Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Tory Leadership Results and Meghan Markle's return

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

Piers returns to a new season of Piers Morgan Uncensored to discuss the biggest news stories of the day. Piers is joined by a panel to analyse the Tory leadership result of Liz Truss becoming the new leader of the Conservative party, and soon to be the next Prime Minister to replace Boris Johnson. Piers also gets uncensored about Meghan Markle, as she gives her first speech back in the UK since Megxit. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8pm on TalkTV on Sky 526, Virgin Media 627, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and app.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, on Piers Morgan, on Sensor, prime time for Liz Truss. Britain's broken Brits are broke, so what is her plan to rescue us? Can we trust in trust? Tonight's panel will debate a historic day in British politics. And, of course, at the top of the PM's entry, the cost of living. Plus, just when we thought he couldn't get any worse for Britain. Princess Pinocchio jets in to lecture us all about equality and poverty. This is Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Well, good evening. Good to be back. Welcome to Pierce Morgan Uncensored. Welcome to Britain's new Prime Minister, Liz Truss. I would say congratulations to Ms. Trust, but there's no time for any celebration. This country is in a state of absolute shambles. Inflation is raging. Energy and food prices are rocketing. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of small businesses face complete ruin. Millions of families are waking up wondering how they pay their bills. People are getting poorer every day.

They're feeling desperate and they're feeling they're safe. Violent crime is soaring with shocking consequences. Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt Corbel shot dead in her own home. Pensioner Thomas O'Halloran, who raised money for charity by busking him a street, killed on his mobility scooter, young kids stabbing each other with impunity, sometimes to death with machetes.

The NHS is in intensive care, creaking at the scenes from a pandemic. This caused chronic staff shortages and massive waiting lists. Union strikes and picket lines are bringing chaos to our daily lives. Illegal migration across the channel is getting immeasurably worse, not better. The ill-conceived Rwanda policy is in tatters. Housing is in crisis with rental costs out of control. The pound has crashed to a 37-year low against the dollar.

And, of course, the Ukraine war continues to cause immeasurable harm to European economies and security. But if ever there was one symbol of where Britain's been heading, it's surely the torrents of raw sewage flowing into our seas and onto our coastlines. Forgive my language, Prime Minister, but Britain is quite literally turning to it. So my question is this. What are you going to do about it? A clean break with Boris Johnson's disastrous three years of disorder and deceit would be a good place to start.

Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You were admired from Kiev to Carlisle. Did you note that? That long, prolonged, very awkward silence. Never mind from Kiev to Carlisle.

Boris Johnson isn't even admired by people in a room full of conservatives. And he didn't get Brexit done, really, did he? He wrapped a bandage around the Northern Ireland problem, left the wound untreated. And where exactly are all those promised benefits of Brexit? Right now, the negatives are a lot more painfully obvious. Boris Johnson promised a hell of a lot, and he delivered very little. Distrust his campaign has also promised a hell of a lot,

including tax cuts at a time where most economists think they would be inflation-fuelling madness. Well, Prime Minister, now is a time to get real. Britain doesn't need to be told we can have our cake and eat it anymore. There's no cake left. Boris Johnson's Britain was defined by complacency, chaos and calamity. Prime Minister Trust, your Brit must be about solutions,

integrity, hope and honesty. Tell us the truth about the mess we're in. Tell us the truth about the pain that lies ahead. Tell us the truth about what you're going to do about it that will actually work. Your in trade today must look like the leaning tower of Pisa. your country is on its knees. The office you now hold has been disgraced.

Your people are angry, they're scared, and they need answers right now. You, Liz Trust, wanted this job. You spent weeks promising us that you can fix it. You have the solutions. Well, Britain needs you to keep that promise and keep it fast. And we'll be very unforgiving if you fail us. Well, let's go now to talk to these political owners of Kate McCann. Kate, well, good to see you again. How are you? Do you miss me?

I'm good. Of course we missed you, Peas. It's all we thought about all summer was where you were. I don't think I've ever, ever seen a less sincere response on national television to a question. And for the record, contrary to the popular myth that I was gallivanting around for weeks on end, sunning myself, I spent half of it in maximum security prisons in America interviewing serial killers, which I have to say on balance was a bit like covering this concern. Conservative Party leadership race in terms of pain. I was going to ask you what you'd done to deserve that, but quite. Look, look, we got a new Prime Minister, no big surprise.

