules three quarters of the way through a disciplinary process solely to benefit or to harm a named individual. that's bonkers. i didn't raise an eyebrow and i'm not raising two now because that point is invalid — but the comparison with russia leads some to say, and indeed the prime minister himself tried it, didn't he, just a hold on, we are not fundamentally corrupt country. and once you compare us with russia you're making us seem to be. i'm terribly sorry but if a prime minister has to announce we are not a corrupt country, you do start to think, hang on, what's going on here? i passionately care about parliament, as you know, because through parliamentary democracy you can change people's life. when i was born, homosexuality was illegal. when i entered parliament, there was no such thing as a civil partnership and i was able to sit next to you at a dinner with my husband. that's because parliament changed the law. i desperately care about making parliament work. it's tricky, if we have a standards process based on the house of commons for perfectly good reasons, because you are elected and it is your constituents that put you there, it's quite tricky if you are having to work with someone as the sort of parliamentary policeman, as a leader who doesn't believe in rules and a leader of the house of commons who doesn't seem keen on the rules. they seem to have gone back to liking the rules now. so let's hold them to the sticking point, to quote macbeth. i think we are in a better place now. we in the standards committee are advising the code. as it happens, there is a bit of an irony about me being the chair of the committee on standards because i've been in loads of scrapes of my own over the years. we may come back to those. i thought if i said it then, we wouldn't come back to it, whatever it is. but i'm not veryjudgmental. i think mps should have a fair hearing. you're a surprising person to be chair of the committee on standards for some reasons, but actually, i listed some of the ways in which you might be seen, might be seen as an establishment figure, the public school, oxford, the church of england, we will come to some of those. but a conservative student. how do you knock back on that? i was brought up as a conservative. my mother ended up not voting conservative but my dad certainly would have done. right now he would say the conservatives are too left—wing and lily livered. it was only at university i started thinking about these things myself. in my first term i met some people who wanted to make sure that william hague did not get into power so i got elected into the student body which was very weird. i'm a very different person from the person who arrived at oxford back in 1980 in hundreds of different regards, not least because at the time i thought i was heterosexual. when i went to theological college i had a girlfriend and it was she who told me that i was gay one morning when we woke up together and i don't suppose at theological college you're supposed to be sleeping with your girlfriend! but i was quite late in working out that i was gay, around 24. let's dwell on the church for a second. you've said in the past that one of the reasons you were drawn into the church is the support they gave you, it gave you, when you were, despite on the surface this very comfortable background, a very, very tough upbringing. there are two parts of my childhood. my parents met because dad left school with relatively few qualifications and went to work in spain in the summer to work in a hotel in the 19505 and played rugby back in cardiff and ponty in the winter and my mother went on holiday and was doing make up for the bbc and that's how they met. spain became a very important part of my childhood, we lived there for five years, i speak fluent spanish and there is a little bit of me that is forever in spain. phase two was we were living in cheltenham and i remember mum coming into my bedroom on my 13th birthday and telling me that she drank too much and the next few years at home were a version of hell really because mum was drunk every night and there were all sorts of horrible, difficult times and there was a period when my mum and dad got divorced when i was 18 during my a—levels and then i had to look after my mum for quite a while. and i needed a lot of help and support and sam and his wife margaret looked after me in my final year at school and their daughter rebecca is my sort of surrogate sister, she's the first woman president of the royal academy. let me dwell for a little time without being too painful to relive, i hope, to have your mother tell you effectively she is an alcoholic even though i guess at 13 you might not have known what that word really meant, how was that? it was just a terrible time. it meant i learned to cook and to iron because mum was not able to do that. i think it was terrible for my father as well, mum was a very unhappy woman. i took her through withdrawal, very dangerously, i now know, she had terrible seizures and fits and was in and out of various different institutions. i felt very angry about it a lot of the time because there were so many lies. i can't tell you how many bottles of vodka i poured down the drain and when mum and dad finally split up, she flooded the flat and got into really bad company which was pretty violent and abusive and she flooded the flat twice, she ended up