Blue Labour is splitting the party
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour is splitting.
Earlier this week we reported that the government is now THIRD in the opinion polls behind Reform and the Tories.
Now, as they barrel inexorably towards testing local elections in May, rifts are emerging within the Labour party.
This week, Preet Kaur Gill – a personal private secretary to Home Secretary Shabhana Mahmood – announced in the Telegraph, of all places, that she (Preet Kaur Gill) is “Blue Labour”.
The intervention sparked fierce debate among MPs, with divisions down ideological lines.
Can the party hold it together?
Oli Dugmore is joined by Ethan Croft, who has been speaking to Labour MPs this week, and Megan Kenyon.
LISTEN NEXT: It's official – Labour are in third place
LISTEN AD-FREE:
📱Download the New Statesman app
MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:
❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday
⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning
✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:05.0 | Labor is splitting. |
| 0:06.9 | Earlier this week, we reported that the government is now third in the opinion polls behind reform and the Tories. |
| 0:13.3 | Now, as they barrel inexorably towards testing local elections in May, rifts are emerging within the Labour Party. |
| 0:20.1 | This week, Preet Coal Gill, |
| 0:22.2 | a parliamentary private secretary to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, announced in the |
| 0:26.9 | telegraph of all places that she, preke Rill, is, quote, blue labour. The intervention sparked |
| 0:34.4 | fierce debate among MPs with divisions along ideological lines. Can the party hold it together? How is it going to impact the Labour Party? Well, I'm here with Ethan Croft, who's been speaking to Labour MPs this week and Megan Kenyon. Hello, Ethan. Hello, Megan. Hi. Hi. Hello. Let's kick it off. What's prompted this intervention? Why has Prereet written this piece for the Tayloroff? What's going on, Ethan? |
| 0:58.0 | Well, she wanted to set out of her stall. She wanted to talk about what she called a politics that I think it was based in people's communities, has some moral seriousness. |
| 1:08.7 | Lots of the kind of talking points which have been associated with |
| 1:10.9 | Morris Glassman, who's the sort of intellectual, you know, Godfather, guru, whatever. |
| 1:16.3 | The guy who's kind of been, he's been behind Blue Labor since it was founded in 2009, back in |
| 1:22.2 | the days of Gordon Brown. But yeah, so she was coming out and saying, look, this is my, this is, |
| 1:26.8 | this is what I believe. |
| 1:29.6 | Because the B. Labor sort of started as a group outside parliament, and now it has more MPs than it's ever had before. |
| 1:35.9 | Some people say, sort of there's not really an exact figure, but some people, |
| 1:39.8 | ambitiously say that there are more than 20 of them, but they're at least more than 10. |
| 1:44.9 | Megan, I was speaking to a former number 10 figure, serious number 10 figure this week, |
| 1:52.7 | who was quite surprised, taking aback perhaps, to see Preet talk about being a blue labour figure. |
| 2:00.8 | What was your reaction when you saw this piece? Did you see it coming? Is it... Pre-talk about being a blue labour figure. |
| 2:03.0 | What was your reaction when you saw this piece? |
| 2:04.3 | Did you see it coming? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Statesman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Statesman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.