Liz Trust won. Probably the gap a bit narrow than people were expecting. But the general belief was she had it in the bag from pretty early on because the Conservative Party membership, 170-odd thousand of them who voted in the end, would tend to be, I guess, more drawn to a character like Liz Truss, sort of Maggie light figure, if you want a phrase for her. The question for her is, how is she going to deal, Kate,

with what is, I would imagine, in terms of political analysis going back 100 years, one of the most difficult hospital passes, any prime minister's coming, holding voluntarily, because she ran for this, that I can ever remember. This is a very difficult time to run this country. It's near impossible to be honest. And I think the thing that Liz Truss is going to find out very quickly when she walks into number 10,

officially tomorrow when she is the Prime Minister, is that she is not going to be able to keep everybody happy. And of course, that's the one thing that you don't want to have to admit at any time when you're in number 10, but especially in your first week, because her party are looking to her to reunite them. They want to see her put people in the cabinet that are not just those who factor through this contest.

Her urge is probably going to be not to do that, though, because she knows the scale of the task ahead. And if you think about it, you know, today behind the scenes, those who work with List Trust are briefing that the scale of the numbers here involved, potentially £100 billion worth of support. And really big questions which remain unanswered tonight.

Where's that money coming from? Who's paying for it? Are the energy companies going to foot some of the bill? Are we all going to be paying for it for the next 10 years? Every single answer to that question is unsavory for somebody. And Liz Trust is going to have to find it and deliver that answer. as quickly as maybe even Thursday.

And it won't just be everyone in the country who wants to understand it. It will be her party too. And there were rumblings today. I was saying earlier on at that QE2 center when she was delivering her speech, you know, MPs watching and waiting and suggesting that their patients would run out fairly quickly if they didn't see that she was going to bring everyone along with her. And the early signs are suggestions from number 10 tonight that there could be a complete clear-out of everybody who's gone before, even those who some say she should keep because they will be help.

over what will be a really difficult period. I mean, to me, the fundamental problem she's going to have is keeping the commitment she's made to cut taxation for people at a time when most economists I've read and heard from in the last few weeks say that would be complete madness. That there is simply not the money there to cut taxes and to do all the borrowing that she needs to do to help people. How is she going to do this?

Well, remember, it's not just that she said she would cut taxes, is that she has berated politicians who give with one hand and take away with the other, hoping that the public don't notice. And ultimately, what's going to be really difficult for her here is when she does look at the books and she sees the scale of the problem with energy bills, as I said before, there has to be an answer to it. And ultimately, even if you say, well, it will be government borrowing,

that will come back on taxpayers and that is all of us. Even if it's not instant, there will be a long tail to this, which no Prime Minister really wants to sign up for. And remember, she's also talking about longevity in energy markets and making big changes that will prepare us for the future. Again, significant investment, more money. And as you say, at a time when she's promised that she will be cutting taxes and giving families more back in their pockets,

I think that is worrying the trust team. It's worrying MPs too. But just the scale, as you said, I mean, it's unprecedented for a prime minister to have to walk into something like this. And that's before we mentioned the problems, you know, Northern Ireland, Brexit, inflation, other really big issues, which will be on. her doorstep two.

Yeah, and you know, I would have preferred to see Rishi Sunak, to be honest, to be prominent, to simply because of his experience during the pandemic. I thought he was great with the furlough scheme and so on. But it was an interesting handover, wasn't it? When she was announced as winner, normally, you would have expected her to at least shake the hand to the person she just beat. Totally ignored it. Bang, just, no, you're done, mate.

Which it says to me, she's got no intention of putting her in his cabinet, even if you would like to. And what worries me, Kate, about this cabinet is a bunch of rookies in many cases, completely untested in this kind of situation we're in, which is unprecedented. How are they going to fare these people? You know, when I see some of the names running great offices of state, have you run a Welk stool before? I mean, seriously, we are in an absolute crisis.

Are these people good enough? Well, that's the question that she's going to have to answer, and she started doing it. You know, she started to move out some of those big names, Priti Patel, for example, and more to come, those people that will not feature among her top team. But I think in those big offices, Quasi Qatang, for example,

potentially the chancellor, we suspect. He's written an article today aimed at trying to calm the nerves of the country, yes, but largely the financial markets. I think there is a sense that people like him do get it and that there is some real grip and grit within that top team of people. But the bigger question will be, is there a place for Rishi Sunak,

is there a place for some of those wise heads who have experienced, but maybe didn't back list trust during this contest? And will she be a big enough person to put them among her top table? Because, you know, she hasn't, as you said, at the very start of this chat, she didn't win over, you know,

the all MPs in Parliament. No. She didn't do as well as previous leaders in this contest. 57%. Boris Johnson, 66%, David Cameron, 67%. You know, the polling suggests that among 2019 conservative voters trust in her and faith in her sticking to her word

has gone down throughout this contest. She comes into office not riding high, not with chat around an early election and a honeymoon period, but into headlong huge problems and disunity already. And that's really difficult. And remember, we've replaced the Prime Minister a number of times and once MPs get used to that cycle of chaos, they don't feel so bad about doing it again.

