miles of newscasters. "thank you for making this election much more interesting". well, kira, have a lovely trip to hawaii, whatever the reason is, and let's see what's going to happen on my trip to glasgow with newsnight on this episode of newscast. newscast from the bbc. hello, it's adam, not in the newscast studio, but hanging out with newsnight. lovely to be here, hanging out with you. and, of course, nick. hello. right. we'll talk about what you guys are going to be doing on the special episode of newsnight in a minute. but there's been quite a big story, actually, in the election campaign today, nick. and it's to do with reform, and we should be quite precise here. so it's not a candidate from reform who said something that people are very concerned about. it's an activist who was out canvassing for them, and they were filmed undercover by channel 4 news, and they broadcast their piece on thursday night. that's right. so it was an undercover investigation by channel 4 news into the clacton constituency in essex, where nigel farage, the leader of reform uk, is standing. and they filmed a number of people. and obviously the one that has attracted the most headlines is a man called andrew parker, who used one of the worst possible racial slurs it's possible to use, um, and about the prime minister. and today the prime minister responded, and you could tell that the prime minister, who, as i understand it, has said and spoken about how he encountered this racial slur as a younger man as a teenager, decided to address this and decided to actually repeat the racial slur. and rishi sunak said that he thought very hard about doing that, and he felt the reason why he needed to do that is that people need to hear the language that was used. and he talked about how his daughters are having to see a reform uk campaigner using this language. now it is important to say that reform uk are saying that this man, andrew parker, who described himself as a party activist, they're saying that he wasn't really known to them until he turned up and they found out that he was an actor. so therefore, they are saying that there are big question marks over this. nigel farage is saying that this is the biggest stitch up he's come across. channel 4 are saying they absolutely stand by theirjournalism. and andrew parker, he told pa media that of course he regretted what he said. he talked about how he's old school, that he's not a racist, talked about how it was typical chaps down the pub chat. and he said that his work as an actor is separate to his work as a reform activist. and let's listen to how some of that actually played out on the airwaves today. you can hear now the prime minister doing his clip to broadcasters, where he said all of this, and he did repeat the slur. now you will hear it bleeped because we as an organisation don't want to broadcast the word again. but, as nick was saying, he did repeat it when he actually spoke on camera. and this is how it sounded. when my two daughters have to see and hear reform people who campaign for nigel farage calling me ar- it hurts - and it makes me angry. and i think he has some questions to answer, and i don't repeat those words lightly. you know, i do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is. and kirsty, isuppose there's two things there. there's our decision as a broadcaster to not broadcast the word, but then there's the prime minister's decision as the leader of the country to say it. yes, but i think the latter is actually quite powerful. and it reminds us that racism is alive and well in all parts of the country. and i think to even attempt a defence to say it's old school, old school is just, it is so shocking. i completely agree. and you know, rishi sunak will have thought, you know, long and hard about doing that. but clearly he just wants people to know what is said. and ijust rememberfrom the profile we did of rishi sunak on newscast a few weeks ago, um, a big feature of that is that his race, his religion has not been a big feature of his premiership. but today it has become one, and in a very sort of negative way. yeah because actually underlying, you know, you know, looks or whatever is a basic racism, as i said, which still exists, which is utterly shocking. and actually, i mean, i can't imagine what it was like for even for his daughters to hear him repeat it, you know, it must have been really upsetting and shocking for them. let's hearfrom nigel farage, reform uk leader. now he was reacting. he's been on various places. he was actually on loose women on itv at lunchtime when this was all blowing up. and then the bbc managed to get hold of him and he was interviewed by our colleaguejoe pike. this man, andrew parker, appeared in our office on saturday when out canvassing and came out with an endless stream of invective. and what i saw it, i thought, this doesn't really ring true. no one speaks like that. it went on and on and on. overnight, i was told he was an actor. the daily telegraph contacted him. he denied being an actor. we contacted him. he denied being an actor. later on in the morning, he now accepts that he is an actor. i looked at his website. i saw some videos. he's a very well—spoken actor. just because he has acted in the past doesn't mean| he was acting in any of thosei comments, though, does it? he's a well—spoken actor, but he does what he calls rough speaking. from the moment he arrived in the office at clacton last saturday, and he bowled up and spoke to me, he was rough speaking. you think he was faking it? he was acting from the moment he came into the office. i100% believe this whole thing is a total set up. and, you know, i'm going to say this, but there's a good reason for doing it. a full list of candidates in clacton is available on the bbc news website. nigel farage is distancing himself from andrew parker, who made the most incendiary remarks, saying we found out he's an actor and there are big question marks over it, so they would believe and hope that they're able to say he's not us. but there were other people caught saying offensive things, and this is not the first time that this has happened. but it's back to where we started. like, this guy isn't a candidate, so it's not like he can be suspended or kicked out of the party or reform withdraw their support for him in the election campaign, because he's just, as far as they're concerned, just a guy who turned up. well, they're basically saying he's not us. and the people that they do know are part of their team have been dismissed. so they would draw a distinction on that. but was