been a leader of one rebellion and one group on brexit, one of the leaders of the covid recovery group, now the leader of the conservative way forward, a thatcherite group. you do talk as if politics is always about principle and rarely about compromise. do you think that is right? no, politics has always got to be about compromise. i think if you only had people in politics with a radical deal that could never know compromise, you would have constant series of revolutions. so, i am willing to compromise and of course on the big issues where i have taken a stand, i can see why people would say, he is uncompromising, but that is because i have taken a stand on an issue. even on brexit in the end i compromised. as i remember discussing with you on that today programme. but day after day after day, i need to look at measures and say, well, i am just going to support the government. i ve got some concerns, for example, that the way protests will be policed,
but if in the end this is a political decision, then i will make a political calculation. but i think it will be first and foremost not a political question. not everything is politics, right? now, perhaps, what you havejust said is what explains why you have been a leader of one rebellion and one group on brexit, one of the leaders of the covid recovery group, now the leader of the conservative way forward, a thatcherite group. you do talk as if politics is always about principle and rarely about compromise. do you think that is right? no, politics has always got to be about compromise. i think if you only had people in politics with a radical zeal that could never know compromise, you would have constant series of revolutions. so, i am willing to compromise and of course on the big issues where i have taken a stand, i can see why people would say, he is uncompromising, but that is because i have taken a stand on an issue. even on brexit in the end i compromised, as i remember
is politics, right? now, perhaps, what you have just said is what explains why you have been a leader of one rebellion and one group on brexit, one of the leaders of the covid recovery group, now the leader of the conservative way forward, a thatcherite group. you do talk as if politics is always about principle and rarely about compromise. do you think that is right? no, politics has always got to be about compromise. i think if you only had people in politics with a radical zeal that could never know compromise, you would have constant series of revolutions. so, i am willing to compromise and of course on the big issues where i have taken a stand, i can see why people would say, he is uncompromising, but that is because i have taken a stand on an issue. even on brexit in the end i compromised, as i remember discussing with you on that today programme. but day after day after day, i need to look at measures and say, well, i am just going to support the government. i ve got some concer
one of the things which i think has corrupted democracy, is where people don t take seriously the set of rules that we are under an obligation to follow. for example, the nolan principles. we should, in a nutshell, be first doing what is right. so, this is why. i do recognise that some people put the political calculation ahead of the law and the ethics, but actually in a situation like this, i am not willing to. the law comes first, the ministerial code, as it were, second, because it is not actually law, and then other moral considerations. but if in the end this is a political decision, then i will make a political calculation. but i think it will be first and foremost not a political question. not everything is politics, right? now, perhaps, what you have just said is what explains why you have been a leader of one rebellion and one group on brexit, one of the leaders of the covid recovery group, now the leader of the conservative way forward, a thatcherite group. you do talk as if