YouSaid · the spoken record

Josh Babarinde

lines on the record: 35
first: 2025-07-11
most recent: 2025-07-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That was my first election. My mum was my campaign manager and she played a blinder. So I'll get her back on board for the next one.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I'm my own person. And I should say it's not just those folks who I'm getting compared to, but there's others who I'm getting confused with. There's a great, someone who's become a good friend, Ben Obsekti, a conservative MP of mixed heritage. We're always getting mixed up and compared to one another as well. So it flows in all sorts of directions. But I'm my own man, I've had my own experiences. I've got my own things that I'm concerned about and that I want to drive forward. People can make their comparisons if they like, but I'm just Josh from Eastbourne.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hang on a minute. I've been an MP, what, five minutes? The election is way. And you look at lots of the things that Laboure are getting up to, and they're not things that chime with my liberalism or my party's liberalism. What I've demonstrated is that regardless of where we sit in Parliament, Liberal Democrats are able to make an impact.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those folks can speak for themselves, and I can speak for myself, both as a survivor but as a politician. I think it is appalling whichever political party you're from, if you exploit people's vulnerabilities to try to score points. And I've seen politicians from various parties look smug on this kind of thing, celebrate some of these things insensitively as wins for their own party. And if they're really serious about getting to the bottom of this, then they need to explain why they didn't enact any of the 20 recommendations from Alexis J's report.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Leader of the opposition when she was the minister for children seemed not to mention this in the House of Commons at all.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've been scathing of populist politicians who try to exploit people's vulnerabilities and people's traumas for their own political ends. I mean, the scandal when it comes to grooming gangs and more widely child sexual abuse and exploitation has been a scandal that's plagued our country for quite some time. I haven't heard all of these folks give things due attention over the years when many campaigners, many victims and survivors have been screaming out for help, have been screaming out for example the 20 recommendations from the last major inquiries report to be implemented and so it feels very curious to me that there are some who decide that when it might suit them politically that they will make a song and dance about this but when they were in government including the Libra”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it depends what kind of impact we're talking about. I mean, if we're talking about catching media headlines through coming out with outlandish stuff, well, anyone could do that. And I could say any old thing right now. And it could be news tomorrow. But if you are talking about the impact for people on the ground, then just look at some of the things Liberal Democrats are achieving. Let's take the domestic abuse reform that we've talked about already. That's going to benefit thousands of survivors across the country. Another LibDem campaign by Max Wilkinson, the MP for Cheltenham, is around his sunshine bill, which the government have essentially adopted that will mean that new builds will be mandated to have solar panels installed as part of a rooftop solar revolution.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think we've got so much work to do, not just in the Liberal Democrats, to diversify our party, but across the political sphere altogether. And not just when it comes to ethnicity, but when you look at gender as well. We've got a record number of MPs who are women, record number who are from LGBT backgrounds like me, record number of folks from ethnic minority backgrounds. But of course we could go even further. And I think for all that the likes of reform and others say, diversity really is strength. I mean, you think about some of the great liberal thinkers like John Stuart Mill, they talk about how important it is to have as many views as possible kind of in the room to debate the ideas with a view to arriving at the kind of most strong one by the end. So I think it's in all our interest, in all parties.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I definitely think that role models are super important. And we've got many role models, not just at a parliamentary level, you know, in the House of Lords, we've got the likes of Fluella Benjamin, what a role model there, but also at local government level as well. We have some incredible councillors. And what I really want to do is kind of harness the talent and inspiration that they represent to ensure that the ladder is there for more folks.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know what? We have a lot of respect for each other. We're still in touch, still in touch now. She lobbies me on a number of issues. But it was important for it to be respectful. But it's so esporn. Esborn is one big village. And so it was almost unsurprising that there would be such a link between the likes of us competing.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right, Mrs. Ansel, my predecessor as the MP for eSpawn, was once my supply teacher for an hour of RE in room 116, covering for Mr. Taylor when I was in year 11, I think it was. And she taught me everything I know and look at what. What sort of gratitude was that?”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It wasn't quite. Which was, I should stress, a libd. That would be a good beer map. But I saw this beer mat. I wanted it. They wouldn't let me have it unless I joined. So my mate, Abby, paid for me to join. And so it began.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a bit of both. The graphic was quite cool and it had a slogan written on it in several different forms that I thought was clever wordplay. And I thought”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's it. Yeah, it was a total throwaway thing I went to a university freshers fair when I was about 17. It was an open day. I was studying A-level politics at that time. Had a look around. There was a Liberal Democrat stool and they had a really cool beer mat and I wanted it.