Ending in tears: Labour’s first year in government

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It is one year since the general election brought Labour back to government and since Keir Starmer walked into Number 10. Instead of a smooth anniversary, the government has been forced to confront a major parliamentary rebellion and roll back on a flagship spending policy. So how has Labour’s first year in power really worked out for Keir Starmer? What lessons can they learn for the challenges ahead? Jill Rutter, Claire Ainsley and Sam Freedman join Hannah White to weigh up the government’s highs and lows - and what comes next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Hannah White.
0:13.8	Well, a year is a long time in politics, isn't it? It's 365 days since the general election,
0:19.6	since Labour returned to government after 14 years in opposition and since Kirstarmer moved into Number 10 Downing Street.
0:26.3	There can't be many worse ways for a government to mark its first anniversary than by facing down a major parliamentary rebellion, rowing back massively on a flagship spending policy, and then seeing the markets react sharply to the painful
0:38.4	footage of Rachel Reeves in tears at Prime Minister's questions. And it's fair to say the year
0:43.0	probably hasn't ended as the PM would have wished. But much more has happened over the past
0:47.5	12 months. We've had two pivotal spending reviews, protests from farmers, winter fuel allowance
0:52.8	controversy, tepid baths of decline, a new chief of staff,
0:56.5	a new cabinet secretary, a by-election triumph, a by-election failure, ministerial sackings,
1:01.5	Brexit resets, Donald Trump and missions. Well, maybe missions. So how has that first year
1:08.1	in government worked out for Kirstama and Labor? Let's take a look.
1:12.3	Jill Rutter, IFG Senior Fellow and veteran of many elections and governments, is breaking off from a summer of sport to join me in the studio. Hi, Jill.
1:20.0	Hi, Hannah.
1:21.0	IFG Senior Fellow, Substack author and former government advisor Sam Friedman is dialing in. Hi, Sam.
1:27.0	Hello.
1:29.2	And I'm delighted that we are also joined by former Executive Director of Policy for Kirstama, now at the Progressive Policy
1:34.6	Institute, Claire Ainsley. Hi, Claire. Hi. So, Sam, can I start with you? We've seen some
1:43.0	really remarkable, I think, backtracking by the government
1:46.6	over the past week or so on its major piece of welfare reform legislation. Just give us your
1:53.3	assessment of how this happened, how this rebellion was allowed to get to a place where it's led
2:00.0	to really the gutting of that piece of legislation
2:02.6	in terms of the cost savings that it was going to achieve for the government.
	...

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