Labour party

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: BBC vs Trump, a plot against Starmer and a weight loss deadline for North Sea oil workers

Home Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, resigned, as did Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News. Samir Shah, the chairman of the BBC, apologised for an ‘error of judgment’ in the editing by Panorama of a speech by President Donald Trump that made it look as though he was urging people to attack the Capitol in January 2021. This had been criticised in a 19-page memorandum to the BBC board by Michael Prescott, a former standards adviser, who also set out failings over Gaza and transgender matters. The leaked memo was published by the Telegraph. Trump wrote to the BBC threatening to sue it ‘for $1 billion’; he

Tim Shipman

Inside the Wes Streeting plot

Keir Starmer is stuck in a catch-22. If he is to avoid the threat of continual leadership challenges, the Prime Minister will need to deal with what every poll shows are the public’s three overriding concerns: the cost of living, rampant illegal immigration and the state of the NHS. But if serious progress is made in any of these areas, it is likely to turn the minister responsible into a viable leadership candidate. Let’s call it catch-25. Rachel Reeves at the Treasury has a monumental task and is politically tied to the Starmer project, so she can be ruled out. Of the other two key issues, most progress has been

Wednesday

Tim Shipman

The most bizarre PMQs ever

15 min listen

In a crowded field, today’s could have been the most bizarre PMQs ever. From David Lammy pronouncing ‘I am the Justice Secretary’ as if it were an affirmation to be chanted in the bathroom mirror, to the wild hair on display on both benches, it surely takes the mantle of parliament at its most ridiculous – and that’s not to mention the story that another convict has escaped from prison. Has David Lammy got a grip on mistaken prison release? And – more importantly – does he have the support of his colleagues? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Tuesday

James Heale

Reeves prepares the public for tax hikes

11 min listen

It is three weeks until the Budget – and Rachel Reeves wants to get her narrative out there. The Chancellor held an early morning press conference today to, in her words, ‘set out the circumstances and the principles’ guiding her thinking on 26 November. Her speech followed a familiar pattern. First, there was the evisceration of the ‘austerity’, ‘reckless borrowing’ and ‘stop go of public investment’ which characterised the last 14 years. In her 25-minute speech in Downing Street, one line in particular stood out: ‘If we are to build the future of Britain together’, Reeves said, ‘we will all have to contribute to that effort. Each of us must

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Hurricane hits Jamaica, Plaid reigns in Caerphilly and sex offender gets £500 to leave Britain

Home An Iranian man who arrived on a small boat and was deported to France on 19 September under the one in, one out scheme returned to England on another small boat. Hadush Kebatu, the migrant whose arrest for sexual assault sparked weeks of protests outside the Bell hotel in Epping where he was living, was freed by mistake from Chelmsford prison; he was arrested two days later and given £500 to be deported to Ethiopia. The Home Office ‘squandered’ billions on a ‘failed, chaotic and expensive’ system of asylum accommodation, a Commons home affairs committee report found. Some 900 of the 32,000 asylum-seekers in hotels might be rehoused in

Saturday

Oscar Edmondson

Has Starmer misled parliament? Plus Lucy Powell wins

14 min listen

We thought when we organised this podcast that there would just be the newly announced deputy Labour leader to discuss – Lucy Powell beat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by 87,407 votes to 73,536. But instead we also have evidence the Prime Minister may have lied to Parliament over the collapse of the China spy case, and there is a manhunt under way to recapture a dangerous criminal released by mistake. Bad news clearly comes in threes for No. 10: Lucy Powell was not their pick for the job; lying to Parliament is the kind of thing that the ministerial code is quite clear on; and the criminal in question is

Friday

James Heale

Antisemitism, Chinese spies & GB's economic fragility

14 min listen

It’s been a rough week for the government: the row over the collapsed Chinese spy trial has rolled on, all while the Chancellor has been trying to lay the groundwork ahead of next month’s budget. Then, overnight, another issue has emerged as fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team have been banned from attending a football game against Aston Villa next month, leading to accusations of antisemitism. Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons join James Heale to discuss the day’s developments. Tim reveals how the Chinese spy row has been picked up by American legislators, threatening to undermine the Five Eyes security alliance. Meanwhile Michael points out that the news