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think it's about much more than that. I mean, you look at some of the core liberal and liberal Democrat values, thinking about and respecting that the individual and the community, in my view, has a far greater sense of what fulfills them than the market or the state. I think for that reason, it's important that we make sure that power lies with them. It's about accepting that power and cash is best dispensed by those who it is designed to serve. That's the liberal way. And that's the Liberal Democrat way. And that's why I remained a member of the party for so many years.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, exactly. And you're appealing to something that's important to them and to their values. And that's what's so important. And again, that's how we eradicate or minimize the role that luck plays in shaping people's respective courses and qualities of life. I think people should be able to go as far as their talents, their motivation, their commitment.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and it's about finding the right pitch. So when I was doing my work supporting folks out of gangs and crime, if I just approached folks when I was doing outreach out on the States, out on the States, tube at the clock at night into stairwells full of kids smoking weed and the rest and approach them and say, join the scouts or come and join my program. It's a no. If the approach is I can teach you to make money and I can teach you to do that by fixing phones. Will you let me do a demo right here right now? You're changing the nature of the conversation.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Eastbourne is the secret. My gorgeous hometown, I mean, I had incredible teachers who believed in me. And in fact, I quite recently got the chance to reunite with Mrs. Lynch, my year five teacher, who really turned things around for me. And I told her about the impact. I told her about some of the things that were going on at home that weren't necessarily clear back then and the impact that she had. But the likes of incredible scout leaders who challenged me and local businesses that took a punt on me. My first job was serving pizzas in a restaurant. I didn't know what I was doing. And I had a great community that lifted me. But there are many young people who I was working with when I was doing that work with young people involved in gangs and crime antisocial behavior who didn't have that around them or who weren't connected to that. And the only difference between them and I in that respect really”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On paper, and so I thought, well, I don't know how to repair a phone and I don't care for phone repair intrinsically, but it ticked the boxes and I was determined to make it work. And so the company was born.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Good question. I mean, the link is I was working with these folks, mainly lads in the East End, and I could see the income, belonging, self-worth, these were the key things that they wanted. But failing to see legitimate opportunities accessible to them to pursue those things that you or I might look for as well, Nick, they turned to crime as a place where they could get those things and gangs. I wanted to intercept that. And all of the evidence tells us that employment is one of the single biggest factors that can reduce someone's propensity to offend or to re-offend. So I was thinking, well, how do I support them towards employment? And many of them were saying, look, Josh, we're always pigeonholed into certain professions. And we're not really interested in those. What about technology? And so I thought, okay, how can I support them into the tech sector? So drew up a list of tech-based skills. Phone repair was sixth or something on the list. It ticks a lot of the boxes.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I was supporting kids out of gangs and out of crime, we had a saying or a practice known as relentless intervention. And this was the idea that you keep going back, you keep going back, even if you're pushed away by those who you're trying to influence or whose minds you're trying to change, you let them know that you're always going to be there so that when they are ready, when they've done their work and started to change their minds, they're ready to engage with you and hear what you got to say. That's what I've described.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly, but was not exempt in a way that she had thought he would be. In the end, things changed, but it was survivors like her. It was bringing together women's aid refuge, mankind, lots of organizations to put pressure on. And I took every opportunity, grabbing ministers down the corridor, in the tea room, sending them WhatsApps. James Thimpson was really helpful. Absolutely. In fact, when on the day that I was elected, I then heard that he was appointed to the Lord and I dusted off his number, hadn't messaged him in a good few years and said, oh my goodness, we're both parliamentarians now. Let's do some cool stuff.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think some of the real progress that we're able to make on this domestic abuse reform was, yes, as a result of getting ministers on board, and I was willing to call in any favour, any contact I had to try to make this happen. And I made it clear to ministers, I'm not letting go of this. I am not giving up. But I think the real power of the campaign came from it being driven so much by the experiences and insights of victims and survivors across the country. I mean, I think of people like Elizabeth Hudson who I launched this campaign with, she is a survivor who was originally told that her abuser, who was convicted of ABH, would qualify for the STS-40 early release scheme.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first things first, we've got to honour this commitment that the government's made to domestic abusers, that their perpetrators will not be released early. And we've got to get on top of the data. But ultimately, we need to row all the way back and look at why are our prisons overflowing in the first place. And when we look at that and when we investigate that question, just look at our prisons. I mean, 80% of people who are in there are people who have offended before. Prison is not working as a means of rehabilitation or reducing re-offending if it's producing those kind of outcomes. And so what I'm pushing the government to do, and I really draw on sort of my career supporting kids out of crime, out of gangs and into employment, what I'm pushing the government to do is to really focus on that reducing reoffending piece. Because David Gork's review was all about capacity and kind of supply.