Tory Leadership Debate – BBC Five Live interview
Rob McLoughlin discussed the outcome of the BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate in a live interview on BBC Radio Five Live’s Drive programme on Tuesday 19 June, 2019.
Rob said that it was unique in post-war Britain to have just 160,000 people (the membership of the Conservative Party) choose the Prime Minister for a party with no majority. It was clear from the televised debate that no candidate wanted to risk a General Election with Jeremy Hunt saying it should only follow Brexit.
Normally an opposition would be claiming it was unconstitutional and that the Government had no mandate but Labour have so many other issues internally that the argument is not being advanced.
Rob talked about the complexities of making a tv programme such as this with multiple candidates and joked that the format would never replace Holby City which he said “can be curious but certainly has more drama”. He described how quickly such programmes are often assembled and how difficult they can be.
On one special with John Prescott and Michael Heseltine for Granada TV, Rob recalled how Ming Campbell became stuck in a taxi. Attempts to replace Campbell with another Lib-Dem MP led to the party to threaten an injunction to stop the broadcast as they wanted parity with Labour and Tory heavyweights.
Rob commented: “You have to take it on the chin when vetting of the audience goes wrong despite best efforts – the systems are never perfect.”  (This followed controversy over past tweets from one contributor to the Prime Ministerial Debate.)
Rob defended the decision to have no audience pointing out that balance across one single party was difficult to achieve. Individual audience members can sometimes stir the pot; Mrs Thatcher was famously caught off-guard over questions about the sinking of the Belgrano in an edition of Nationwide in the 1980s. Mrs Thatcher was said to have met her match when repeatedly challenged by a well-informed member of the public.
Drive is broadcast live from MediaCity UK.
Rob also appeared on the programme recently to discuss The Jeremy Kyle Show and ITV.

Expecting the Unexpected, What Happens Now? Live event 27 January

Rob McLoughlin returns to host the first Economic Business Breakfast of 2017 staged by the Institute of Directors and Liverpool and Sefton Chambers of Commerce on Friday 27 January 2017 in the city of Liverpool.

After Trump’s arrival in the White House, after the Brexit vote and with Article 50 yet to be invoked Rob and a special panel of guests and audience members will debate the uncertain future which lies ahead. What does it all mean for local businesses and the UK?

There will be an overview of the UK and North West economy from Christian Spence, Head of Policy Research at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce as he unveils the Quarterly Economic Survey results.

The event is open to the public via the Liverpool Chamber website. 

It follows two events hosted by Rob in January 2017: He opened York Talks as town met gown and leading academics unveiled their major research projects at The University of York and he hosted CJUK Live for 100 Chefs in Lancashire.

One attendee tweeted “Amazing host, jokes galore, knowledgeable and massively friendly.” … And it wasn‘t Rob who tweeted that! 

Rob McLoughlin hosts ‘An Audience with Andy Burnham’

Andy Burnham MP, Shadow Home Secretary, faces a business audience in a special question and answer session at The Radisson Blu Hotel in Manchester to discuss his vision for the future of Greater Manchester if he becomes the first elected Metro Mayor next May (2017).

He is also likely to talk about the future of the Labour Party 2 days ahead of the announcement of the leadership contest and will discuss his views on the region and UK post-Brexit.

The event is staged by the US Financial organisation Duff and Phelps and will also hear from Christian Spence, Head of Policy and Research at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. 

Andy Burnham slams the filth and the fury of EU poll debate

Telegraph & Argus

Anarchy in the UK?

27 May 2016 / Press Association 2014

Politicians talked “bollocks” on Friday during a Euro referendum debate.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Andy Burnham referenced the venue he was speaking in Manchester, the former Free Trade Hall, where the Sex Pistols’ 1976 concert heralded the birth of punk in one of the most important gigs in music history.

Mr Burnham, debating with the Tory MP Graham Brady, said: “I was reminded of their most famous album, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, well it’s probably a good motto for this campaign at the moment, isn’t it?

“Because there’s a lot it being spoken and a lot of it around on both sides and people are confused as to how to make sense of this question.”

Mr Burnham said he worried that “grumpy old people” would vote Britain out – denying younger generations the benefits of post-war European peace and prosperity.

And he said the public had not been given a proper debate yet, adding: “Let’s have facts, not soaring rhetoric but real arguments.”

During the debate, hosted by Duff and Phelps, a corporate finance firm, at the Radisson Blu hotel in Manchester, Mr Brady, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, himself questioned the contentious £350 million figure, the Vote Leave campaign claims EU membership costs the UK each week.

He was asked by debate chairman, broadcaster Rob McLoughlin: “What bollocks is Boris talking?” to which Mr Burnham interjected: “How long have you got?”

