A boozy lunch with Sir Graham Brady

Host Jack Blanchard goes for a long lunch with Sir Graham Brady, the former chairman of the 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs — and the man who helped bring down multiple Tory prime ministers.

Over a meal of rare roast beef and Argentine Malbec, Sir Graham picks through his 14 years at the helm of the 1922 committee, and his run-ins with the five different prime ministers who occupied Downing Street through his turbulent period in office.

Sir Graham recalls the topics which really made David Cameron angry; Theresa May’s rage at being betrayed by her own MPs; Boris Johnson’s time-wasting tricks and Liz Truss’ final words to him before she stepped out of No. 10 Downing Street to resign. And he reflects on an archaic Westminster system by which a Tory prime minister’s power ultimately relies upon the size of a pile of secret letters locked in a safe in the office of a backbench MP.