in a mobile home. then we don't really know whether she took her own life or she had just taken too much alcohol and paracetamol together. it's a grim story. do you find there is value in telling it? do you use your experiences to try and help other people? did you when you moved into the church of england when you went on to theological college and went on to be a vicar in the c of e? i suppose the thing i thought was that after all of that i could have come out as a mess and i wasn't a mess. there's all sorts of bad things about me, i know my faillings about me, i know my failings better than anybody. but i must have strength of character and i had three elderly relatives, my mother's mother's cousins, three spinsters who were very wealthy and lived in edinburgh and aviemore and they were lovely and supportive of me. i remember going back after an oxford term to the house we lived in cheltenham and mum had not got out of bed for three months for anything, literally for anything, so it was a medical disaster zone and very, very upsetting and she was in a terrible state, i had to get her to hospital. i sorted the place out and i had to go and stay with these three sisters who were wonderful and it was a completely different world from today. i remember getting on the train from cheltenham to aviemore, it took hours and hours and just collapsing when i got there. you were changed clearly because notjust your politics which we will come unto, but you give your life for a period to the church. was that one of the things that changed your politics as well? absolutely because this was the time of thatcher and you did placements in local churches so i had three months working in newcastle in an inner—city parish which was different to me. i'd been infected a bit with the socialist virus by the national youth theatre because i was in that for quite a while and i was the only public schoolboy. so i had seen a completely different world. so you were forced to confront a world you didn't really know existed both there and in the parish in newcastle. it was a culmination of that and my mum because in all of these things i knew what it was like to be on the tough end of life where things were just not working out or everything was completely chaotic. it wasn't a question of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, that wasn't the option, you had to have a world that could support people. then as part of my training i lived in a shanty town in peru and six months working for human rights organisation in argentina. then you got thrown out of chile. yes! i was meant to be there for three months but the day after i arrived, two young chileans had been set on fire by the chilean police and one of them died and i took part in the funeral. i was asked to say prayers at it because i was staying with roman catholic priests. it was in the big cathedral in the middle of santiago and we were all singing gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto, and wonderful protest song of the period. the police came in and the army with tear gas and water cannons, sprayed the bishop and all that kind of stuff and i saw all the tear gas canisters were made in britain. literally, the words? made in britain. we were not supporting chile theoretically but margaret thatcher was. you took those canisters and drew them to the attention of politicians. the labour person george foulkes brought me into the house of commons and we asked questions and we had the sale of tear gas canisters stopped. i was reliably on the left by that time i got back to the uk. were you partly on the left because of your sexuality in the sense that when you were at oxford and you were a student tory, you couldn't be, in the phrase of the time, which i know many gay people hate now, openly gay. the age of consent was 21 when i was at university and there had been an amendment, section 28 to the local government finance act, which treated homosexuality as worse than dirt. it was in order that councils could not teach homosexuality. undoubtedly that added to it but it wasn't the bits that got me there first. what's interesting is that you have become, since becoming an mp, now what i guess you would call a house of commons man. you are not a shadow minister. you have been one. you refer to good and bad ambition in the past. did you want to have what you call bad ambition? i think i wanted everybody to see me when i first arrived in parliament, in particular the prime minister so he would make me minister for tiddlywinks or whatever. did you think you could be prime minister? no, i never everwanted to or thought i could. i remember once telling james pernell that i thought i was of middling talent and i might knock at the outside of cabinet door one day. that's extraordinarily modest for someone who wants to be the performer and to be seen. the thing is... and this is where i would draw a distinction with the kind of good ambition because i think there are things i much prefer, i prefer getting things done. i've had a battle for the last eight years about acquired brain injury. i really care about the rugby players on my patch who have suffered from concussion and dementia and depression and people who have had road traffic accidents and many of their lives are safe today but they don't get the support they want and i'm hopeful that by the end of the week the government will