EXCLUSIVE: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak opens up to The Yorkshire Post on his fears for MPs' safety, the importance of family and why he doesn't give it all up for a life of luxury in blissful isolation

My word, what an edition you have coming up tomorrow. You do not want to miss this weekend’s offering, any weekend’s offering from The Yorkshire Post, come to think of it, but tomorrow’s is a particularly spectacular achievement by the team.

First up, an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in which he shares intimate reflections on family life, including how he and his wife felt when they heard their home had been targeted by protestors who had managed to breach security and clamber onto the roof. He speaks in his own typically measured way about the impact on how safe they felt, but if you read his words carefully, his wider concerns about the safety of MPs are stark. He talks about how it feels to be on the end of ‘the worst hospital pass to an incoming Prime Minister in several decades’ yet how the upbringing his parents gave him steeled him for the job. He also describes, authentically I have to say, his motivation for carrying on when, in truth, he could live a life of luxury in complete obscurity. It’s fascinating work by our Westminster Correspondent Mason Boycott-Owen, who has somehow managed to ease the Prime Minister into opening up in a way I’m not sure I’ve seen before.

Let me flip the thing over and turn to the back pages - I don’t sing the praises of the sports lot enough. They don’t appreciate it when I do, anyway. They tend to just growl at you as they pass for yet another biscuit from the communal tin. But in tomorrow’s edition there is an interview that The Times or The Telegraph would fall over themselves for. For the first time Wayne Morton opens up on the impact the Yorkshire County Cricket Club racism scandal had on him and his family. How it felt to be at the centre of scurrilous village tittle-tattle, pointed at in local cafes by gossiping rubber-neckers, unable to give his own version of events. He recollects what happened when he leapt over the boundary cordon to take on a gang of drunken racists who were throwing bananas at Syd Lawrence, the black fast-bowler then playing for Gloucestershire. His account of what happened when he broke down in front of his GP is harrowing testimony from a man who has consistently and categorically denied being racist. The interview is raw and emotive, eking out intimate insight from the trauma that brought the home of cricket to its knees.

Then, David Blunkett - Lord Blunkett to you and I - leaps off the opinion pages with an absolute zinger of a column in which he describes the current political landscape as a complete and utter mess. He talks about the ‘disintegration’ of the criminal justice system, something he suggests may well be down to Ministers being distracted by their own vanity - as well as their plotting and scheming in an effort to ‘stitch one another up’ - before any notion of getting on with the job in front of them. He comes up with a new one on me, too: ‘Yah Boo Politics’ - you’re going to have to read it to find out what that is.

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STRICTLY EMBARGOED

Now, I have to be careful here not to: 1) give the game away to competitors; 2) breach a strict embargo, but…we have our hands on some exclusive (for now, until our competitors catch our coattails) high quality polling that is going to put the wind up certain people who just can’t keep out of the public eye - or is that Private Eye!? ;o)

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Oh, and for those of you who love Dame Judi Dench as much as I do, she’s our cover shoot on The Magazine ahead of a fabulous exhibition by acclaimed celebrity photographer Derrick Santini of Scarborough fame - from Idris Elba to Adele. One not to miss! There's also pie-fest extravaganza - with a decades old family twist in the tale!

Have a great weekend - and do keep in touch. I promise I always do my best to write back!

James

Editor | The Yorkshire Post

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Write to me at: [email protected] - it’s nice to read a friendly word or two.

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