Right, they've got a bloodlust. I can hear Anne Widdickham to my right here growling in, I think, discontent to some of the same. the things you were saying Kate McCann, which is always a good sign, but like a bit of growling on this show. Kate, good to see you again. I'm sure we'll be back tomorrow. Thank you very much for now, though. Well, like you said, this trust prepares to meet the Queen tomorrow, name her new government. We've got a whole pack here champing at the bit, aren't you? Pack. If you say, sir. It's a great pack. And we're going to get stuck into all this. Why is this disgrace leader

of the last government already plotting his return? That's one question. Should Boris Button in? of buttoning it. Megan Markle is preaching about equality right now in Manchester, and I would love to show you what she's saying, but I couldn't give a... Let's go to the break. Welcome back to Peers Morgan Uncensored. Princess Pinocchio is still jabbering away up in Manchester, but we have zero interest in anything she has to say. The Conservative Party, though, has a final, got a new leader, and we have a new Prime Minister of course to the country, and yet before all his trust even meets the Queen tomorrow, she is faced. talking talk of a plot to ouster and a campaign to bring back Boris Johnson, God forbid.

With rumours of a new book and newspaper column, plus giddy talk of a political comeback, will Boris be a thorn in Liz Trussy's side? Is it time for him to just shove off and button it? We're joining me now political journalist Avesantina, columnist, Emily Sheffield, former Conservative Minister Anne Whitaker. Well, welcome to all of you, my first peers pack of the new season. And you were literally growling at some of the things you were hearing. Why?

Well, I mean, I think one of the most significant things that there's already She hasn't been there five minutes and there's already disunity and everybody's talking about who's going to be Chancellor of the Exchequer who's going to be home secretary except actually if she wants to win the next general election the most significant appointment from the point of view not of the country but of the party in Parliament will be the chief whip because the party in Parliament it's panic prone it's chaotic. It's chaotic. It believes that whatever the opinion polls are doing today they will certainly be doing in two years time. It has no long-term perspective and And the mere fact that within two minutes of a prime minister being chosen, they can be talking about, you know, plots and ousting, I mean, says it all. The problem she's got is the clock is ticking to the next election. And so with every day, week, month that goes by nearer to that election, MPs, as we know, get very self-serving, very anxious about their own job post that election.

And if they think things are really floundering, I mean, William Hague's written a column, for the Times, which is in tomorrow's paper, Liz Truss is the PM who will either take us through the gathering storm of domestic and global crises or we are lost. She is the captain under which the good ship Britain will find a safe harbour or sink. I mean, my God, this is like,

I don't think I've ever read that on a day one and someone becoming Prime Minister. But therefore, give the captain a chance rather than mutinning. Well, what is she sailing us into the tight town? Hang on, rather than mutin on the ship. You hang on. Give the captain a chance.

Look, hang on, you've been allowed to finish all your sentence. Just by yourself. Maybe your show, but you've invited me on. What if the captain... You wanted to hear what I have to say. And what I'm going to say is, give the captain a chance. Because if you start with a mutiny, the ship ain't going anywhere. What if the captain is steering us straight into the Titanic?

We cannot know that yet. We know she wants to cut taxes. We also know many economists think that's complete madness. But we also know that some economists do not. If you don't actually give her a chance, then for a certainty, the whole thing is right. When Stature, when she came in, big myth that she actually cut taxes, she raised taxes to start with, until she got the economy back on track, then she cut them. Why isn't Trust doing that? Trust has made a very clear point that what she wants to do is...

No, she hasn't. Well, may I finish, as what she wants to do is to stimulate growth. Now, give her the chance. If it fails, Piers, you'll be the first to shack. If it fails, we're all in the car. We're in the car if we don't give her a chance. I think this mutiny is being rather overplayed. You've had Steve Baker today, who is the arch rebel,

has already come out saying, I'm not going to rebel. I've been doing it for years. I'm exhausted. I mean, he's not exhausted at all. And I think a lot of the party actually know it is absolute suicide for the Tories if they mutiny against her. It doesn't mean they're not going to be silent. I agree with you, Anne,

but I don't think you're going to see the kind of mutiny that you've seen with Boris Johnson. What you had with Boris Johnson is, a leader who didn't know how to. to lead, let's face it. He did over some issues. I do think his starts on Ukraine was correct. And vaccines. And vaccines. But I don't think we're in the same period now. Brexit is done. And we've got an economic crisis. And everyone's saying, oh, Liz has got this terrible in-tray. Well, she does. But she's also got a single issue she's got to really solve in the next

two years, which is the economy. So she can unite her party behind that. If she wants to win the next election, the one thing she's absolutely got to get right, because no one believes she can fix the NHS in the next two years, is green shoes. That's all she needs to prove by that election. Here's the problem. I think it doesn't matter who's in charge of the country right now. This is a basket case situation where almost every metric you look at for Britain right now is a disaster. I mean, there's not the way of looking at it. Look at what's happening with the pound against a dollar. When I was doing, America's Got Talent as a judge in 2006-7, the dollar rate from memory was something like 210.

