The News Agents

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Friday, 20 June 2025 - 39 minutes

Chris Patten has done it all. Conservative cabinet minister under Thatcher and Major, our last Governor of British Hong Kong, then back home overseeing policing reform in Northern Ireland, EU Commissioner in Brussels, Chairman of the BBC, Chancellor of Oxford University, you name it, Patten has more chance than anybody of having done it. But his sort of Tory Party is one which increasingly feels consigned to history. What does it mean for Britain’s future if there are no successors to the sort of politics he embodied?

Now in his 80th year, Lewis went to Patten’s salubrious Barnes home, to discuss a remarkable career in national and international politics. He talks the future of China, the Iran conflict, Starmer’s handling of Trump and how Farage is Britain’s biggest pub bore.

The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

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