nigel farage�*s first response to say it was a stitch up? i mean, his first response surely should be say this is utterly shocking and should be condemned by everybody. obviously people were kicked out, but his first response surely was to say, this is utterly shocking. well, we should be transparent because we're recording this episode of newscast about 6.30pm on friday evening and on bbc one at 8pm, nigel farage will be in front of an audience in birmingham doing the quest, getting the question time treatments that lots of the other leaders got a few days ago. so by tonight, we'll be able to see what a how he responds in front of a bunch of people rather than a bunch ofjournalists, and also how the audience reacts to his response as well, which will kind of give us another data point for what this actually means for the election campaign. and, kirsty, you're going to be doing the election night coverage from scotland on thursday night. do you think reform uk will be a big part of the scottish picture? well, i mean it's going to be a part of the scottish picture because as we know, reform are going to stand candidates in every seat. and in the aberdeen area, for example, you know, things are tight between conservatives and snp. so itjust needs a few reform votes to make a difference. so that is the reform issue, isn't it? itjust digs into the tory vote. it might dig into the odd labour vote as well, i have to say, but i think that's where you're going to see it. you're not going to see, i don't think i mean, i think reform would say this themselves. they don't think they're going to see any reform mps in scotland. but that's not really what this is about. and then nick, zooming out to the whole uk, what does the data tell us about how reform might be doing? and bearing in mind, last friday we were all talking about nigel farage�*s interview with nick robinson where he said, "well, actually, maybe the west should have been a bit more careful with putin and he wouldn't have invaded ukraine". well, when nigel farage last week told nick robinson that the west had provoked putin, although he was careful to clarify that that invasion of ukraine was wrong, that did appear to sort of have a little bit of a modest dent on reform uk's vote, which in the few days after that did seem to dip a bit. now, obviously usual caveats about one poll, but there is a poll out tonight from whitestone insight that's done for the express and the daily mirror, and that's got reform uk on 21% and the conservatives on 18%. it's one poll. it's not one of the big polling companies, so let's be cautious about it. but you can bet your bottom dollar that nigel farage will pick up on that and say, "look at us. don't we present a threat"? i think the general view has been that reform was bouncing around the 16%—18% mark. now, the problem for reform is that because their vote is distributed quite evenly across england and wales, that that's quite a nice percentage figure, but that is not going to yield you many seats. and you could have a scenario where reform has a noticeably higher percentage than the liberal democrats, but the liberal democrats don't need a high percentage to get a reasonable number of seats, because they can be concentrated in the areas that they want to be concentrated in. kirsty, how is your cramming going for thursday night? because you need to know all of this. the cramming, well, the... tou know it all already, but you need to put even more detail. what happens with cramming is that it go goes in guite easily. uh, it goes out... just as easily. like a bullet. and so it's a case of, yeah, i'm just going through the constituencies, you know? god, thank god there's only 57. remember when there was 72? mhm. you know, so yes, i'm, i'm doing my cramming you know, but i mean, you know, one gets names wrong all the time if one does not write them down in pieces of paper in front of you, which i have lots of pieces of paper always in front of me. because the great... what is your name again? cos the great david butler, he would say, "yes, i mean, the thing about the result in, uh, coventry east in 1964 compared with the result in," and then would reel it off. i mean, it'sjust, you know, i've never reached that level quite. and i'm not going to talk about the boundary changes and how all the constituencies have changed their names, because i do that every time we have this conversation. um, kirsty, i've got another question for you. this is from newscaster alex, who says, "i've noticed," this is quite funny. "laura kay's use of the word swithering to describe certain voters, both in print and on air. "where does this word come from? "is it a scottish word or a laura—ism, or is it one of the current fashions from mash up words? "it's a mash up of swithering, swinging and dithering". um, i think it's dithering. i don't think it is, but i don't think it's a scottish word. swithering, it is a scottish word. is it a scottish word? it's not a laura—ism. it's definitely... it's a scottish word. is it, really? it definitely is. ok, what's the etymology of the word? i don't, i don't know, i haven't looked up, up in my scottish dictionary. swithering? my school teachers used to say like when you're choosing what options to do for standard grade, for example, which is what we call gcses in scotland in my day. and you're like, "oh, do i do biology or do chemistry? they'd be like, "come on, stop swithering. you've got to decide". ok, well, i never heard donald dewar say swithering. and what donald dewar used to do was... the father of the scottish parliament. ..use as many scottish words in the commons that he could, so that it would have to be written down and would enter hansard. so when donald was on his feet, he would make sure that there were scottish words which then had to be taken down by people saying, "did he really say dreich"? nick, do you know what dreich means? don't, sorry. means kind of grey weather. kind of like bleh weather. no, you don't get that in scotland right enough. he was obviously thinking of was somewhere else. also, we should say there's an amazing statue of donald dewar just up the road here, isn't there? outside the concert, the other concert hall that's here. oh, another thing that's cropped up, and i don't know if you've heard this from people, is about postal votes in scotland. and of course, that's a bigger deal, possibly in scotland than elsewhere than in england because the scottish school holidays start, well, do they start now? some started on wednesday, some started today. so actually more scottish people are