Mr Brady replied: “I would have no hesitation, I wouldn’t quite call it bollocks but I will say it wouldn’t have been my judgment to use the £350 million per week figure.”

Mr Burnham said there was a need now for “clarity and objectivity” and the UK leaving the EU would mean “crossing our fingers and taking a leap into the dark” in a “volatile” world.

He claimed Vote Leave had “lost the argument” on economics, with the weight of expert opinion, from the IMF, Bank of England, the Treasury, Office of Budget Responsibility and the Institute of Fiscal studies, all saying prosperity would be hit by voting out.

And if Britain left the EU it would mean the rest of the globe thinking Britain, part of the Commonwealth, Nato and the EU, had turned its back on the world.

He added: “This isn’t a technical dry debate with all of these statistics, this is about who we are going to be in the 21st century.

“I’m worried and I feel nervous for the next generation.

“I get the feeling there’s a lot of kind of grumpy old people who are going to vote to take us out, the generation that’s had all the benefits in the post war period of (being in a) benign part of the European Union and they are about to deny it to young people who are trying to make sense of this globalised modern world that they are in and they are about to tie their hands behind their back.

“Don’t have it. Don’t let it happen. Let’s be outward looking, open, welcoming.”

But Mr Brady said Britain should continue working with European nations but outside the EU structure.

He said remaining inside would mean Britain signing up for “this continuing process of more integration” and “uncontrolled net migration from the EU”.

He said the UK was stable but political instability was being generated on the continent with extremes of left and right on the rise and “more barbed wire across Europe” than any time since the Second World War.

But he said the most important matter was the question of democracy.

He added: “The thing I care about most is we, the British people, ought to be able to make our own decisions, we ought to be able to decide our own laws, we ought to be able to fix our own taxes and, yes, we ought to be able to control our own borders.

“If you can’t do those things, you have taken an enormous risk with your future.”

Anarchy in the UK? Andy Burnham slams the filth and the fury of EU poll debate

By Pat Hurst, Press Association

27 May 2016

Press Association Regional Newswire – North West

©2016, The Press Association, All Rights Reserved

Politicians talked “bollocks” on Friday during a Euro referendum debate.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Andy Burnham referenced the venue he was speaking in Manchester, the former Free Trade Hall, where the Sex Pistols’ 1976 concert heralded the birth of punk in one of the most important gigs in music history.

Mr Burnham, debating with the Tory MP Graham Brady, said: “I was reminded of their most famous album, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, well it’s probably a good motto for this campaign at the moment, isn’t it?

“Because there’s a lot it being spoken and a lot of it around on both sides and people are confused as to how to make sense of this question.”

Mr Burnham said he worried that “grumpy old people” would vote Britain out – denying younger generations the benefits of post-war European peace and prosperity.

And he said the public had not been given a proper debate yet, adding: “Let’s have facts, not soaring rhetoric but real arguments.”

During the debate, hosted by Duff and Phelps, a corporate finance firm, at the Radisson Blu hotel in Manchester, Mr Brady, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, himself questioned the contentious £350 million figure, the Vote Leave campaign claims EU membership costs the UK each week.

He was asked by debate chairman, broadcaster Rob McLoughlin: “What bollocks is Boris talking?” to which Mr Burnham interjected: “How long have you got?”

Mr Brady replied: “I would have no hesitation, I wouldn’t quite call it bollocks but I will say it wouldn’t have been my judgment to use the £350 million per week figure.”

Mr Burnham said there was a need now for “clarity and objectivity” and the UK leaving the EU would mean “crossing our fingers and taking a leap into the dark” in a “volatile” world.

He added “This isn’t a technical dry debate with all of these statistics, this is about who we are going to be in the 21st century.

“I’m worried and I feel nervous for the next generation.

“I get the feeling there’s a lot of kind of grumpy old people who are going to vote to take us out, the generation that’s had all the benefits in the post war period of (being in a) benign part of the European Union and they are about to deny it to young people who are trying to make sense of this globalised modern world that they are in and they are about to tie their hands behind their back.

“Don’t have it.  Don’t let it happen.  Let’s be outward looking, open, welcoming.”

But Mr Brady said Britain should continue working with European nations but outside the EU structure.

He said remaining inside would mean Britain signing up for “this continuing process of more integration” and “uncontrolled net migration from the EU”.

He said the UK was stable but political instability was being generated on the continent with extremes of left and right on the rise and “more barbed wire across Europe” than any time since the Second World War.

But he said the most important matter was the question of democracy.

He added: “The thing I care about most is we, the British people, ought to be able to make our own decisions, we ought to be able to decide our own laws, we ought to be able to fix our own taxes and, yes, we ought to be able to control our own borders.

“If you can’t do those things, you have taken an enormous risk with your future.”