Good morning, and welcome to a new week of politics at Jack and Sam's Daily, the podcast that seeks to tell you first thing each day, everything that's coming up in the few hours ahead in British politics in under 20 minutes or faster if you hit 1.5 speed.

Do you know what? I met a well-known BBC broadcaster in Portcullars House the other day who listened to this podcast on double speed, Sam. He was like, I can listen to it in 10 minutes, like injected into my brain. I was trying to imagine what it's like listening to Sam Coat speak at double speed. I can't quite imagine. I think I might have to try it at some point today. Anyway, my name is Jack Blanchard of Politico. With me from the Libdem conference in Brighton, no less, is Sam Coat of Sky News. Sam, you're back on the road. I can see fetching wallpaper behind you from what I can only assume is some Brighton holiday in type affair. How are you doing down there? Is it fun?

It's very good. Above-expectation hotel room. I had a slight dread as I walked down the corridor and bottles of water scatled all over the floor. But no, actually, it's all good here. We're on the Brighton Seafront for Liberal Democrat conference. The bars were overflowing last night, a little bit further down the seafront. Liberal Democrats are very happy not just to see each other, but in many cases, meet each other for the first time as well. There are sheets of photographs of the 72 Libdem MPs to help party staff work out who is who. This is largely a victory rally.

A victory rally. Well, I'm sorry to be missing it. I stayed in London to hang out with my family. Check this out. I took my kids to the fun fair yesterday, and there's one of those traveling fairs, and it was in East Dulwich. We were watching someone who was really good on the rifle range. You know when you have to shoot the thing and it smashes and then you win the prize for your kids, and it turns round and it's Jason Statham, the guy who you would definitely expect to be really good on the rifle range was really good on the rifle range. And one like lovely, cuddly toy for his kids. I did not try and follow Jason Stath on the rifle range. Scurried away and took them on some rubbish little roller coaster instead.

Today, like every weekday, we have read the papers, watched the interviews, spoken to the advisors and the politicians, doing it all and digesting it all to tell you on this podcast. So as with every Monday, let's start by just going through what's happening the whole week ahead. There's no Parliament because it's conference season. But what is happening, the big news of today, which we'll tell you more about in a moment, is Kirstam going to Italy to Rome to talk with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Maloney. And it is the Liberal Democrat conference here in Brighton. There's a speech by Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and debates on PR and what's going on in the Middle East, as well as the sentencing of former BBC newsreader, Hugh Edwards.

If you can take more Lib Dem action on Tuesday, it is the Leader Speech Day. Ed Davie will be speaking just after lunch, and we're expecting the new Labor General Secretary to be announced on Tuesday as well. There's been a bit of a tussle for that. Sam, you reckon it's going to be Holly Ridley? But let's see, that hasn't been confirmed yet.

I think Morgan McSweeney and plenty of people inside the Labor Party believe it will be her. She was the Director of Nations and Regions. Wednesday, the main order of business is the latest inflation statistics.

And that follows on a Thursday with the Bank of England's interest rate decision, which will be watched very keenly indeed in the Treasury. It's quite possible Sam will get a cut in interest rates this month. No one seems totally certain at the moment, but I guess any boost for labor is good at the moment economically. Although, conversely, you might say if the economy keeps improving, then their whole argument that the world is falling apart and they've got no choice but to hammer us with X, Y, and Z. Bad news starts to look a little bit thin.

On Friday, Reform UK is having their party conference. That's in Birmingham. It kicks off with a speech by Nigel Farage. Just a bit of compare and contrast with the conference I met at the moment. So Reform UK, you remember, got 14% of the vote and have five MPs, right? But the Liberal Democrats got 12% of the vote and have 72 MPs. So I'm just wondering whether the debate around electoral reform will be slightly louder up in Birmingham than it is here in Brighton today. We'll just have to wait and see.

Let's kick things off with the Prime Minister there before we move on to Brighton, Sam, because the main for the day, sorry, Lib Dems, is definitely Kierstam's trip to Rome. He flew out last night, and this is for his first summit in Italy with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Maloney. As ever these days, when British Prime ministers go over to Italy, the main thing they want to talk about is illegal migration. This has been a huge part of Maloney's tenure, and a key policy for her is clamping down on legal migration. Richie Sunet used to go and see her all the time. She was like his only friend, wasn't she, on the world stage? She was Rishie was this slightly strange figure going around. He seemed happier with the tech guys than he did with overseas politicians, except for Maloney, they were busy mates. She'd always greet him with a big hug and an elaborate Italian kiss and all the rest of it. Whether Kia Starmer can strike up the same friendship with her remains to be seen. But he's certainly making all the right noises. The press release overnight from Downing Street was very much we were going over there to learn from Italy what it's done on illegal migration.

And of course, the backdrop, Sam, is a pretty tragic one, given what happened in the English channel over the weekend.