For every pound you've got $2.10. It's now $1.14. Think about that difference. I mean, I think about it often. I think that some people on this panel don't think about that because there have been a few events over the last 12 years that have led to that

directly, namely Brexit, and namely 12 years of the Tories being in power and not knowing how to govern the country properly, evidently. But look, I think, you know, Liz Trust today should have got up on that podium and finally revealed what she's going to do for the millions of people right now

who are looking at the next couple of months and genuinely don't know how they're going to pay their bills. I think it's so absurd that we're talking about tax cuts or give the woman a chance. Like, I don't care. I want money. I want to know how on earth

people are going to pay for things. I just think it's just, it just feels a bit too late. But I think, wait, it's a bit, you can't, she can't say that literally as she accepts the Crown because she's not Prime Minister yet. She could have.

So she is, no, but she can't actually because she's not Prime Minister yet. She has to meet the Queen first. She could lay up her plans. I'll do it tomorrow in France. My problem with this trust is, this trust has been there for 10 years. She singularly seems to have failed upwards.

No one says she was a great success. She got all the trade deals when she was foreign success. Yeah, she did get the trade deals. They did. They're already written. They flipped over. Why are you trying to Australia? I don't think you can point to this trust being a massive success in any of the job she said.

I'm sorry. One of the literary grays today. I don't see a run of great successes where you go, well that person should be Prime Minister. I see someone who sort of toddled along in underperforming governments, ending a missed car crash with Boris Johnson, to which she was very aligned to him and remains very aligned to him, whether it's Brexit to Ukraine. You're criticising her for loyalty. Well, no, it's interesting to me that Rishie Sunak didn't win this because he was seen to be the guy who put the knife into Boris. He wielded the knife. But he was right to wield the knife.

Boris Johnson is right to have gone. she soon act was correct. Now we've lost probably the biggest intellect in that cabinet has now been frozen out and gone. And we have this untrusted trust that we have to all trust. And I'm just not sure I do trust it. No, well, we don't. I'm sure you. I'm sure you don't. But fundamentally because I keep being told she's the next Maggie Thatcher. Maggie Thatcher would not be cutting taxes right now. If Liz Trust tries to cut taxation right now, I think it will be an apocalyptic move by a new prime minister. In case you've only just come in, to be clear.

The 1979 manifesto, maybe you're too young to remember. Way too young. But the 1979 manifesto when Thatcher came in did not mention half the things that she subsequently did. It was very, very broad brush. Do you think Liz Truss has it in her to surprise us and to be bold and dynamic? I think she might.

I'm not going to say she will. I don't have a crystal ball. And only what do we know about? I mean, I don't know anything after six weeks, really. I once asked her on Good Morning Britain, I think what seven times eight was or something. and she spent about five seconds agonising. It was something like that, or maybe 9-8-72, whatever it was.

But she froze and panicked. That's my only memory of it. I don't know anything about this trust. But we do know she's quite good at the politics side because she has won. And she played those members like a, you know, stroking a purring cat. She did. No, but she heard louder as she came up with ever more ridiculous statements.

I think what we might see, and the Tory party might then rebel in a year, right, is she's promised this very new radical right agenda, but is she actually going to deliver it? Because we don't have her vision yet. Every single thing she has said, she has actually already uterus on. So what's the deal with the way she talks? I watched her on Laura Coonsberg's new show on BBC on Sunday. And she talks in this strange, robotic, very precise way. So did that, until she trained her voice. Until she trained her voice. She didn't speak like that. Thatcher had a very annoying voice.

It's almost like her mind is computing what to say. Yeah. Or what not to say. I don't mind somebody thinking. Let's take a listen to people know what I'm talking about. Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.

You were admired from Kiev to Carlyle. Three of those I can sign up to. I actually voted for Boris Johnson, precisely to stop Jeremy Corbyn, becoming a prime minister, he would have been even worse. So tick on that, tick on Ukraine. You know, there's a lot of things that the vaccine roll out, he made a big call with Kate Bingham, which was proven to be entirely correct.