Thursday

Nick Boles

Ukraine must stand as a fortress of European freedom

It is 35 years since I was last in Warsaw and the city is unrecognisable. Back then it was grimy and depressing, full of buildings still pockmarked by bomb damage. Nothing worked and nobody smiled. Now it gleams. The historic Old Town has been lovingly rebuilt and restored. Everything else is new: the cars, the shops, the office blocks and apartment buildings. The fashions are sharp and the teeth are white. It is a powerful tonic for beleaguered liberals. Don’t let the democracy-in-decline-mongers deceive you. Economic and political freedom work. And what the world needs is more of both. In the early 1990s I was sent as a wet-behind-the ears

Tuesday

Tim Shipman

China spy scandal: 'a masterclass of ineptitude'?

13 min listen

Tim Shipman and Charles Parton, China adviser at the Council on Geostrategy, join James Heale to discuss the ongoing fallout over the collapse of the Westminster spy case. Security minister Dan Jarvis answered an urgent question on the matter late on Monday in Parliament, stringently denying that the government played an active role in collapsing the case. But, as Charles and Tim stress, the case still doesn’t add up. Is it as simple as the government not wanting to offend China? And is the deputy national security adviser being ‘hung out to dry’? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Monday

Oscar Edmondson

Spy scandal: what is Labour's policy on China?

15 min listen

It’s a ‘great and beautiful day’, as Donald Trump wrote in the guestbook at the Knesset, where he will address the Israeli parliament after the final hostages were handed back to Israel. It is, of course, a historic piece of diplomacy, and the conversation in Westminster has turned to the extent to which the UK was involved. Bridget Phillipson claimed over the weekend that Britain played a ‘key role’ in bringing about peace – much to the chagrin of Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador to Israel, who called her ‘delusional’. Is she? The government have more pressing issues, however, with the collapsed China spy case – the sudden abandonment of

Alec Marsh

Bring back elitism

Elitism has had a bad press in recent years. The concept has, alas, been tainted by its association with the numerous elites who have corrupted it by allowing self-interest and prejudice to become self-perpetuating. It’s been sullied by its association with old school ties and masonic-style handshakes – by closed networks which work to exclude those who happen to fall outside the pre-determined in-group. So no wonder we don’t like it any more. Who would? But its gravest sin of all has been its role in pulling up the drawbridge to protect privilege in general, through a kind of unspoken fish-knife test. If you don’t know what it’s for, you

Friday

Michael Gove

Manchester attack: Michael Gove on the rise of antisemitism

24 min listen

On today’s Coffee House Shots, Tim Shipman is joined by Michael Gove to reflect on the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, which left two people dead. They discuss how the Jewish community has long warned of rising anti-Semitism, often forced to fund its own security, and how inflammatory rhetoric on recent pro-Palestinian marches has deepened the sense of vulnerability. Michael warns that Britain remains naive about Islamist ideology and risks only ever reacting to violence, rather than preventing it. While there are capable people in government and the security services, he says, real leadership is needed to confront the ideology that fuels attacks before more tragedies occur.

Wednesday

Patrick Gibbons

Labour's deputy divisions: insider vs outsider?

14 min listen

Tim Shipman and Claire Ainsley from the Progressive Policy Institute join Patrick Gibbons to reflect on Labour’s party conference as it draws to a close in Liverpool. This conference has been received positively for Labour but, on the final day, a hustings for the deputy leadership demonstrated that divides remain under the surface. Is Lucy Powell versus Bridget Phillipson a case of left versus right in the party, or is it more about the outsider versus the insider? And, as a leading political commentator declares Labour to now be the ‘party of the professional middle class’, what does the contest tell us about who Labour needs to appeal to? Produced

Michael Gove

Is Labour ‘racist’ too? Plus Trump’s Gaza gamble & Rowling vs Watson

48 min listen

This week, Michael and Maddie report from the Labour party conference in Liverpool and unpick Keir Starmer’s big speech. Was his attempt to reclaim patriotism for Labour a genuine statement of values – or a clumsy exercise in stereotypes about steelworkers, chip shops and football nostalgia? And why does Labour’s attack line on Nigel Farage risk sounding like political ‘nuclear warfare’ that could backfire outside the conference hall? And what about the Tories? With Labour bringing the fight to the Reform party, where does this leave Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives ahead of their conference later this week? They then turn to Donald Trump’s extraordinary new Middle East peace initiative.

