The New Statesman

Kier Stama is polling as the UK's most unpopular Prime Minister in history.

But days after his conference speech, some are asking whether a Kier comeback is on the cards.

What would that look like? Are they delusional?

I'm Tom McTaghan, This is the New Statesman podcast.

And joining me today is our political editor, Andrew Marr. Hello.

Hello.

So, Andrew, did Keir save himself?

I think it's impossible to say at this point.

He certainly had a vastly better conference than any of the commentators, including me, expected.

And we can talk about the reasons for that.

But none of that wipes away the huge storm clouds, sort of boiling over the horizon throughout

the autumn and winter, the budget, the really bad choice, hard choices that have to

be made around the budget, what that means for public spending, including welfare again,

and then into those elections in May.

And I don't think anybody in the Labour Party, even in Downing Street, really expects the next six months to be easy.

Now, why is it then that we think that he had a good conference?

Because I think in many ways he did.

His speech was good.

So he came into the conference with a series of obvious problems.

You've mentioned the opinion polls, which were, and remain terrible. He has the leadership challenge in front of him. He has a depleted Downing Street team. So he comes into the conference. You've mentioned the terrible opinion poll ratings, Tom, but there's also the really, really dire economic situation facing the country and the leadership challenge.

Now, a conference can't change many of those things.

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