There are things that you can tick in Boris's box. Big things. Yeah, but the damage that was done from the constant lying, the constant dissembling, the constant breach of trust for the British public, culminating in party gate with half a Downing Street on the lash every night as we're all kept from seeing dying loved ones. And that's what you wanted to hear Liz Trust saying today? Well, no, what I wanted to hear Liz Trust?

to do today was somehow to restore... She did the right thing. She praised her predecessor, which is the normal cut in doing. Why would you praise someone that literally over 50 ministers voted to get rid of? Because she actually set out what she was praising him for and you yourself have agreed with it. I think she did that. And you yourself have agreed with. She only won this race by sucking up to Boris Johnson. Could we go back to your point about her performance though? Because I think we've got to talk about Labour a bit more. That is who she's got to beat at the next election. And he also is not a brilliant performer. He doesn't have a huge amount of Christmas.

It's going to be quite easy. All right, but let me bring a neighbour on Labour. Two leaders who are not highly charismatic. Keir Starma is quite robotic as well. As a public speaker, there's no question. He's not Mr. Charismatic. I don't think he needs to be. If I'm Keir Starma right now,

I'm thinking, you know what the best strategy is? Sit back and let them drive this into the Titanic. Yeah, but we've had that strategy for a good two years from Labour. And it's the reason that they're not 20 points ahead in the polls. I mean, right now, if So Keir, in my opinion, had any sense, he'd be out there calling for... for another general election, that's what he'd be doing. But look, you know, you watch that speech with Liz Truss.

She's extremely robotic. She's extremely boring. I don't think she won over the conservative electorate. I think those conservatives, as that senior Tory MP told us halfway through this campaign, they would never elect a person of colour. And that's what the issue was. She won by default. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I agree with that. I really do not. I really do not agree with that. I'm very proud of that. I'm not a conservative, or I'm not in the Conservative Party anymore. I'm very proud of the fact that in that election, the final two were a woman and somebody of ethnic origin. And the trouble with Labour is talks big about those things, delivers nothing.

I mean, that is true. The Labour Party has never had any leader who's not a white bloke. Yeah, correct. I mean, that's just a fact. They bang on, they virtual signal away about diversity. There's absolutely nothing diverse about Labour leadership, Ever. But I think it's going to be very interesting on Wednesday at PMQs,

because he should really, Kier Stama, tear into her. He has got so, as you're opening to this program, Broken Britain, NHS on its knees, social care on its knees, six police forces on special measures, including the Met, the spate of murders. He has got so much ammunition. Honestly, if he doesn't win the next election, he doesn't deserve it. Somebody was shot.

I got back to Britain. on two nights ago and somebody was shot round the corner in Kensington which is I think the wealthiest borough in London and we fought the country and someone was shot dead in the street

near a restaurant that I'd go into quite lot and I was quite I mean shouldn't have been shot because there's violent crime everywhere but it brought it home to me Britain is getting very violent we are getting people shot

quite regularly The police are ineffective because the police are ineffective because the Tory took 20,000 cops off the streets That's why There aren't enough of them, that is quite true, but also they're focused on the wrong priorities. They're also they're focused on the wrong priorities.

How did a party based around law and order take 20,000 police off the streets? Complete madness. The fact is that we have been, well not we, they have been. You became the party of lawless disorder? I don't think that is. Didn't you? No. You did?

20,000 off the streets. I didn't. Well, you wouldn't have done probably. That's true. Let's take a short break. I want to come back and talk more about the cost of it. living. I want to talk to one of the biggest supermarket bosses in the country and to a nurse who has cancer. Can't afford to stop working because of what is going on with the economy.

We'll talk to both them after the break and get the panel reaction. Well, welcome back to Pierce Morgan House and Liz Trusses' honeymoon. His Prime Minister might just be a holiday from hell. She inherits the worst cost of living crisis in recent memory. Today she promised a a bold plan to tackle rising energy costs. And she's reportedly mulling a package of up to 100 billion pounds to freeze energy bills. There's all this energy. Food prices are soaring too. Last year, liver bread was £1.15. Today you're paying £1.24.

Four pints of milk was £1.16. That's now £1.50. The average price for a pack of spaghetti was 52p. That's gone to 84p. You could pick up a can of premium brand baked beans for 83p. Now you're paying £1.20. This story, of course, can be told in America and Australia or around the world. Joining me now is Kerry George, a 40-year-old woman of two,

to continue working as a nurse whilst receiving treatment for breast cancer to help keep a roof over her family's head. Kerry, thank you so much for joining me. I'm so sorry for what you've been going through. This trust, new Prime Minister, she promised two things today. One, to fix the economic problems we have, and specifically to deliver a rescue plan for the NHS. Obviously, given your position where you're continuing to work in the NHS,

whilst actually being a patient yourself, you've got cancer, and really feeling the pinch economically. What do you make of this and what do you want to say to the Prime Minister? What should be her priorities? Well, there should definitely be money put into the NHS. I mean, quite frankly, I think it's ridiculous that the nurses have been offered such a low pay rate rise after everything that they've gone through with COVID and everything. something needs to happen straightaway.

