Did Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves mislead us?
Electoral Dysfunction
Sky News
4.4 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The chancellor is being accused of "lying" over what she knew and when ahead of her budget – so did Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer actually mislead the public?
Beth walks us through a detailed timeline of the OBR forecasts, the so-called "black hole", and why journalists now feel they were given only half the story. Ruth and Harriet weigh in on political honesty, the dangers of selective briefing, and why trust between the government, the media and the public is fraying fast.
Plus, former Number10 director of communications Matthew Doyle joins the trio to discuss Labour's early months in power, the turbulence around political messaging, and how governments lose (and can rebuild) narrative control.
Send us your messages and Christmas-themed questions on WhatsApp at 07934 200 444 or email electoraldysfunction@sky.uk.
And if you didn’t know, you can also watch Beth, Harriet and Ruth on YouTube.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Financial advice from St James's Place sponsors electrical dysfunction. |
| 0:04.4 | At Total Energy's, we are staying the course of our transition strategy. |
| 0:09.1 | How? By relying on our strengths, our people, our technical skills and our ability to innovate. |
| 0:16.2 | Total Energy's is producing oil and gas and generating electricity from offshore wind, which will help meet the UK's energy needs. |
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| 0:46.6 | Sky News, the full story first. |
| 1:03.6 | The next. Hello and welcome to Electoral Disfunction from Sky News with me, Beth Rigby. |
| 1:05.9 | Me Ruth Davidson and me Harriet Harmon. |
| 1:10.2 | Now, hello everyone, it's raining outside but we're cosy in here. |
| 1:19.4 | Now, Harriet, I just want to check in with you because your corridor velocity and political mood, which I'm now obsessed with, |
| 1:29.8 | and about how quickly MPs are walking around Parliament, I think we've created a new level of this game, or this observation rather, because there was a photo shoot that went viral this week. And Harriet, I'm not going to ask you to describe it, |
| 1:37.5 | but I do want you to look at it. Ruth, can you describe it to everyone? Yeah, so there's a picture of |
| 1:42.8 | David Lamy, and I mean, he looks utterly defeated. He's got his hands on a table in this court, so there's a picture of David Lamy and I mean he looks utterly defeated. |
| 1:45.8 | He's got his hands on a table in this court and he's got his head, like his forehead, just lying |
| 1:50.4 | on his hands. And he's like he's impeccably dressed. His suit looks sharp. You can tell that he's like |
| 1:54.7 | really got a nicely ironed shirt underneath it. But he just looks utterly done in, just completely |
| 2:00.5 | defeated. This photo, and I'm looking at done in, just completely defeated. |
| 2:01.7 | This photo, and I'm looking at it now, if you go on YouTube, you'll be able to see it, |
| 2:06.2 | we'll pop it up there. |
| 2:08.1 | But this photo, I think it's kind of how I feel for the entirety of December, actually. |
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