When politicians fight the law and the law wins

As Mike Amesbury bows out of his career as a Labour MP after being caught on tape assaulting a constituent, this week’s episode of Westminster Insider goes inside politicians’ wrangles with the law.

Host Sascha O’Sullivan finds out if winding up in front of a judge can ever be survivable for a politician — high-profile or not. She talks to former Lib Dem advisor Sean Kemp about how the case of Chris Huhne, climate secretary during the coalition years, triggered a by-election which almost threatened the leadership of Nick Clegg.

Fergus Mutch, former director of communications to the Scottish National Party, recalls being a witness in the trial of his former boss, Alex Salmond, who was eventually acquitted of charges of sexual assault in 2020. Mutch says the Salmond trial and the internal warfare it triggered did huge amounts of damage to the SNP.

And Sascha turns to the sensational hush money trial of Donald Trump in the midst of the 2024 presidential election campaign. She talks to Michael Martins, a former senior advisor to the US embassy in the U.K., and Sarah Elliot, the spokesperson for Republicans overseas about how Trump eventually used the trial to his advantage.

Sascha looks at how Marine Le Pen is using a similar playbook to Trump, with a trial against her helping galvanise her support base.

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