There's no staff anywhere. There's a staff shortage on all wards wherever I go and that really needs to be addressed. It seems to me, Kerry, that the pandemic really knocked the NHS for six in the sense that a lot of staff had to take time off because they themselves got the virus. Some lost their lives.

A lot of staff went back to their original countries. You know, Brexit, I don't think it's helped at all in this process. And you're left with a streamlined, very short-staffed system trying to cope now with a massive backlog of cases of non-COVID cases. We know this, waiting lists through the roof. So the NHS wants this great beacon of how you should do health care in a country. Now it looks like it's creaking at the seams.

Yeah, I mean, the intake of nurses, of student nurses, has shot down as well. There doesn't seem to be that incentive to want to go into the profession because it's the way nurses have been treated so badly and doctors do. What is morale like amongst medical staff now in hospitals? It's very low at the moment and it's a very high stress level on the staff who are there all the time. the burden of work on them

and ratio between staff and patients it's just way too demanding at the moment and you know staff are be going to come stressed and that's going to lead to more sickness in turn and even less shortage even more shortage

and how are you doing Kerry you're having to have chemo and continue working because you can't afford to not work right Yeah, I'm exhausted. My plan was to work through the chemo up until I became too ill to work. But I've been told by my doctor today that it's not a good idea of me going to work at the moment. So unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to start thinking about my health at this point. And what will you do about money if you are forced to do?

do that? Well, this is the problem. This is the reason I wanted to work as long as I can because, well, I've put in for a personal independence payment, which has recently been declined on the grounds that I haven't been ill long enough. How they came to that decision, I will never know. for anyone with a disability, whether it happens overnight. I mean, you need something in place now, not in six months' time down the road. You just haven't got that money in the bank to see you through.

So it's pretty dire. A good friend in work, Laura, and has set up a go-fund me page. And I've had donations from the nursing staff and church, which I'm just so grateful for everyone's been so lovely. I don't know what I would have done without them. Look, I wish you all the very best with your treatment, and it's obviously not going to be easy for you,

like so many people, when you have to go home and you can't work and you're worried about the bills and energy costs are flying up, food are flying up. I'm about to interview the boss of Iceland supermarket. Do you shop there? Yes, I do, yes. How have you found the costs of... of food in Iceland products?

Well, I think Iceland is generally pretty good. I mean, food has gone up everywhere. At the moment, it's the same everywhere. But I have started using Iceland a bit more than I used to because you can't pick up bargains there. Well, he'll be pleased to hear that.

Kerry, I've got to leave it there. Thank you very much. Keep battling. We're all behind you, and I wish you all the very best with the dream. Okay, thank you so much. All right, all the best. Well, let's talk now as the managing director of Iceland, Richard Walker. Richard, well, the good news is that Kerry, despite all she's going through,

she's converted to Iceland, and I'll come to some point about Iceland in a minute. But you've been running a big supermarket chain for a while now. Have you ever faced anything quite like this, even at the start of the pandemic? Is this as bad as you've ever known things? Yeah, hi, good evening, Peers. I think that's fair to say. I've certainly never known anything like this. And actually, the business was set up 52 years ago by my mum and dad.

And dad told me the other day he's never known anything like this either. Bearing in mind, Iceland was started in 1970. The oil price shock decade when inflation was running in mid-20%. So really quite sobering. And I suppose the difference now is that it's coming at us from all angles. You know, we have some labour shortages, we have a high oil price, we have Brexit and some tariffs to deal with. But then, of course, we also have the energy price, which is not just affecting our consumers and our suppliers, but also running shops like this as well. Right. I mean, for a company like Iceland, do you know what you pay per year for energy just to keep the stalls going in a regular year?

And do you know what it's likely to go up to with this surge? I do. I can't tell you. But last year, just for a guide, our electricity bill was £60 million. And this year it will be many times more. And that's the reality that we're facing, but also SMEs, small businesses on every high street all around the UK. So the level of this crisis can't be overestimated.

And I think you're right to compare it to the start of the pandemic, or indeed the financial crisis 10, 15 years ago. What we have is an energy market that is completely dislocated. It's bearing no semblance to reality, and it's making it impossible to plan and for us to plan ahead, to open shops, so that we can keep on doing good things for our customers, customers like Kerry,

so that we can be there for them through this cost of living crisis. I mean, despite Kerry's support, it's been reported that Iceland had a 6.6% price rise since 2021, the largest of any UK supermarket. Is that right? And if so, why? Yeah, I mean, we obviously started at a very low base, and it depends what you measure. But it is true that our prices have gone up, as have all of our competitors. However, we are famous for value, as Kerry said. So we work day and night to keep our prices absolutely as low as possible. You mentioned milk.

