Everything wrong with Keir Starmer’s media strategy - and how to fix it
The News Agents
Global
4.2 • 4.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There's news today of a Downing Street shakeup and speculation too about a ministerial reshuffle next week. Parliament returns on Monday, with Labour MPs hoping that the new term will bring with it a chance to rejuvenate a government that has plummeted in the polls and a party that seems almost mutinous.
This summer, Nigel Farage has planted himself at the centre of the news agenda - with regular press conference, media stunts and interventions. Labour ministers have been doing the round too - but they seem to have less to say in recent weeks than the Reform leader,
Amidst all the talk of a reset, Jon and Lewis break down where Labour's media strategy is going wrong - and what Keir Starmer needs to do to win the messaging war.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.0 | This is a global player original podcast. Next week, we are being promised a reshuffle and a reset for |
| 0:16.8 | the Labour government, that it's going to be a new page turned, a new start, a fresh beginning. |
| 0:24.4 | But there are some mighty problems for them to confront. |
| 0:28.1 | Will any reset, any reshuffle, any new policy really make the difference in resurrecting |
| 0:36.7 | Kiyah Stama's government's fortunes |
| 0:39.1 | if they can't sort out one central question. |
| 0:43.1 | One question that John and I, in one form or another, feel like we've been discussing all summer. |
| 0:49.7 | What is wrong with the government's communications and what can they do to finally sort it out? Welcome to the |
| 0:57.5 | newsagents. The news agents. It's John. It's Lewis and we thought we'd have this discussion |
| 1:07.9 | because we were talking last night and thinking about the summer, |
| 1:11.9 | the political summer, which is of course nearly over, Parliament's back next week, Prime Minister's |
| 1:15.5 | back from his holiday. And it's occurred to us that in a way, John and I over the last four weeks, |
| 1:21.3 | we've sort of been having, in amidst all of the different events that have taken place, it has |
| 1:26.3 | been quite a busy summer in different ways, but in amidst all of that, we've kind of been orbiting around that have taken place. It has been quite a busy summer in different |
| 1:27.6 | ways, but in amidst all of that, we've kind of been orbiting around, skirting around, one conversation |
| 1:33.3 | again and again and again, which is how can it be, how is it that we've got this government, |
| 1:39.7 | a government with, you know, huge majority in the House of Commons, it's still in just about, |
| 1:43.8 | you know, year one, early part of year two in office. It should be commanding, albeit it's got these |
| 1:50.0 | very difficult circumstances. Yeah, sure. But we've rarely had a government with all of that, |
| 1:55.3 | all those things on its side, and yet it has felt so embattled, so unwilling or unable to |
| 2:00.5 | command the conversation. |
... |
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