Acting Prime Minister: Emma Lewell-Buck on accents, dyspraxia and siding with the Brexit Party over the Lib Dems

The latest guest to take power in the new series of the ITV News podcast Acting Prime Minister is Emma Lewell-Buck.

The Labour MP for South Shields was unafraid of speaking out in the conversation with ITV News Political Correspondent Paul Brand - accusing her party's deputy Tom Watson of sticking "two fingers up" to Labour voters over Brexit.

And she also found herself siding with unusual allies, choosing the Brexit Party over the Lib Dems to go into a Brexit coalition and also finding a shock role for Margaret Thatcher in her fantasy Cabinet.

But Emma was also happy to go personal amid the politics, sharing the difficulties of growing up with dyspraxia and the influential words of her dying uncle.

And she also addresses why - depressingly - she believes her background blocks her from ever holding power in Number 10 for real.

Watch above or listen to the full episode to also hear:

  • The strong drink she would pour herself upon gaining power in Downing Street

  • How her time as a social worker showed her a different side of poverty

  • The alarming threats which she experienced working in child protection

  • The 17 jobs she had before becoming an MP - and what they taught her

  • When she realised her brain was 'wired differently' to others as a child

  • Why the dyspraxia which made school life difficult now gives her an advantage as an MP

Paul Brand spoke to Emma Lewell-Buck in Westminster. Credit: ITV News

  • The demand her uncle made of her while dying which changed her political ambitions

  • Why the staunch Labour MP would find a role for Margaret Thatcher in her Cabinet

  • How compromise can solve the Brexit impasse and the missed opportunity which could have already settled it

  • Why Jeremy Corbyn's Labour doesn't suffer from a London bias

  • The steps to measure hunger she would make to change Britain

  • Why she would prefer to go to dinner with Gordon Brown than Tony Blair

Acting Prime Minister has put guests ranging from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Jess Phillips to Ben Fogle and Bobby Norris in power and asked the question: "What would you do now?"

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Acting Prime Minister offers politicians and public figures the keys to power then asks: 'What would you do now?' Credit: ITV News