have announced a fully fledged strategy for dealing with acquired brain injury. that is the good ambition, getting things done. in a way, it's a surprise for someone who is still driven, albeit not driven by getting to the top of the greasy pole, that so much of your time and energy is dealt with through what people would think is boring — procedures, standards, rules. i know but there's quite a lot ofjoy in working out a clever way of getting something on the order paper. what's the first rule of politics? turn up. second rule — learn how to count. third — don't leave until the vote is taken and make sure you remember to vote. knowing all the rules isjust a really important part of being able to pursue the things that really do matter. my point was, given all the energy and passion you have, is that the best use of it? well, i'd prefer to play doctor who but nobody has called me up and asked if i was available! they may after this, you were in the national youth theatre! and the national youth theatre! so was daniel craig, incidentally. in terms of that standards committee, there are some who know look at our politics and the conclusion is you cannot leave mps to deal with this any more, they are not mature enough, that you have to have an independent standards body to do this adjudication. why not? i think on some issues it's right that we should have a completely independent body, which is what we have for sexual harassment and bullying cases but on questions like whether you have used your stationery inappropriately for electoral purposes when it should only be used for parliamentary purposes, i think it's quite valuable to have a mixture of lay people, we have seven laypeople from the public, and mps on it. you are a labour mp, but you are opposing keir starmer�*s plan for dealing with this independent commission. one of the things about being the chair of standards is you have to be nonpartisan and god knows i can be partisan. i think david cameron told me once that he used to hate the fact that i regularly got called on prime minister's questions because i would always be so sharp towards him but i think that sometimes persistence is the single most important thing. sometimes with a bit of a cheeky smile, especiialy at the moment, they've got an 80—seat majority, if i want to get anything done i've got to get tories to do it. how is that to get that done? you were at university with borisjohnson. i remember it very well. i now feel more nervous as a gay man in britain than i have for 30 years. why? i've discussed this with people who work in downing street, it's because i think they are very happy to have culture wars because they have learned this trick from america, from trump, and in the end culture wars will always pick on those who are slightly different and that means the gays, thejewish, the blacks, that's always a list that pops up when any populist government gets into power. you are nervous you are nervous of you are nervous of what they have done? i think the place they have taken the debate about trans has contributed to that. the fact they are not ready to implement a proper ban on conversion therapy. gay conversion therapy. boris johnson's comments. tank—topped bum boys. saying that if you are allowed gay marriage, why not allow two men and a dog to marry? it fills me with a great deal of unease. do you think borisjohnson is guilty of those attitudes and willing to exploit them? somewhere in that mix i think there is a world of people who think... it makes me genuinely fearful because i don't think margaret thatcher was homophobic but she still introduced section 28 because it was necessary politically. i think if borisjohnson was here... he would be absolutely fuming. he would say, i was mayor of london. and what was the first thing he cut? all the money for lgbt events. but he would say he went to them, he's liberated them. prior... —— pride... of course. i don't want to overstate this, i'm not accusing the prime minister of being homophobic, but i do feel less safe, physically safe, than i did 30 years ago as a gay man, as an openly gay man. i'm just describing an emotion ifeel at the moment. i don't wake up every morning and think i am going to be gay bashed but it is a strong part of people's experience of modern britain and ijust worry about some of the language. we've talked about some of the anger you feel with conservatives but it's clear that you build relationships with conservatives to get things done and at the beginning of this conversation, you said you were notjudgmental. is that crucial to your politics? it's crucial to me being me. i'm not a fundamentalist either so i have lots of friends on the conservative benches, genuine friends, people i would go for a drink with, and we will have a good old row and a barny, i don't take it personally, and i think that's an important part about recognising the nature of representative democracy. does the labour party need to discover that? people have sat in that chair and boasted, not just in the slogan, "never kissed a tory" but they could never, ever, ever have a friendship with someone on the other side of politics. i was at a by—election and one of the researchers was driving me and i said, "are you sure we're on the right road?" he said, "i'm100% certain." i said, "i wish you had said 95% certain, "because that would have meant you had checked." and