Sam Coates

Can I be completely honest?

On one level, I think that's slightly unfair.

Like, I've known him on and off for, you know, over a decade.

Our paths have crossed before he was leader of the Labour Party.

He can be chatty and he can be warm.

He can be much more warm than Theresa May, for goodness sake.

You had somebody that you could engage on a human level.

Like, I struggle a bit with people who are so obsessed by football.

It's just not something I do.

But it's...

But there's a limit to it.

And I was most struck by this on a journey back from India last autumn.

And the prime minister at the conclusion of a trade delegation to India came to the back of the plane.

And he had the fortune or misfortune, depending on the point of view, of suddenly being stuck with me for a bit of chit chat.

And I asked him about ID cards.

Genuinely, I'm fascinated by this big policy area.

It wasn't clearly evidently wasn't going that well.

And I just asked, like, there is a country you've just been to.

You were talking about how India does it.

And I was just like, what did you pick up from being in that vast country?