It's now £1.50 in competitors. It's slightly less here. We don't make any money out of that. But if it's all like for like, if it's all light for like, though, why has yours gone up by a bigger percentage? Some products will have done, but some products won't. You can still find the cheapest bread, milk, obviously our frozen range. We've also done things like freezing the price.

price of all of our one pound lines, over 200 lines to the end of the year. We used to make 25% margin profit out of that. Now we're going to lose money. So we're having to invest. We're having to change our operating model and we're having to step up for our customers. What we need now is the government to step up as well for small businesses, but also for big businesses like us. They need to protect the whole business ecosystem. We have a lot of small suppliers who rely on us to do well. colleagues, five million customers a week, a thousand stores. So it's really important that the government also helps big business because it's exactly the same problem. Look, that is true. It's also important that bosses and companies take care of their staff. The sum reported two weeks

ago that you pay your staff the lowest of any major supermarket, nine pounds an hour. Again, is that right? And if so, why? No, that's wrong. No, that's wrong. We pay them nine £9.5.50 is a front-line colleague, and it tapers up from there. Now, a couple of years ago, we were amongst the best payers on the High Street. And I'm not proud of the fact now that we're just in the pack with everyone else, but it's a reality of the spiraling operating costs that we're facing. If I can pay them more, I will. You're paying them under the living wage right now, right? We don't mess around. No, no, of course we're not. And we don't mess around with zero hours. 9.0.90 is a living wage.

16 hours and over? In London, yeah, and that's what we pay there. But as a frontline colleague elsewhere, 9 pound 50. It's 11 pound of 5 in London. It's illegal to pay less, so we certainly don't do that. But we... I want to talk about minimum wage. We do other things.

Sorry, I'm talking about living wage, not minimum wage. Oh, okay, the real... Yes, exactly. The real living wage, which is something that we aspire to do. I'm just curious why... I'm not accusing you, I'm just saying that you do apparently pay your staff less than anybody else. I'm just curious as to why, because I think it's incumbent on the government to help businesses like you, but also incumbent on bosses and companies like you and your company to take care of their staff.

Oh, absolutely. And that's why we're giving them 15% discount for ongoing now. We'll give them bonuses at Christmas. We're trying to do everything we can. And the moment we can afford to pay more, we will. Bearing in mind, we lost money last year, we will do this year. But, you know, we want to create jobs. We're one of the few retailers that's actually growing.

We opened 30 shops last year. That's 30 jobs per store. Okay, if there's one thing you could tell Liz Trust. So this is about helping the high streets around the UK. All right. If there's one thing you could get Liz Trust to do and announce tomorrow to help business, what would it be? Energy price cap for business.

Big business as well as small. Don't just focus on further rate relief for pubs and restaurants. all business needs supporting. That's what she can do tomorrow and then longer term we need to fix our completely broken energy markets. Okay. They're spiraling out of control and that's what needs to be done and it can be done quite quickly as well. All right, Richard Walker, thank you. I appreciate you joining me. Thank you. Just very quick reaction to both those interviews there. I mean, they've got the sharp end of this poor nurse, got chemo treatment, having to work and I'm going to give that up. Yeah, can I just say to Kerry, if she's still listening.

Focusing for a moment on the refusal of that payment, she should, if she hasn't already done it, get in touch with her MP yesterday. And I do mean that, because that's what he or she is there for. Okay. That's the first thing. On the NHS, just let me make this comment. COVID isn't the cause of this.

It was the catalyst. I said 20 years ago in 1998, you might just remember it. I made a major party conference speech that the NHS would not survive. I think the system is broken. Well, it was set up for a completely different set of circumstances. What did you make of Richard Walker? These bosses are in difficult positions

and it's going to be very difficult to see how they get out of this with the energy bills alone for supermarket stores. No, I absolutely agree. I think it is worth mentioning that quite a lot of businesses will have fixed their energy for a while. So not every business is going to need it. I think you do need... So we don't have a massive COVID cash handout again.

I do think business are going to have to be stress-tested that if your energy bills are a cap, you don't need a massive handout, but every business is going to need some help. No, I agree. Final word. Ava, got to leave it there, but final word to you about that. No one needs an energy cap. We need a wealth tax. That's what we need.

