Reform launch their top team, as Starmer U-turns - again!
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Book your tickets for Planet Normal: LIVE on the 24th February: telegraph.co.uk/planetnormallive |
You can watch this episode of Planet Normal on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_jt6Hy7NYvU
On this week’s flight through the sanctuary of sweet reason, co-pilots Pearson and Halligan examine the rapid rise of Reform’s new "Shadow Cabinet," including Robert Jenrick’s debut as Shadow Chancellor and his mission to position the party as the new vanguard of fiscal prudence.
Alison and Liam also debate the "gratitude of immigrants" and push back against "ethno-nationalism" in British politics following the appointments of Zia Yusuf and Suella Braverman.
In a powerful and moving interview, Alison speaks with Siobhan Whyte, whose daughter Rhiannon was murdered by an illegal migrant. They discuss the systemic failures of the UK’s immigration system and Siobhan’s campaign to support the children left behind by such violence.
Book your tickets for Planet Normal: LIVE on the 24th February: telegraph.co.uk/planetnormallive |
Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor |
Read Allison ‘Every day, we are reminded that the migration crisis is ruining Britain’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/17/migration-crisis-is-ruining-britain-nhs-jim-ratcliffe/ |
Read Allison ‘This is Reform’s best week yet’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/18/this-is-reforms-best-week-yet/ |
Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ |
Read Liam ‘Labour’s net zero extremism is ripping the heart out of Britain’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/02/15/labour-net-zero-strategy-ripping-heart-out-britain/ |
Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |
Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ |
Support the Rhiannon Whyte Foundation’s gofundme here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-rhiannon-whyte-foundation |
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Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.0 | Very little great was ever achieved in the world without laughter. |
| 0:14.6 | Four. |
| 0:15.9 | He'll get down there with his chainsaw. |
| 0:17.8 | I mean, that man is a terminator. |
| 0:19.9 | Three. |
| 0:21.4 | He very pointedly attacked Liz Truss, not entirely fairly, I thought. |
| 0:25.8 | Two. |
| 0:27.1 | You haven't got any member of this government reaching out, saying, right, we'll stop this now. |
| 0:34.8 | One. |
| 0:38.2 | We have left off. |
| 0:40.9 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal, the Telegraph podcast with Alison Pearson. |
| 0:45.2 | Hello. |
| 0:46.2 | And me, Liam Halligan. |
| 0:48.5 | Another U-turn co-pilot from Kirstearner's Labour government this week. |
| 0:52.6 | The Prime Minister's abandoned plans to delay |
| 0:55.4 | local elections across 30 English councils, 21 of them currently controlled by Labour, but which in |
| 1:02.4 | some cases the party looks likely to lose. Faced with a legal challenge from Reform UK, the government's |
| 1:09.5 | caved, with ministers now trying to claim |
| 1:11.8 | that their legal advice has changed, advice they don't seem too keen to publish. |
| 1:18.0 | Starmer's U-turns are fast becoming the stuff of legend. His government's changed its minds |
| 1:22.3 | on a host of issues, from including cuts to winter fuel payments, restrictions on some disability benefits, and hikes |
... |
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