Labour braces for ballot box bloodbath
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With just one week to go before voters across the UK deliver their verdict on Sir Keir Starmer’s government – our panel discusses another agonising week for the PM, Labour’s forecast devastation at the polls, and how No 10 can regroup in the aftermath.
Other talking points include the momentum behind Reform UK and the Green party — and the hurdles that threaten to trip them up.
Host Lucy Fisher is joined by deputy opinion editor Miranda Green, UK chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley and political columnist Stephen Bush.
Follow: Lucy @LOS_Fisher or @lucyfisher.ft.com; Stephen @stephenkb & @stephenkb.bsky.social; Miranda @greenmiranda & @greenmirandahere.bsky.social and Robert @robertshrimsley and @robertshrimsley.bsky.social
Want more?
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Plus, send in your questions for a special Political Fix Q&A episode right after the local elections, on Monday May 11. Email: politicalfix@ft.com
You can also sign up here for Stephen Bush’s morning newsletter Inside Politics for straight-talking insight into the stories that matter, plus puns and tongue (mostly) in cheek views. Get 30 days free.
Political Fix is presented by Lucy Fisher and produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Mixing and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's just one week to go before voters across the UK give their verdict on Kier-Starmer's government in the biggest electoral test since 2024. |
| 0:13.0 | Welcome to Political Fix from the Financial Times with me, Lucy Fisher. |
| 0:18.0 | For Labour, it's set to be a bloodbath at the ballot box after another agonising |
| 0:22.6 | week for the PM. The Tories too are braced for a hammering. So with nationalist parties on |
| 0:27.8 | track for gains and Reform and the Greens also set to be celebrating next week, what kind of fallout |
| 0:33.2 | awaits Stama? I'm joined in the studio by my FT colleagues Miranda, our deputy opinion editor. |
| 0:39.5 | Hello, Miranda. |
| 0:40.2 | Hello, Lucy. |
| 0:41.2 | The UK chief political commentator Robert Schimsymmesley. Hi, Robert. |
| 0:44.2 | Hey, Lucy. |
| 0:45.1 | I'm political columnist and writer of the Inside Politics newsletter, Stephen Bush. Hi, Stephen. |
| 0:49.9 | Hi, Lucy. |
| 0:52.4 | So, guys, Stama has limped to the finish line of this parliamentary session, but it's been |
| 0:57.4 | another pretty gruesome week for the Prime Minister. Robert, he's faced more testimonies |
| 1:02.1 | at the Foreign Affairs Committee around the appointment of Peter Mandelson. And also this debate |
| 1:07.9 | and vote on whether to refer him to a sleaze inquiry. |
| 1:13.5 | He won that vote, but a bit of a hollow victory. |
| 1:17.2 | Well, one of the reasons he won that vote on whether he should face the kind of inquiry that Boris Johnson faced over Partygate with the incredibly important and powerful privileges |
| 1:22.1 | committee, he won it by whipping his MPs to support him. |
| 1:25.8 | And that's not a good look, because this is the kind of thing that is meant to be a free vote where MPs are stepping above party issues to decide whether one of their number has broken the rule. So, I mean, he won it. It's what you do in his position, but it wasn't great for him. I think we've sort of reached the point where we're just heaping indignities on indignities. |
| 1:44.4 | It doesn't really matter anymore. Is any one of these things going to be a killer blow? |
| 1:48.5 | The answer is any of them could be a killer blow. It's just what's the one that breaks the resolve |
... |
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