Okay. Wealth tax. Well, why not? I don't mind paying more. Thank you both. To all my wonderful fact. Much appreciate it. Coming up, the deluded Duchess is back in town, big yawn, preaching away. God knows about what, I don't really care. We're going to debate whether she should be here at all. Why should she be back here with her half-wit husband after trashing our royal family?

We'll debate that after the break. Well, welcome back. Our regret to announce that Halfwit Harry and the preaching Princess Pinocchio are back in the UK, banging on about the usual stuff, whining, moaning, preaching about quality, poverty, usual thing. My question is, what are they doing here? Here's a little clip. Not much because they're not really that interested, but have a listen to this. It is very nice to be back in the UK. Have any of you today so far had that feeling, that pinch me moment where you just go, how am I here? Yes.

How are you here? And why are you here? All you've done is trash this country, trash the royals, trash the monarchy, and upset the queen. What are you doing here? Well, lawyer Paula Rohn, Adrian, and talk to the contributor, Esther Cracker here. So, Paula, why are they here? They hate this country. They hate the royal family.

They disown the royal family. They hate the monarchy and all it stands for. They keep their royal titles and fleece them for hundreds of millions of dollars to the highest bidder. What are they doing back here? Okay. So first of all, they were invited. Secondly, I've never heard them say that they hate this country. I've never heard them say they hate the royal family.

And I know that the facts are very important to you, peers. So let's deal with the facts. They are working. They are here to promote... They're not working. They're earning their Netflix money. They're being followed by Netflix everywhere they go. So they're doing their charity work.

They're coming along patting people on the head so that Netflix can record it for their lovy-dovey documentary. Which they're getting paid, by the way. I'm told over $100 million for this work. So to suggest that doing charity work is equivalent to you patting somebody on the head. They don't do any duty. They abandon the... country, they abandoned Royal Duty,

but they want to keep the titles, they want to fleece the titles. I'm just not having this. I think it's a complete double standard. They are damaging the monarchy with every interview they give, chip, chip away. Megyn Markle, we're all a bunch of racists. Apparently British journalists called her

child the N-word, no evidence. Apparently someone in the royal family expressed concern about Archie's skin colour, no evidence, and so on. She sprays out this stuff, damaging the monarchy, damaging the country, no evidence ever gets produced. But I think she's holding the royal family hostage with that

because if you've been a victim of racist abuse, why don't you name the person? Because you know if you don't say who it is, you're tarnishing that you're painting the royal family with that brush. But my question is, isn't Harry suing the royal family? Esther, have you ever been a victim of racist abuse? Oh, I have actually. And have you always named?

Oh, absolutely. You've always named. No, because if it happened, if I was working for a big business. I've been a victim of racist abuse. I know exactly who the people are who have racially abused me. I know where they're working, I know what they're doing, and to date, I haven't named them. Why? Because I will be told, where is my proof?

And no doubt there are a number of your viewers. A number of your viewers who are watching this now, peers, who will say to you that I am suffering of bullying at work. I'm being victimized at work, but no one believes me. Actually, well, actually, it's funny, the biggest allegations of bullying against any member of the royal family were against Megan Markle, against two PAs who apparently were bullied so much they had to leave and were in tears every single day they went to work. So that, you know, she denied it. Where's the evidence?

What you were told? Where is the evidence? What you were told? Where is the evidence? And this is what we have to be careful about. Because we want to have a very dignified discussion about this. We don't want to do this backwards and forwards. She said he said, he said, and this is what happens. And that's the only basis that we have.

Hold on. But if you were a victim of racist abuse, why would you want to you invited? They were invited. Of course they were invited because charities want publicity. My point is they are bringing a Netflix camera crew. This is why William won't see them. This is why Charles isn't seen. It's why the Queen won't see them.

They don't trust them. They don't trust them not to put it all on camera, to put it all in Harry's tell-all book where he'll cause even more misery for the royal family. And I think, at what point does this stop? I can agree with you on that point. These two apparently left the country because they wanted privacy.

I can agree with you on the fear that Charles and William are probably grappling with at the moment because you're absolutely right. Harron and Meghan will not be silenced. They will not be silenced. They feel that they have been hurt. And I don't know whether they have. They just fear they've been hurt

and they will not be silenced. I don't want to talk about it. Let me make one thing clear. They can bang on in public as much as they like. They just can't do it as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as members of the royal family. Strip them of the titles. They can yap away.

And by the way, their market value would go, But why shouldn't she name... Last word. Hold on. Why shouldn't she name who racially abused her? Because that's a very serious accusation. I agree.

The last word should be gratitude. If you're going to accuse... You're here because of Megan and I know you're grateful about that. I'm here because of Megan. That is actually true. I wouldn't be doing me so that Megan Markle's help. Thank you, Megan.

Thank you to my panel.