Angela’s ambitions
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Angela Rayner heaped scorn on Sir Keir Starmer’s administration this week, fuelling fresh scrutiny of her ambitions. Does she want to return to cabinet or seize the reins? The former deputy prime minister issued a stark warning that the government is running out of time to change direction under Starmer, while also attempting to court the City. At the same time, the Greens continue to beat Labour in the polls with an unabashedly socialist platform.
Does all this signal the government will shift left?
Host Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s political editor George Parker, political correspondent Anna Gross, and Inside Politics columnist Stephen Bush to unpack what it all means. Plus FT US national editor Ed Luce shares insights on how he caught up with Donald Trump on his mobile this week.
Follow: Lucy on X: @LOS_Fisher, and Bluesky: @lucyfisher.ft.com George: @GeorgeWParker and @georgewparker.bsky.social; Stephen: @stephenkb and @stephenkb.bsky.social and Anna: @AnnaSophieGross and @annasophiegross.bsky.social
Want more?
Is the Green Party too radical for Britain?
Labour’s leftward shift and the bond vigilante threat
British right must not allow prejudice to be masked as principle
Starmer calls on Badenoch to sack shadow minister over Muslim prayer comments
Donald Trump warns Nato faces ‘very bad future’ if allies fail to help US in Iran
Sign up here for Stephen Bush's morning newsletter Inside Politics for straight-talking insight into the stories that matter, plus puns and tongue (mostly) in cheek. Get 30 days free.
Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Our email address is politicalfix@ft.com
Clip: BBC
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Prime Minister wants to talk about my leadership. I'm shocked because his former deputy has just fired the starting gun on the race to replace him. And I'll tell him one thing. She and I both agree that this weak man to be replaced by a strong woman. |
| 0:15.9 | Tory leader, Kemi Badernock there, relishing the opportunity to needle secure Stama about Angela Raina's ambitions. |
| 0:22.6 | The former Labour Deputy Prime Minister chose to make a savage intervention this week, |
| 0:27.6 | warning that the government is running out of time to change direction under Stama. |
| 0:31.6 | So what's Rainer's game? |
| 0:33.6 | And as the Greens continue to rise up the polls with an unabashedly socialist agenda, |
| 0:39.3 | is the government set to shift left. Welcome to Political Fix from the Financial Times with me, |
| 0:45.3 | Lucy Fisher. To discuss this and the broader impact of both main parties being tempted to drift |
| 0:51.1 | to the extremes, I'm joined in the studio by my FT colleagues political editor George Parker. Hi, George. Hello, Lucy. Political correspondent Anna Gross. Hi, Anna. Hi, Lucy. And columnist and writer of the Inside Politics newsletter, Stephen Bush. Hi, Stephen. Hi, Lucy. And later in the show, I'll be catching up on Trump and the latest on Iran with our US national editor, Ed Luce, |
| 1:11.9 | who now has the president on speed dial. |
| 1:18.6 | Let's kick off talking about Angela Rainer, certainly taking centre stage in the political sense this |
| 1:25.1 | week. Stephen, give us the lowdown on what she actually said. |
| 1:29.0 | So Angela Raina, addressing mainstream, which is one of the newer ginger groups in the Labour Party, |
| 1:33.8 | sort of in the middle of the Labour Party, said Kirstama is running out of time to turn things around, |
| 1:39.6 | but also crucially in terms of the direction of the government, that their plans to change indefinite leave to remain. |
| 1:45.7 | So to change how long you have to have been in the United Kingdom to claim it were un-British |
| 1:50.9 | because they represent a changing of the rules. |
| 1:53.5 | These aren't being changed for someone who arrives in the United Kingdom tomorrow. |
| 1:58.0 | Someone who has been in the United Kingdom for four and a half years now faces having the |
| 2:02.6 | time they would have to spend be essentially tripled or quadrupled in some cases. |
| 2:07.4 | And I think that was the biggest event in terms of what she said. |
| 2:10.5 | And it signalled to lots of people in Labour Party, oh, Angela really is running. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Financial Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Financial Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.