going to be away on holiday. that's right. and there was some delay in postal votes getting in. and then of course the general issue is with postal votes, as we have so many wee islands that they've got to get those votes back, you know, you've got to get them into the centre, which would be, i think probably in stornoway for a lot of these votes. and i should sayjust on that postal vote story, john swinney, the first minister, has said he's very concerned that some tight contests could be affected if people haven't got their postal votes. bbc scotland have spoken to quite a few people who said they are still waiting for theirs. but the electoral management board for scotland said that there have been some difficulties, although royal mail have denied that there's been any backlog. mystery. examples of people going on holiday, they haven't got their postal vote, and it's too late to get a proxy. yeah. so they feel they're disenfranchised. that's right. yeah. um, what are you actually doing on newsnight tonight, by the way? discussing what the word swithering means? will that feature? well, i certainly know now it could be one of the questions our politicians, one of the easier questions our politicians have to answer. but we have scottish leaders here hearing, uh, what a number of voters here make of issues like migration, cost of living crisis, and, indeed, independence. so tonight we have got kate forbes who's out and about, ian murray, who may well be the new secretary of state for scotland if labour wins the election. alex cole—hamilton, who likes to put a flutter on we understand, and has done a few flutters, who is the leader of the liberal democrats in scotland, not a flutter, by the way, on the date of the election. uh miles briggs, uh, from the conservatives and patrick harvie from the green party. so they're going to be in here and we're going to have a whole bunch of voters, and we're going to be live tonight at 10.30pm. and that's quite an august panel, isn't it? because, i mean, kate forbes, very nearly leader of the snp, could have been first minister... and she is a star in theirfirmament. yeah. patrick harvie, he was one of the green ministers in the scottish government. his departure kicked off the whole first minister shuffle. well yes, but i mean the whole point was that he, they booted the greens off their coalition, remember? oh, yeah, so his departure, which was not his choice. yes. i don't think when he walked into bute house, he thought he was going to be walking out with the message he got. and then ian murray's important in kind of labour history, because for a long time he was the only labour mp. yes. and was the symbol ofjust how far.... well, he is the only labour mp. michael shanks was rutherglen. by election. so by election. so i take that back completely. the rutherglen by election. the famous rutherglen by election, of course. ian murray, i'm not sure he's very good friends with many people in the snp. um, nick, here is a question we've had sent in that maybe you will know because it's not based on scottish slang. um, john harris says, "how do they decide that official opposition in parliament if two parties tie for second place in the commons"? wow, what a great question. i don't think that's ever happened before. no. because in a way it's pretty simple how you form the government, it's whoever can command the house of commons. and in 2010, david cameron didn't have enough votes, so he had tojoin up with liberal democrats and they formed a coalition government. it's not the same that the king, the monarch doesn't appoint you as leader of the opposition. you are a leader of his majesty's loyal opposition, loyal to his majesty. but you're not appointed, you just emerge. so if they were tied, who knows? what would you do? i suppose you could say, well, who's got the most votes? but then parliament is all about seats, so maybe, i don't know, maybe you'd have a job share. well, it kind of matters, though, doesn't it? because the leader of the opposition. well, you get that there's a particular spot for you in the commons that comes with privileges, like doing pmqs and being the person that gets to ask six questions, and you also get a salary as leader of the opposition, don't you? oh, a leader of the opposition gets a salary, they get a car, and there are other salaries like the opposition chief whip gets a salary, the pairing whip gets a salary, all that sort of stuff. and as you say, the leader of the opposition gets six questions at prime minister's questions once a week. but also, you get sometimes the ability to have opposition day debates more than anyone else. but also, when legislation passes through, there's the usual channels that meet, which is the government chief whip, the opposition chief whips office. and you are absolutely at the heart of allowing parliament to function, which is why those people are involved in that get salaries. if it's tied, then yes, that would be very interesting how that would work. um, i've got some more questions because kirsty, actually what we do on friday's newscasts in this campaign is we've got a kind of new tradition which is answering people's questions. i should have explained that's the section that we're in now. is that why you asked me about swithering? that was yours? no, that was from newscaster alex. alex. right, newscaster sam says, uh, "if the swing in this election is larger than normal, and that means there are loads and loads and loads of new mps as opposed to just lots of new mps. "how do they get inducted into parliament? "who teaches them where they need to be and when and how to be an mp"? well, they're all getting ready for it. i was there the other day. there are big posters up. "please come this way". yeah, there's basically like a sort of reception centre, isn't there? yeah, they've all got their.... is it a playground as well? a playground, yeah, absolutely. all the officials have got their badges. there are the tables setup. "it's come here. "here's your computer. "here's your email address," and all that sort of stuff. the challenge is to get an office. that's the big deal. and that involves sucking up to the whips. well, because in parliament it's all location, location, location, isn't it? all location. and that's why kirstie allsopp was there last week, i saw her. she's like helping them find the best office. i remember, what year was it, maybe the 2015 election. and that was the first time that the commons authorities had got serious about, "oh, actually, it's quite a big deal becoming an mp and it's quite a weird system.