With British Prime Minister Boris Johnson still in intensive care with COVID-19 on Wednesday, MSNBC's Keir Simmons reporting from London wondered if Johnson's "populist politics" may have something to do with his illness.
Matthew Doyle, a former political adviser to Labour Party prime minister Tony Blair, joined Simmons for the segment. It started off innocently enough. Given that Britain's constitution is unwritten, Simmons asked what happens when the prime minister is incapacitated given there is no British equivalent to the 25th Amendment.
However, as the segment went on Simmons wondered if Johnson brought his illness on himself, "we saw the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, talking about shaking hands with even people who have been tested positive for coronavirus. You're obviously on a different part of the political spectrum. Do you think what is playing out is raising questions about the kind of populist politics that we've seen in recent years?"
Simmons never bothered to explain how support for Brexit, which Simmons on Tuesday postulated might be once again postponed due to Johnson's hospitilization, correlates with coronavirus infections. After all, Italy, Spain, and France--all EU countries -- are all having similar outbreaks.
Doyle, for his part refused to take the bait, "I think it's impossible to speculate on that. We don't know what the cause of the prime minister's infection was and I think across the political spectrum the view is that clearly what we want to see is him making a speedy recovery and be back behind the desk in Downing Street." Doyle then circled back to the original purpose of the segment and suggested that when the crisis is over, the country should look into formalizing some sort of policy shoud this happen again.
Here is a transcript for the April 8 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live
10:31 AM ET
KEIR SIMMONS: Matthew, there are many differences between the president and the British prime minister. But both of them have that kind of populist politics and we saw the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, talking about shaking hands with even people who have been tested positive for coronavirus. You're obviously on a different part of the political spectrum. Do you think what is playing out is raising questions about the kind of populist politics that we've seen in recent years?
MATTHEW DOYLE: I think it's impossible to speculate on that. We don't know what the cause of the prime minister's infection was and I think across the political spectrum the view is that clearly what we want to see is him making a speedy recovery and be back behind the desk in Downing Street.
