On Politics: Keir Starmer’s Mess

The LRB Podcast

London Review of Books

Society & Culture

4.4 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Less than two years after winning a huge majority, even many of Keir Starmer’s own MPs think he’s doomed. But is he? Despite a historic loss to the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton by-election last month, the prime minister has managed to cling on, for now. His critics point to a lack of vision in government, the alienation of Labour members and a failure to accept the need for radical reform. Those less critical argue it’s simply a problem with communicating his achievements, and that Britain is pretty much ungovernable anyway.James Butler is joined by Sienna Rodgers, deputy editor at the House magazine, and Jeremy Gilbert, professor of cultural and political theory at the University of East London, to consider the reasons for Starmer’s mess, from the selection of his MPs to the ‘iron law of oligarchy’. And if he’s not prime minister at the end of the year, who will be? Read more on politics in the LRB: ⁠https://lrb.me/lrbpolitics⁠ From the LRB Subscribe to the LRB: ⁠⁠https://lrb.me/subslrbpod Close Readings podcast: ⁠https://lrb.me/crlrbpod⁠ LRB Audiobooks: ⁠https://lrb.me/audiobookslrbpod⁠ Bags, binders and more at the LRB Store: ⁠https://lrb.me/storelrbpod⁠ Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, I'm James Wood, and this year on the LRB's Close Reading's podcast, I'm asking,
0:07.4	Who's Afraid of Realism? I'll be taking a range of great novels and short stories,
0:12.4	from Flobe's Madame Bovary and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, up to more recent works
0:17.2	by Amit Chowdhury and Gwendolyn Riley. And I'll be examining what makes and makes
0:22.5	for the real. How does realism produce its effects? What's the difference between artifice
0:28.3	and artificiality? And who is and has been afraid of realism and why? The series starts with
0:35.5	two episodes on Madame Bovary, which you can listen to right now.
0:39.2	And in the third episode, I'll be talking to Adam Thurlwell about Dostoevsky. You can find a link in
0:44.0	the description or search close readings wherever you get your podcasts.
0:49.7	There are two ways to lose a by-election by losing the vote and by losing control of the narrative
0:56.4	afterwards. Labor has certainly managed to do both of those after losing the Gorton and Denton
1:01.8	by-election to the Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer. To people here in Gorton and Denton
1:07.4	who feel left behind and isolated, I see you and I will fight for you.
1:13.2	Because whilst our communities may sometimes be labelled in different ways, the thing everyone
1:17.9	seems to have underestimated here, especially over the last few weeks, is how similar we all
1:23.1	actually are.
1:24.5	Kirstama released a truly baffling statement, his MPs, immediately afterwards in which he went
1:29.9	well beyond the standard disclaimers about midterm by-election losses and described the Greens
1:36.1	as extremists.
1:37.9	The Greens on the left were their politics of getting out of NATO in the middle of the
1:42.4	conflict with Ukraine, of legalising all drugs,
1:46.1	including heroin and crack cocaine, to give to adults.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from London Review of Books, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of London Review of Books and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.