From Thatcher to Truss, who's haunting Mel Stride?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride delivered a speech today where he attempted to banish the ghost of Liz Truss and improve the Conservatives' reputation over fiscal credibility. And he compared leader Kemi Badenoch to Thatcher, saying she too struggled at first and will 'get better' at the dispatch box. LBC broadcaster Iain Dale and the Spectator's economics editor Michael Simmons join deputy political editor James Heale to unpack Stride's speech, talk about Labour's latest policy announcement over free school meals and discuss why both the main parties are struggling with fiscal credibility.
Plus, Iain talks about his new book Margaret Thatcher and the myths he seeks to dispel. Why does he think the former PM still endures 35 years after she left office?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As a coffeehouse shots listener, you'll be all too familiar with the headlines that have dominated the news cycle in the past month. |
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| 0:45.9 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by our economics |
| 0:49.8 | editor Michael Simmons and the broadcaster from LBC Ian Dale. Now Michael, first of all, Labor's got a big |
| 0:55.5 | announcement today on free school meals. Tell us about it. Yep. So the government has announced that |
| 0:59.8 | any parent who's in receipt in Universal Credit will be able to claim free school meals for their |
| 1:05.6 | kids from September next year. And the government reckons that this will make about half a million more |
| 1:12.3 | pupils of what they call the most needed, the families most in need eligible for these free |
| 1:17.8 | school meals that they say, well, you know, give children that head start in life and make sure |
| 1:21.2 | that it sort of continues Labour's mission to tackle poverty. I think it's an interesting one for them to balance, |
| 1:28.8 | because, you know, obviously, this is bread and butter. If you're a labour voter, yeah, literally |
| 1:32.7 | bread and butter, what you know, what you want if you, if you support labour. But I think it's |
| 1:37.1 | an interesting one for them to balance when they're, they're trying to, you know, still |
| 1:41.7 | continue their like fiscal responsibility line that the Tories are kind of |
| 1:45.6 | getting a bit more vocal on. And so it's hard for them to one hand say, you know, we're raining, |
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