Rory Stewart

speaker

24,987 appearances 93 recordings 4 series first heard Nov 2025 last heard yesterday

Rory Stewart’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 93 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 16.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Rest Is Politics · 562. The Right’s War With Itself and Burnham’s Prisons Challenge · 12 Aug 2026 podcast

It's like some combination of a police officer, a social worker, a teacher, a security guard, all rolled into one. voice-verified

These should be well paid, well trained jobs with a proper training college, proper morale, proper monitoring, so that you actually know your prisoners. voice-verified

You're keeping these things clean, tidy, well inspected. voice-verified

Windows fixed. voice-verified

That's where I'd begin. voice-verified

The culture of the prison officers. voice-verified

Now, the second question is this question about how many people were putting in prison. voice-verified

It's terrible, right? voice-verified

When uh David Gork was the Secretary of State for Justice and I was the prisons minister, we had everybody, Labour, Conservatives, every MP you can imagine, wandering in, trying to get longer sentences, usually called after an individual. voice-verified

Mungo's law, you know, Hamish's law, Angus's law. voice-verified

Which usually meant some terrible tragedy had happened, an infant had been killed, they might have been run over by a speeding driver, or they might have been the victims of domestic abuse, and the demand was for longer sentences for that crime. voice-verified

And when David and I were in, we said no to all those requests. voice-verified

Because it's the longer sentences which drive the system into crisis. voice-verified

As soon as we left, a more right wing government under Boris Johnson came in, Dominic Raab, and they started extending these sentences. voice-verified

Then Kiosama started playing this game. voice-verified

You remember when he was campaigning against Rishi Sunak, he started putting out social media coverage saying Rishi Sunak uh believes that people who are guilty of sexual assault should not be sent to prison. voice-verified

I will change that. voice-verified

So he was signaling a few thousand people who judges have determined had not committed, once you looked at the context of that sexual assault, something that required them to go to prison. voice-verified

And he voice-verified

that he was committing to another six thousand people. voice-verified

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