NEW: Labour MP Rosie Duffield on Times Radio with John Pienaar:

Keir Starmer should 'promote more women' to his top team to address accusations of a 'boys club' at the top of the party, and says it's 'galling' to see newer MPs promoted ahead of her.

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“I was at the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday…I saw people walking around snorting cocaine.”

Former chair of the Conservative Party Sir Jake Berry MP uses public drug taking to exemplify how a smoking ban wouldn't work in practice.

@JPonPolitics

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“We have all got sick of hearing Keir Starmer say that he is the son of a tool maker.”

However, voters polled for #TimesRadio had no idea of his family’s background, and found themselves “warm” to the Labour leader, says Luke Tryl.

@JPonPolitics

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“Homelessness is horrific, and I don’t think that criminalising people is the way to go.”

Caroline Nokes MP calls for “compassion” towards homeless people, as rough sleeping could be criminalised under new legislation.

@JPonPolitics | #TimesRadio

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“If I make the effort, I think all politicians should make the effort, too.”

Paul Waugh and Kate Ferguson disagree over politicians dressing casually.

Meanwhile, @JPonPolitics is shocked to hear how fashion rules have changed since he was in the lobby.

“We simply haven’t got a choice.”

Israeli Government Spokesman David Mencer says the number of deaths in Gaza “isn’t a matter of choice.”

@JPonPolitics | #TimesRadio

Come work with me and the mighty John Pienaar on Times Radio in the biggest election year in history! Passion for politics required.

newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/3258…

'I'm glad this has been exposed...it's exposed everything we've been saying for the past couple of years.'

Warnings from prison officers have fallen on deaf ears for years, says National Chair POA after a @TheTimes investigation reveals security breaches in UK prisons.

@JPonPolitics

“I thought prisoners would have to be a bit crafty to get drugs and weapons in… it was really shocking, the ease in which I got a job inside the prison“

Prison security is dangerously lax, an @TheTimes Investigation has revealed.

@JPonPolitics | Paul Morgan-Bentley | #TimesRadio

“It’s incredible, Paul Morgan-Bentley applying for the job in his own name, he didn’t even hide who he was.”

@PMorganBentley has exposed the weakness of UK prison security - and with it, the failings of the Tory Party, says @JohnEStevens.

@JPonPolitics | @KateFerguson4

🚨Our new voting intention just shared with John Pienaar Times Radio sees the Conservatives hit a new low.

🌳 Conservative 25% (-2)
🌹Labour 43% (+1)
🔶Lib Dems 11% (+1)
🟣Reform 11% (+1)
💚Green 5% (-1)

Lab lead 18, highest under our current methodology
N=2027, 19-20/3

“If that poll is right, Rishi Sunak is now at the level Liz Truss was when she was ejected from Downing Street.”

Reform is “snapping at the hells” of the Conservatives in new polling, says Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common.

@JPonPolitics

Tune in to Times Radio now to hear John Pienaar and Emily Leahy try some dried grasshoppers with Leo Taylor from Yum Bug as The Times and The Sunday Times urges its readers to give edible bugs a go.

“Any organisation which is labelled as extreme for seeking to undermine parliamentary democracy is probably not going to take that lying down.”

Lord Walney welcomes Michael Gove’s new definition of extremism.

@JPonPolitics

Tory Party is “risking its reputation” over a donation it could manage to do without, says Lord Patten on Times Radio.
Says accepting donation from businessman who’d been granted hundreds of millions in govt contract would have “raised eyebrows” at Tory HQ under his chairmanship

Lord Patten, former Conservative Party Chair and Cabinet minister, tells me it’s an “open and shut case” that his party should return Frank Hester’s £10m donation and accept no more. Interview on Times Radio at 5

'Mr Hester was correct to apologise unreservedly for that to Diane, for using that type of language.'

James Daly MP says major donor Frank Hester was right to apologise but refuses to say his comments were racist, speaking to @JPonPolitics on #TimesRadio .

NEW: Deputy chair of the Conservative Party James Daly refused to say whether Frank Hester’s comments were “extremist” or “racist”. Speaking to John Pienaar Daly said Hester “apologied for his comments” and that they were “not the words” he “would have used” Times Radio

“It’s jaw dropping that a politician should believe that she will be trusted by the public to deal with matters behind closed doors.”

Susan Hall’s comments, leaked exclusively to #TimesRadio , “betray a misunderstanding of the nature of police accountability,” says former deputy…

More on this with Kate McCann on Times Radio with John Pienaar now…

Met police should deal with problems behind closed doors, says Susan Hall

#TimesRadio #MetPolice

thetimes.co.uk/article/b68b18…