he was wrong. so i prefer people to be 95%. it's the absolutism that leads to, sorry to bring him back again, but putin and donald trump, orban, and xi, and so on. i hated it in religion, in iran or wherever and in the uk, and i hate it politics, as well. if i could introduce you to the young chris bryant, would you say, "carry on, boy. "go on and be a member of parliament?" or do you think you would say, "be careful, i'm not sure "if this is the life for you?" i think i might have been a lawyer in a different world. could you have been an actor? you mentioned you went to the national youth theatre, sorry, a member, ishould say, alongside some reasonably distinguished people. some very distinguished people. douglas hodge is my best friend from that time, we went on tour playing richard i! and various other shows. doug is in nearly everything you watch these days. and daniel craig was... daniel and i, when we were... i shouldn't speak for daniel, but i was having a difficult time and we both had a very close friendship with ed and brian, who ran the national youth theatre and they were very helpful for us so we ended up becoming friends for a while, as well. but could i be an actor? no, it got wrong when i had glandularfever and i was playing mercutio in romeo and juliet and we realised that, in our production, in act 5, juliet is meant to wake up and turn to tybalt and say, "in thy bloody shroud", but our tybalt was playing a guard in the last act, so i had to put on tybalt�*s sweaty tights, because i had died in act three and i had to put on his sweaty tights and lie on his cataphract. but, unfortunately, ifell, asleep every night. i'm meant to be a dead body and sometimes i turned over. now, i couldn't even play a dead body! but presumably if that hadn't happened, it would be you and not daniel craig as james bond! laughter a load of us went to see daniel in the first one in the cinema and we are dressed in black tie and at the moment where he comes out of the sea, everybody applauded and i don't think anybody would have applauded for me. chris bryant, thank you so much forjoining me on political thinking. thank you. chris bryant is one of those who believes, who proves, that there is a whole lot more to being a member of parliament than simply being someone who peddles a party line. exactly what i hope this broadcast helps to show week in, week out. thanks for watching. hello, again. we've got an east—west split with our weather patterns, today. certainly for eastern england, there's going to be quite a lot of cloud and some patchy outbreaks of rain. the rain tending to break up a little bit later on, so it might turn a bit brighterfor a time. rain easing across eastern scotland. any showers clearing elsewhere to give long spells of sunshine. the best of it across these western areas. quite a range of temperatures, but for the most part it's around 6—8 degrees for our highs, today. overnight tonight, it turns chilly for a time with some patches of frost developing ahead of this weather front that will then move in off the atlantic. and as this front bumps into the cold air, well, we may well see a spell of snow, particularly to the north of the central belt in scotland. monday morning could see five centimetres in places. but even across higher parts of the southern uplands, the peaks and the pennines, we may see snow for a time. otherwise, it's rain that will push eastwards tomorrow followed by much colder air, a mixture of sunshine and showers, some of those showers wintry, chilly. temperatures just around 3—5 degrees in the north. that's your weather. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a major review into the circumstances leading up to murder of arthur labinjo—hughes has been launched by the government. the children's commissioner for england says change must come. arthur raised concerns. he was not a baby. he was six—years—old. he raised concerns and the system did not hear him. we must listen to the voices of children. the uk becomes the latest country to tighten its travel rules — as the omicron variant spreads. from tuesday, all arrivals will need a pre—departure covid test. we've been clear that we will take action if it is necessary. but it is important that, whilst we are introducing these new border measures today, to remember that vaccinations, remember, they are our first line of defence. pope francis is visiting a migrant camp on the greek island of lesbos

Related Keywords

Rules , Government , Uk , Changes , Hammer Blow , Travel Industry Representatives , Pcr Tests , Businesses , Cost , Jobs , The Travel Association Abta , People , Path Of Destruction , Hundreds , Surprise Sending Thousands , Volcano , Shelters , Families , Eruption , Locals , Island Ofjava , 13 , Killers , Bbc News , Claims , Hughes , Arthur Labinjo , Prison Sentences , Six , Thinking , Public , It S Time , Nick Robinson , Young Chris Bryant , Making Parliament , Questions , House Of Commons Standards Committee , Cash , Warning , Guest , Speech , Standards , Change , Words , Mp , Plaudit , U Turn , Approach , One , Country , Schoolboy , Background , Vicar , Preparation , Constituencies , University , Student Conservative Activist , Church Of England , Careered To Career , Stephen Sondheim , Husband , Chance , Sat , Weird , Sad , Orweird , Speeches , Lifetime , Accolade , Member Of Parliament , Jacob Rees Mogg , Pass , Committee