Friday

Travis Aaroe

When Curtis Yarvin met Alastair Campbell

A video has been doing the rounds in which a woman holds an iguana up to the glass window of an aquarium. A beluga whale emerges from the murk. For a brief moment two creatures whose very existence is incomprehensible to each other – who would never, in millions of years, have met but for this precise set of circumstances – come nose to nose. The whale then turns, and is gone. Something similar occurred on stage at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival on Sunday, where Alastair Campbell interviewed Curtis Yarvin – a ‘neo-reactionary’ blogger, tech entrepreneur and court theorist to J.D. Vance. He has argued for a form of monarchy in

Thursday

Luke Tryl

Starmer's make-or-break conference

13 min listen

Labour conference kicks off this weekend in Liverpool – but the mood going in is far from triumphant. On today’s Coffee House Shots, Lucy Dunn is joined by Tim Shipman and More in Common’s Luke Tryl to take the temperature ahead of Labour’s big set-piece. They discuss why some voters already see Starmer as ‘just as bad as the lot that came before’, and whether Labour can turn things around with new policies aimed at revitalising local communities – from saving libraries and pubs to giving residents more power over development. There is also a fascinating hypothetical poll in which an Andy Burnham-led Labour party outpaces Reform UK, turning a

William Moore

Labour’s Terminator, Silicon Valley’s ‘Antichrist’ obsession & can charity shops survive?

37 min listen

First: who has the Home Secretary got in her sights? Political editor Tim Shipman profiles Shabana Mahmood in the Spectator’s cover article this week. Given Keir Starmer’s dismal approval ratings, politicos are consumed by gossip about who could be his heir-apparent – even more so, following Angela Rayner’s defenestration a few weeks ago. Mahmood may not be the most high-profile of the Starmer movement, but she is now talked about alongside Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham as a potential successor to Starmer. But – it all depends on what she can achieve at the Home Office. So, who does she have in her sights? Tim joined the podcast Next: why

The Spectator

This is Shabana Mahmood’s moment

What is the point of Keir Starmer? He was the means by which the Labour party could suffocate the hard left and assume the mantle of respectability and, in due course, power. But he lacked, and has never acquired, a governing philosophy. He was handed a landslide by an electorate determined to eject the Conservatives from office with ruthless force. Yet he has contrived to forfeit the authority it lent him and now rivals the government he supplanted in unpopularity and lack of direction. The men and women who engineered his ascent to the leadership, and delivered the majority he has acquired but does not command, have always known his

Thursday

Peter Jones

Cicero’s tips for the Labour party

Labour may be in a bit of a mess, but Cicero (d. 43 bc) has some top tips. ‘Let conscience and scrupulous regard for the right take precedence over the obligations of friendship.’ ‘The person who corrupts his audience by words commits a graver crime than the man who does so by bribery. For even a virtuous man could be corrupted by words, but not by a bribe.’ ‘People who argue that advantage is one thing and right another are uprooting nature’s fundamental principles. Obviously, we all aim at our own advantage: we find that irresistibly attractive. No one can possibly work against his own interests – indeed no one

Tuesday

James Heale

Will Trump's state visit save Starmer?

12 min listen

Keir Starmer has lost another aide, MPs are debating what the Prime Minister knew about Mandelson’s links to Epstein and a new poll has Lucy Powell as the favourite to win Labour’s deputy leadership race against education secretary Bridget Phillipson. Could things be any worse for Starmer? With US President Donald Trump touching down at London Stansted tonight, the PM will be hoping the state visit provides an opportunity to draw a line under the past few weeks. But Trump is anything but predictable, and he likes a winner – will ‘The Donald’ sour on Starmer? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.