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Political Fix

A year of Keir

Political Fix

Financial Times

News, Politics, News & Politics

4.21.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week marks a year of Keir Starmer’s government. But if Labour was expecting to celebrate the anniversary – it didn't pan out that way. Despite claiming a narrow victory with the contentious welfare bill, the government appeared to have one of its roughest weeks on record. Host George Parker is joined by Stephen Bush, Miranda Green and Robert Shrimsley to discuss how Labour got here, and where it can go next. To mark the occasion, they are also joined by a cut-price supermarket cake.  


Follow George on Bluesky or X: @georgewparker.bsky.social, @GeorgeWParker; Robert @robertshrimsley, @robertshrimsley.bsky.social; Miranda @greenmirandahere.bsky.social; Stephen @stephenkb.bsky.social‬, @stephenkb 


What did you think of this episode? Let us know at politicalfix@ft.com  


Want more? Free links:   

  

How Keir Starmer fumbled his first year in power


Why Starmer and Reeves got this one wrong


Robert’s column: Crying for a lost Labour government


Which UK taxes are expected to rise in the autumn budget? 


Sign up here for 30 days free of Stephen Bush's Inside Politics newsletter. 


Presented by George Parker, and produced by Lulu Smyth. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Original music and mix by Breen Turner. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Manuela Saragosa. 


Read a transcript of this podcast on FT.com


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Political Fix from the Financial Times with me, George Parker.

0:08.0

We're exactly one year into Kirstarmer's Labour government. Normally a first anniversary is a course

0:13.9

for celebration, but there weren't any party poppers going off in number 10 this week. By contrast,

0:19.5

it might just have been the roughest week this government has faced so far

0:22.5

as they narrowly pushed through their bill on welfare reform.

0:26.6

Well, what was left of it?

0:28.2

Their so-called victory, 75 votes, came with the price tag of £5 billion,

0:33.8

the cost of the concessions to Labour rebels.

0:36.4

It was certainly not enough to put a smile on

0:38.4

the Chancellor's face the next day at PMQs. She looks absolutely miserable. The fact is Labour MPs

0:46.2

are going on the record saying that the Chancellor is toast and the reality is that she is a human

0:50.9

shield for his incompetent. That was Kemi Badernock, reveling in the Chancellor's discomfort,

0:57.3

asking Stama if he would back Rachel Reeves until the next election.

1:01.0

But Stama dodged the question.

1:03.5

Mr Speaker, I have to say, I'm always cheered up when she asked me questions

1:06.9

or responds to a statement because she always makes a complete mess of it

1:10.7

and shows just how

1:11.4

un-serious and irrelevant they are.

1:14.6

One person who certainly wasn't cheered up, his Chancellor, sat behind the Prime Minister, wiping

1:19.3

the tears from her eyes.

1:21.3

So where does the Labour government go from here?

1:23.5

And how far have they fallen from where they were just 12 months ago?

...

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