There were eight deaths confirmed by the French on Sunday after a boat containing 53 migrants hit the rocks not long after leaving the Coast. And that means we've now got 45 deaths in the channel this year, which, depending on what time scale you take, is four times what we had last year and higher than the previous record year of 2021. This is becoming increasingly urgent. The Tories are shining a spotlight on it. The point of going to Rome and the point of what they want, the lessons they're looking to learn, a twofold. Italy has managed to engineer a 62% drop in the number of migrants reaching the country. That success level is something that labor wants to learn from. That's because Italy has done, and is in the process of doing two different things. They've done financial deals with Tunisia and Libya. That's Essentially giving them money to strengthen border security there. Kirstama calls this upstream work. It's a bit of helping out with their infrastructure and also trying to work on the causes of why people leave certain countries to come to the UK or come to Italy. Those are deals that will be on the table and being looked at.

But then the big thing I think that Labor is definitely interested in is this deal, which is essentially the I can't believe it's not Rwanda deal that Italy have struck with Albania. And expect Labor politicians to be telling you long and hard all the way through today why Italy's Albania deal that Istan has confirmed that he's looking at and the previous government's Rwanda deal are totally different and separate things.

It's a really interesting situation this, because when Maloney was elected, well, a couple of years ago now, she was very much painted as a far-right leader, and she would make very, what do we say, very populist statements in opposition were seen as the far-right sweeping to power in Italy. She hasn't governed quite like that. In some ways, she has. In some ways, she's been a lot more moderate than people might expect. But the idea of a centre-left British Prime Minister going over to meet someone like that and quote-unquote learn from them on immigration is just quite an extraordinary thing that you maybe would not have imagined happening when he was elected a couple of years ago. Rishi Sunak was doing it, and there were certain people in the Labor Party who heavily criticized him for that. To now see a Labor leader doing it as well just shows how far the conversation has moved, I think, on migration in this country. But whether we see criticism of Kirstal Starmer from within his own ranks for this move today remains to be seen. There were whispers of this last night. One or two Labor MPs starting to grumble about it, saying it was disturbing to see him doing this.

I wonder if we'll see more of that today. There's going to be a public show of standing shoulder to shoulder moment between Starmer and Maloney this afternoon when they do a joint press conference, live on camera at two o'clock. It'll be a very visual image of Keir Starmer aligning himself with someone who was generally seen as part of the far right in Europe, certainly up until quite recently.

I just think it's important to take a moment to explain what this Albania deal is that we're going to hear about today and why it does differ from Rwanda and perhaps why it It doesn't, because there are some in the British government that can see there are more similarities than anybody would want to acknowledge. Italy has signed basically a five-year deal with Albania so that they can take, and the idea is, migrants direct from the sea, they pick them up if they're trying to get over to Italy in small boats, to a port about 30 miles south of Tirana for processing by Italian border guards. The idea is that they only take people who originally come from safe countries to Albania, and if they fail in their asylum claim, then Italy will take them back to their country of origin because it is safe to do so. Georgia Maloney has been clear that the vulnerable pregnant women won't be taken. But the idea is that most of the people that get taken there because they're from safe countries will probably fail that asylum application and therefore will go back. Now, this whole plan was meant to start on August the first, but the buildings aren't ready, so it hasn't actually begun.

There are quite a few details that are unclear, like will these people actually be detained in the old Air Force base in Albania, or could they just slip away while their application is being processed? But for another European country to have a deterrence-based plan in order to reduce the amount of migration when deterrence was at the heart of the Tories Rwanda plan, and Tories have criticized labor so much for abandoning it, for labor now to be exploring something else that involves deterrence, I think may prove a little bit of discomfort for some labor MPs having to switch on this. Labor MPs will have to catch on and cling on to the fact that they'll be able to say that this scheme is legal under international law, unlike the Rwanda one. But in some ways, it does look quite similar.

Joining Kirstama on this trip, Sam, along with the Abiquitous Sue gray, his Chief of Staff, who appears to be invited to all big summits. Don't see Morgan McSweeney there, but anyway, will be his new chief border cop. Martin Hewitt was announced late last night overnight as Kirstam's new border security commander. Now, this was a post that Labor was very keen to big up in opposition when it was trying to provide an answer to how it was going to tackle illegal migration. It talked about smashing the gangs, and they were going to set up this new border security force under the commandment of somebody senior. Well, we now have that person's name, Martin Hewitt. He's the former chair of the National Police Chief's Council. He's a very senior, experienced ex police officer with lots of experience in and around government. And he is traveling with Starmer today, ahead of taking up that post in a couple of weeks time. Interesting appointment, Sam. He's quite a well One figure in Whitehall, Martin Hewitt, and I don't think it'll be universally welcomed. What do you think?

Martin Hewitt came to prominence after working for years as a policeman in Kent and elsewhere. In that job, you just mentioned, Chairman of the National Police Chief's Council, a job that he did during COVID. Now, that role involves coordinating and helping all the different police forces in the UK. During the COVID pandemic, that was exceptionally difficult because the government, Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, were introducing new laws at very short notice to determine what freedoms people did and didn't have. Hewitt, I think, became a bit of a bet noir for parts of the conservative Party because he didn't hold back subsequently at the COVID inquiry. He was very critical of just how little time police were given to understand and implement new laws and made clear, and wasn't afraid to make clear his unhappiness. It wasn't unhelpful for labor at the time for him to be saying these things. So as you say, not universal joy, I'd expect.

