Celtic fringe benefits?
Red Lines
BBC
4.4 • 78 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What impact might three nationalist first ministers have on UK politics? Mark Carruthers talks to Tom Kelly, Prof Jon Tonge and Prof Ailsa Henderson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Is Kirstehr Stomber in his last days as Prime Minister? |
| 0:09.1 | We're recording this red lines just before half-past three on Wednesday afternoon. |
| 0:13.4 | The King's speech is behind us. |
| 0:15.7 | Wes Streeting had his 17-minute coffee with the PM this morning, |
| 0:19.8 | and the latest reports suggest he's told his allies he's now preparing to resign and trigger a leadership contest as soon as tomorrow. |
| 0:27.1 | There's been a lot of speculation and supposition in the past 72 hours, and some of it has been right. |
| 0:32.7 | But as we speak, it seems reasonable to suggest that Keir Stomers' tenure as Labour leader and Prime Minister |
| 0:38.5 | can't be guaranteed, though he does seem determined to dig in at this stage. |
| 0:44.2 | And then the other issue thrown up by last week's election results in GB, which seem to spark |
| 0:49.6 | Stormers' critics into action, is the changing political landscape in Scotland and Wales, and the fact that three nationalist first ministers now head up devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Though as we know, it's far from straightforward. We'll come on to that later, but we'll start at Westminster and we'll hear from Tony Blair's former spokesman when he was in number 10, Tom Kelly, in a moment. |
| 1:12.0 | But first, let's have a word with Professor John Tong from the University of Liverpool and Professor |
| 1:16.7 | Ilsa Henderson from the University of Edinburgh. |
| 1:19.7 | Welcome to both of you. |
| 1:21.8 | Thank you for joining us on Red Lines. |
| 1:24.2 | John, some of the speculation has been breathless, let's say. Some of it has turned |
| 1:29.2 | out to be plain wrong. What's your thinking as we record this conversation? Well, it seems |
| 1:34.2 | more probable or not that West Streeting will launch a challenge. We've not heard from West |
| 1:38.3 | Streeting at this stage himself, so this may not come to pass, but Westreating is very, very ambitious and there are |
| 1:46.3 | clear incentives for West Streeting to strike now, not least because the longer he waits, |
| 1:52.1 | the big of the chance that Andy Burnham may find Westminster seat and head there and all the |
| 1:56.7 | survey evidence amongst Labour MPs and indeed those Labour members who will choose the next |
... |
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