Call the Cabinet: Groundbreaking new show launches with Matt Hancock - watch in full

7 September 2020, 05:24 | Updated: 7 September 2020, 13:00

Matt Hancock takes your calls live on LBC | Call The Cabinet with Nick Ferrari

By Asher McShane

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has featured in the first programme in LBC's new phone-in Call The Cabinet today - watch back in full.

Call the Cabinet will give LBC listeners the chance to regularly put their questions directly to a senior member of the Cabinet, live on national radio.

The new phone-in starts this morning on the station’s biggest programme, Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.

A different senior member of the government will regularly go head-to-head with LBC’s listeners on the big issues that matter to them, with no topic off-limits.

The Health Secretary told LBC: "I'm really looking forward to it. I've found that engaging directly with the public on programmes like yours is incredibly important, especially in these unprecedented times.

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"I love being out and about and talking to the public and doing it on the radio will allow everybody to hear the conversation."

Nick Ferrari said: “It will be as if you’re sitting at the Cabinet table, and once again shows the pulling power of LBC and its listeners, as they hold to account those in power."

Mr Hancock will follow in the footsteps of other political heavyweights including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted a monthly phone-in when he was Mayor of London, as well as the former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who took part in a weekly programme – the first time that a senior member of government faced the public on a radio show each week about the decisions being made in Downing Street.

Tom Cheal, LBC’s managing editor, said: “Yet again, LBC is the leading the way in British broadcasting with the launch of Call the Cabinet – the first time that a different member of the Cabinet will take part in a monthly phone-in on UK radio."

"Our listeners always take centre stage, so we are excited to continue leading Britain’s conversation by providing them with a new platform to question and challenge our political leaders, especially in these extraordinary times.”