The Moggcast: Episode Eighty One, Tuesday 13th December 2022

The Protocol: "I don't know why Sunak has spent so much political capital without getting the DUP and ERG onside first" Plus: How a Remain win in the referendum would have given us Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage - and why "Putin probably would have succeeded" in invading Ukraine.

Brexit - and how Corbyn saved Britain from "a government of all the non-talents" Rees-Mogg on Cameron, Vote Leave, No Deal, May's Deal, Johnson's Deal, Gove's leadership bid - and whether a Remain view of Britain shaped the reception of Kwarteng's mini-Budget.

NHS reform. The Conservatives should learn from Wes Streeting. And "we should encourage people to use private health." Plus: How the Tory "nimby tendency" killed housing reform. Why leadership contest this year would be "completely scatty". And those who "scribble" criticism of Johnson are "fundamentally dull".

In defence of Johnson’s premiership. Our interviewee says that a feature of one-to-one meetings with the former Prime Minister is that the other party would sometimes believe commitments had been made when they hadn't.

"These rebellions are ill advised...You don't help your own seat by making life difficult for the Government." Our interviewee on why he regrets the top rate tax U-turn, backs the radical abolition of tax reliefs, and thinks Chief Whips "can't resign, really" - as he recalls the fracking vote.

The Truss premiership, part one. Rees-Mogg on the alternative energy support plan he preferred. Our interviewee on what went wrong - featuring Boris Johnson, the Bank of England, the OBR, pension funds, Kit Malthouse, why the Covid and energy support schemes were justified... and where the Government didn't act urgently enough.

Rees-Mogg says that Johnson should have the opportunity to stand again for the leadership if he wishes. Our interviewee on how he's "extremely unlikely" to stand for the leadership - plus the Sex Pistols, Sunak's failings, Gove, Zahawi's "mistake", why he opposes HS2, who he might vote for and how he would deliver tax cuts.

Are these by-election defeats the prelude to a 1992 surprise - or a 1997 catastrophe? Plus: Rees-Mogg and Henry Hill discuss the proper limits of the Bank of England's independence.

The Cabinet Office Minister on the benefits of Brexit. Plus: why Ministers aren't under an obligation to vote for the Party Leader in a confidence ballot.

Civil servants' "trade union seems to want them to be in Tuscany to call into work" The Cabinet Office Minister on the Baxdendale Report, returns to Thatcherism and why he was right to say Partygate is "disproportionate fluff".