Has the race to succeed Starmer kicked off?
Political Currency
Persephonica
4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The war in the middle east has entered its third week. Tensions rose overnight when Israel hit a natural gas field in Iran, and Iran retaliated by bombing gas facilities in Qatar. The result was oil prices skyrocketing. Ed Balls and George Osborne discuss what appears to be a communication breakdown between Israel and the US, and question whether they are aligned in their respective endgames.
Earlier this week the Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the Mais lecture at the Bayes Business School. She said fiscal devolution, closer relations with Europe, AI and innovation would bring growth in the UK. But was the speech too partisan and lacking economic theory?
And, Angela Rayner is back - delivering a speech criticising the government’s proposed immigration reforms. Is she planning to stick the knife in Keir Starmer, à la Michael Heseltine and Margaret Thatcher, and if so - does she have the right qualifications to lead the country? Ed and George look at past transitions mid-government for Labour and more widely, and examine how Rayner’s strengths and weaknesses may impact her chances at No. 10.
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Credits:
Research: Sam Burton
Production: Caillin McDaid & Henrietta Harrison
Video Editor: Avi Asher
Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Political Coency with Ed Balls and George Osborne. |
| 0:29.4 | So welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:35.5 | George Osborne is in Britain, I think actually the British Museum, but having been to California and back in 24 hours, basically. |
| 0:39.8 | Yeah, you know, I was reflecting on the paths that our lives are taking at the moment |
| 0:43.7 | because I think last night you were at the state banquet for the president of Nigeria. |
| 0:49.0 | So you can't get anything in Britain more traditional, more full of pomp and circumstance, more flunkies |
| 0:57.4 | around the king, lots of people dressed up. And I was in a hotel room in California for one night, |
| 1:03.2 | and I ordered a room service and a robot came to the door. Literally a robot, a sort of |
| 1:10.6 | self-driving robot thing, came down the corridor. |
| 1:13.7 | The food and the drink and whatever was in this sort of container that opened automatically. |
| 1:18.1 | And then I took it out and then the robot zoomed off back down the corridor. |
| 1:22.5 | So two different worlds. |
| 1:25.6 | A driverless car one week, a driverless room service trolley the next week. |
| 1:30.5 | It's the tech revolution. |
| 1:31.9 | I had last weekend another fabulous political currency listener moment. |
| 1:38.3 | I'd gone down to Smith Square with my daughter to a Handel concert, part of the Handel Festival, the Gabrielli Orchestra, |
| 1:46.9 | playing Ais and Galatea. And we're having a cup of coffee underneath the venue. By the way, |
| 1:51.9 | the same venue in which we won Political Podcast of the Year just a few weeks ago. And the same |
| 1:57.6 | square where I started working for the Conservative Party back in the early 1990s. |
| 2:03.7 | So this guy comes over and says that, you know, he's a great listener of our podcast. |
| 2:07.5 | He's been listening to it on the way in, really loves it. |
| 2:10.4 | Also, um, listens to electoral dysfunction. |
... |
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