Lord Stewart (Stuart) Wood

speaker

257 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 19 Jul

Lord Stewart (Stuart) Wood’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Newscast · What No 10 Will Really Be Like For Andy Burnham · 19 Jul 2026 podcast

There's some luxurious toilets in there, but I won't go into more detail.

It's probably the wrong hour for it.

There's no hour for this, is there?

Anyway.

you put your finger on something which is really important kind of secret the way the British state works which is if the Prime Minister has a majority usually the last two years have been a bit of an exception they can get what they want done done pretty easily right that's the usual rule of British politics but the thing that stops it becoming what someone wants called an elective dictatorship where the Prime Minister can just do anything they like for five years is that there is no there there in number ten number ten is not if you go to the White House which I've had the privilege to do a few times luckily with Gordon Brown

There's a massive thousands of people work for the president.

And in number 10, there aren't many people there at all.

And that means that they have to rely on the departments to get their stuff done.

And that's the sort of saving grace, the check and balance, if you like, on the power of the British prime minister.

Ministers always reach for a kind of department.

Gordon Brown used the Cabinet Office for that.

I don't know how Boris built up some internal people.

But they're always looking for a power because they're used to pulling levers and getting things done.

And in Number 10, you don't do that.

You work through other departments.

It's a very strange way of working for a lot of the people.

Wow, well, I guess the movers have already come and taken lots of the stuff away, right?

So I think tomorrow is a day of goodbyes, really, and there'll be lots of tears.

There'll be lots of permanent staff there who have worked closely with Keir for two and a bit years, two years.

And then there's this extraordinary moment.

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