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is not over. So it's great after meetings with every minister going on this or raising it in the House of Commons with all of them, the Justice Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Victims Minister, the Prisons Minister, the Solicitor General, the Attorney General. The list goes on. I've secured working with all these amazing survivors, this commitment to try to achieve the same outcome as I was rooting for, but via slightly different means. And so what the government has said they'll do is introduce this specific categorization, but rather than at the beginning kind of an offence, it's tagged on at the sentencing stage. And so I'm pushing for the government to give confirmation that yes, that tag is something that we will use to exclude domestic abusers from any future early release scheme.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Didn't exist, which meant that if we're trying to figure out which interventions say are best at reducing offending among domestic abusers, the government doesn't have that information from its own figures. And also, it's got this amazing aim to try to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. But how on earth could a government pursue that aim or know that it's met it if it's not measuring? What are the key forms of violence against women?”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was it not currently possible to robustly calculate the number of domestic abusers in prison or their re-offending rate? The reason being there is no specific offence or no specific categorization.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. So the original proposal that I put forward was modelled on actually what we already do for racially and religiously aggravated crimes where you have that aggravation that kind of bolts onto an ABH or GBH or whatever kind of offence it is. I was proposing that we have a domestic abuse aggravated equivalent because we define domestic abuse in the law already. It's in the domestic abuse act 2021, but it doesn't specifically criminalise it as an offence. So this early release problem was the kind of key thing that drew my attention to this gap in the law. But then Nick on kind of more and more digging, it unraveled further. So a key thing I found, which I found shocking, was I asked the government, how many domestic abusers are there in prison and what is their reoffending rate? And the response that I got back in black and white, almost word for word,”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was no way of implementing that. And that was really heartbreaking for so many victims and survivors across the country who felt as though they had been granted that assurance by the government that their abusers were not going to be released early only to find out that they would be or that their abusers did qualify. And regardless of what anyone might think about whether it's right or not to exempt domestic abusers from early release, what cannot be debated is that if you make a commitment to victims and survivors, you better damn well keep it. And so I challenge the government on this and said, what are you going to do about it? I didn't feel that solutions were forthcoming. So I worked with victims and survivors and lawyers, but also amazing charities like women's aid, refuge and others to come up with a solution to try to patch this up.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the moment, there's no specific offence of domestic abuse in the law. Instead, domestic abusers tend to be convicted of crimes like actual bodily harm, ABH or GBH or assault, all sorts of other crimes. But the problem with that is that there's no way of distinguishing who is a domestic abuser and who isn't on the basis of that crime. A domestic abuser could go down for ABH, but so too could someone who's had a brawl in a pub with someone that they've never met before as a one-off. And so I really wanted to get to the bottom of this issue because there were all sorts of issues that were being created by there not being a specific categorization.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. I mean, I remember, you know, moments being in my room as a child upstairs, hearing doors slam, glasses smash, and I was crying under my covers, not really knowing if mum was okay amid all of the shouting and the rest that I could hear. And I'd go down the following morning and see a hoover smashed up as an example and that kind of stuff. It very much felt as a kind of culture at home, that kind of thing.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I had a few chats about it. I mean, she's fantastic and ultimately said, Josh, this is your story. These are experiences that you have been through. And if there's something that you want to do with those experiences, I don't want to stop you talking about them. I want you to do what you feel you need to do with them. But it was so important for me and mum to have that discussion. I really wanted to raise that with her because, yes, while these are things that I've experienced, it's our shared story as a domestic abuse at home for all that time is a shared experience and it was so important to have her blessing to speak about this.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She wanted to protect me when I was born she was nineteen years old and after she separated from my lovely dad, it was just her and I for a period of time. And all the way through everything that we've been through together since, we went through so many of these things together. And so I think she felt as though she had let me down. And well, I want her to know that she absolutely has not. And she's made me the man I am.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And a principal reason aside from the kind of shame, really, that I felt was thinking about my mum and thinking about the guilt that she would feel on recognizing that this happened to me. And I'll never forget when I told her, when I was in her mid-20s, and her words were I had just one job. Yeah, that will never leave me that moment, nor my mum. And we are so solid. She's so incredible. But that is what I was fearing as well.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was thoroughly moving. Michelle Thompson, then SMP MP for Edinburgh West. And yeah, she got up in the winter of 2016 and spoke about her experience of being a survivor of rape. And she said in her speech, I am not a victim. I am a survivor. And that really changed a lot of things for me. And at that time, all sorts of things were happening. You had men who were former footballers who spoke about the abuse that they were subject to at the hands of their former coach. And all of this kind of stuff was moving a lot inside me. I was a victim of all sorts of abuse when I was growing up as a child. And I swore that I would not speak about it to myself. And these experiences and speeches like Michelle Thompson's. Really encouraged me to do so.”
2025-07-11 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Josh Babarinde One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source