Blair is talking sense on this Lefty Labour Party, and Starmer should listen to save them
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uXkk5GHpPE4
This week on Planet Normal, your co-pilots of sanity, Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson, dive into a political landscape dominated by explosive leadership interventions and growing institutional scandal. Following a dramatic local election period, the duo analyzes a scathing 5,000-word essay by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has openly lacerated his own party for what he calls an “infinite capacity for self-delusion”.
Liam details the escalating fiscal warning signs rattling the British establishment. He warns that despite a temporary dip in the UK inflation rate to 2.8%, it is on track to hit 5% later this year. With long-term government borrowing costs flirting with 30-year highs, Liam argues that cosmetic fixes like supermarket price controls and rollercoaster VAT cuts will do nothing to soothe terrified sovereign bond markets.
Meanwhile Allison shares her assessment of the Scottish National Party following the sensational embezzlement guilty plea of its former chief executive.
This week’s stowaway on the rocket is serial entrepreneur and hospitality titan Luke Johnson, who shares a powerful breakdown of how Britain is currently navigating life under what he defines as a “highly damaging socialist government”.
Highlights
- Blair is talking sense on this Lefty Labour Party, and Starmer should listen to save them
- Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting threats to his leadership as ideological factions fracture the Labour Party.
- Looming fiscal disaster deepens as the UK inflation rate is projected to climb back toward 5%.
- The SNP establishment faces total mockery following the sensational embezzlement fallout of its leadership.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.0 | Tony Blair now emerged as by far the best leadership contestant in the race to become Labour |
| 0:17.0 | Prime Minister. |
| 0:18.3 | Four. |
| 0:19.4 | They care about the Labour Party before they care about the country. |
| 0:23.3 | Three. |
| 0:24.7 | So do us all a favour, mate, and call a general election. |
| 0:29.7 | Two. |
| 0:31.0 | We have socialists in charge who keep putting up taxes. |
| 0:34.7 | One. |
| 0:38.2 | We have lift-off. We have left off. |
| 0:41.3 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal, the Telegraph podcast with Alison Pearson. |
| 0:45.3 | Hello. |
| 0:46.1 | And me, Liam Halligan. |
| 0:48.3 | The Labour Party is playing with fire with its future and that of the country. |
| 0:52.4 | Like many progressive parties, it has an almost infinite |
| 0:55.4 | capacity for self-delusion. It has no properly thought through analysis of how the world is |
| 1:00.6 | changing and what that means for policies. Who's words are these, Alison? Nigel Farage of |
| 1:06.1 | reform? Kemmy Badenock? Rishi Sunak? No, these are the words of Tony Blair, |
| 1:11.9 | Prime Minister from 1997 to 2008, |
| 1:14.8 | winner of three general elections. |
| 1:17.0 | And yet Blair's penned a 5,000-word essay |
... |
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