Finding , Good , Report , 45 , 11th Hour , 11 , Everybody , Mps , Chest , Chamber , Mystified , Rule Of Law , Control , Opposite , Owen Paterson , Word , Hearing , Argument , Somebody , Cross , Cabinet Minister , Process Up In The Air , Case , Centre , Elsewhere , Tory , Oman , Eyebrow , Russia , Sake , Way , Point , Process , Comparison , Quarters , Individual , Three , Two , Prime Minister , Didn T He , Hold On , What S Going On , Hang On , Democracy , Thing , Homosexuality , Life , Partnership , Law , Dinner , Work , Someone , Reasons , Constituents , Leader , Sort , Policeman , Doesn T , Committee , Place , Bit , Quote Macbeth , The Code , Chair , Loads , Scrapes , Irony , Person , Ways , Mother , Some , Oxford , Conservative , Student , Establishment Figure , Public School , Things , Conservatives , Dad , Lily Livered , Term , Power , Student Body , William Hague , College , Girlfriend , Regards , 1980 , 24 , Church , Support , Surface , Let S Dwell On The Church For A Second , School , Parts , Childhood , Parents , Upbringing , Qualifications , Rugby Back , Summer , Ponty , Hotel , Holiday , Winter , Spain , Cardiff , 19505 , Mum , Part , Cheltenham , Phase , Bedroom , Birthday , Spanish , Five , Sorts , Times , Hell , Home , Version , Horrible , Lot , A Levels , Help , 18 , Sam , Daughter , Wife , Surrogate Sister , Woman , Alcoholic , President , She S The First , Royal Academy , Well , Father , Withdrawal , Fits , Institutions , Seizures , Lies , Bottles , Vodka , Drain , Company , Flat , Mobile Home , Twice , Alcohol , Paracetamol , Story , It , Value , Experiences , Wall , Mess , Anybody , Failings , Faillings , Strength , House , Relatives , Cousins , Character , Bed , Aviemore , Edinburgh , Anything , State , Disaster Zone , Hospital , World , Sisters , Train , Politics , Notjust , City Parish , Churches , Placements , Thatcher , Newcastle , National Youth Theatre , Virus , Parish , Culmination , Everything , End , It Wasn T A Question , Wasn T The Option , Training , Bootstraps , Human Rights Organisation , Chile , Peru , Shanty Town , Argentina , Police , Chileans , Cathedral , Funeral , Fire , Set , Prayers , Roman Catholic Priests , Middle , Santiago , Tear Gas , Kind , Tear Gas Canisters , Singing , Protest Song , Bishop , Stuff , Army , Water Cannons , Que Me Ha Dado Tanto , Gracias A La Vida , Canisters , Politicians , Attention , Made In Britain , Think Margaret Thatcher , George Foulkes , Because , Left , Sexuality , Sense , Sale , Section , You Couldn T Be , Consent , Age , Phrase , Amendment , Student Tory , 28 , 21 , Councils , Government Finance Act , Order , Dirt , Bits , Shadow Minister , Ambition , Particular , Minister , Whatever , Tiddlywinks , Cabinet , Talent , Outside , James Pernell , Performer , Battle , Distinction , Eight , Players , Concussion , Patch , Depression , Road Traffic Accidents , Dementia , Acquired Brain Injury , Surprise , Strategy , Many , Dealing , Lives , The End , Energy , Procedures , Top , Greasy Pole , Rule , Something , Order Paper , Ofjoy , Passion , Use , Vote , Matter , Third Don T Leave , Daniel Craig , Doctor , Nobody , Conclusion , Enough , Terms , More , Incidentally , Body , Standards Body , Adjudication , Stationery , Cases , Bullying , Issues , Sexual Harassment , Mixture , Purposes , Plan , Laypeople , Keir Starmer , Seven , Commission , God , Fact , David Cameron , Persistence , Single , Smile , Especiialy , 80 , Borisjohnson , Majority , Downing Street , 30 , Culture Wars , Trick , America , Blacks , List , Trump , Thejewish , Comments , Debate , Conversion Therapy , Ban , Gay Conversion Therapy , Gay Marriage , Bum Boys , Somewhere , Deal , Men , Dog , Unease , Attitudes , Mix , Mayor , London , Events , Money , Pride , Safe , Emotion Ifeel , Course , Experience , Language , Modern Britain , Ijust , Relationships , Conversation , Anger , Beginning , Notjudgmental , Friends , Drink , Benches , Row , Lots , Representative Democracy , Labour Party , Barny , Nature , Friendship , Slogan , Side , Researchers , By Election , Never Kissed A Tory , Road , 95 , Donald Trump , Absolutism , Orban , It Politics , Wherever , Xi , Religion , Boy , Carry On , Iran , Actor , This Is The Life , Lawyer , Friend , Member , Shows , Tour Playing , Douglas Hodge , Ishould Say , Doug , Glandularfever , Romeo And Juliet , Brian , Ed , Who Ran The National Youth Theatre , Mercutio , Act 5 , Juliet , Tybalt , In Thy Bloody Shroud , Production , 5 , Lie , Sweaty Tights , Guard , Cataphract , Ifell , Hadn T , Laughter , James Bond , Load , Tie , Sea , Cinema , Party Line , Forjoining , Broadcast , Thanks , Watching , Weather Patterns , Hello , East West Split , Showers , Rain , Rain Tending , Sunshine , Best , Cloud , Outbreaks , Spells , Eastern England , Eastern Scotland , Rain Easing , Weather Front , Temperatures , Patches , Areas , Range , Highs , Frost , The Atlantic , 6 , 8 , Air , Snow , North , Places , Spell , Bumps , Scotland , Central Belt , Southern Uplands , Monday Morning , Eastwards , Weather , Chilly , Pennines , Peaks , 3 , Viewers , Headlines , Around The World , Arthur Labinjo Hughes , Concerns , Children S Commissioner For England , Baby , Circumstances , Review , Travel Rules , Children , Voices , Arrivals , System , Omicron Variant Spreads , Action , Vaccinations , Border , Defence , Line , Pre Departure Covid Test , Camp , Pope Francis , Island Of Lesbos , Greek ,