And already being briefed against in the Times. Poor guy hasn't even started for a couple of weeks. Senior police officers, former colleague says, unnamed, he's a consummate politician. He'll promise the world. Not exactly a glowing endorsement. He doesn't always deliver. I'm just not sure whether he's the right It's a mammoth job. Honestly, these poor people haven't even started yet. What must be the hardest job in Britain, border security chief. But anyway.

One other item on the agenda today. Actually, I'm told that after Kirstimer saw Joe Biden in the White House on Friday, and There was no announcement about being able to use British and American weapons to target Russia. I'm told that the issue here is some European countries, particularly Italy. They're the ones that are dragging their feet. America are more or less there, willing to give the green light. But it's countries like Italy that need to be talked around. That, I think, is also going to be on the agenda for that meeting. Yes, let's talk about the Liberal Democrats. It's the speech you've been waiting for. Daisy Cooper The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, of course you did know that, will be speaking later to today. And Ed Davey will be doing a round of TV interviews, including one with me in a little bit. This conference is a moment of victory. It's a moment of catharsis. It's a moment of celebration. It's a moment of everybody getting to know each other, I think, here in Brighton. But it's also a moment where we try and work out what the point of the Liberal Democrats over the next five years is going to be.

There are 72 of them, but we're trying to work out what opposition party they are, given that their main job for the last few years has been quite explicitly to get the Tories out of power. Now, the Tories are out of power, and they have to work out how they're going to function, how they're going to operate. They don't know yet, is my overriding sense. They're going to cling on and keep campaigning on the issues from their manifesto. But they're watching closely what happens with the budget, what happens with the new Tori leadership to work out what space they can inhabit over the next few years in British politics. Opponents often think of them as shapeshifters. I think they describe themselves as pragmatic and working out what voters want, but expect them to continue to focus relentless on the NHS, the cost of living, and sewage, the issues that we saw in the manifesto, just as they work out how to evolve and where next the party should go.

This conference has been going on since Saturday morning in Brighton, in case you weren't all paying attention. I've been quite surprised to see Ed Davy carrying on with all the big colorful publicity stunts, Sam. I've seen a picture of him doing beach volley ball. I saw him arriving on a jet ski. He's been kayaking. Apparently, he's going to be doing an interview on a roller coaster with the great Matt Chauley of the BBC this afternoon as well. I feel like this was a good idea in the election campaign when you're a very small party, desperately trying to get attention. If you're now a serious third party of government, you've got 70 odd MPs, not that many of you are the Tories, I'm not sure you want to continue to present in this way. I don't know. Obviously, we'll get on the news and maybe that's really hard when you're the third party, but I feel like it might be time for a little bit more seriousness from the Lib Dems. I know they have very serious issues that they care about as well, but these are the only things people are going to remember or take away from this conference, again, I suspect.

I don't know if that's such a smart move at this point in their cycle. Let me just throw one of the Lib Dem I thought at you from playbook this morning. Tim Farran said to one of my reporters that the Lib Dems think they should get an extra question at PMQs given the numbers have changed so much in Parliament. They've got only 49, fewer MPs than the Tories. It shouldn't be 60. He says it should be 5, 3, and we're lobbying, we're making the case to Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker. I think that's quite an interesting one, isn't it? They're never going to happen, but it seems not unreasonable given the arithmetic.

And by that logic, we ought to talk about them more in the podcast as well. So be careful what you wish for. What have I done? But I think it's an important point. But the question is, how are the liberal Democrats going to present themselves as an opposition? Are they going to always, for instance, ask for more spending as they appear to be opposing some of the things like the winter fuel cuts? Are they going to the liberal party that they were under nick Clegg? Where are they going to position themselves on Europe? We just don't know where this party is going to go in this new political environment. And I think coverage does follow political parties saying things important, interesting, and new, and they've got to do that to attract attention.

Let's just briefly mention the one of the big political stories of the morning. There isn't a great deal to say about the fact that there's been another assassination attempt on the life of Donald Trump, except how shocking is, happened on the Sunday afternoon at one of his golf courses. I'm sure you're waking up to the headlines that the suspects were not apprehended and all the rest of it. Sam, I mean, there's still what, six, seven, eight weeks to go in this election, and you just have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next. I mean, it's pretty bleak, isn't it, when violence becomes such a big part of the of the election campaign as it has done.

The individual was a Trump voter in 2016, but somebody who then appears to really campaign and want to fight on the side of Ukraine in the conflict with Russia and has backed other Republicans other than Donald Trump. The politics of this is going to take some time to unwind, but it puts Trump right back in the spotlight, just at the point where the polls were starting to shift against him following last week's debate.

Let me just say I've been chatting to political journalists on both sides of the Atlantic about what it's like to cover an American election. So tune in to Westminster Insider, which is Politigo's other political podcast if you want to hear that this week. We better stop, Sam. It's been 20 minutes.

Thank you very much. We will embark on Brighton Seafront to go and see the Liberal Democrats. I will see you tomorrow. Okay. See you soon. Bye.