Should Mamdani's win in NYC be a wake-up call for Labour?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
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Summary
Overnight, progressives in New York witnessed a political earthquake. A resounding win on a high turnout for the city’s first Muslim mayor - a democratic socialist with robust ideas about capitalism. Was it his youth? His clear cut policies? Or was it his authenticity that energised the city’s voters? And are there lessons to be learned for how politics should be done here in 2025?
Health Minister, Wes Streeting, joins us to talk about personality in politics, and what Labour could learn from Mamdani's example.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.1 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:15.0 | New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, |
| 0:29.5 | led by an immigrant. |
| 0:32.4 | That is Zoram Mamdani, the 34-year-old self-described socialist, Muslim, who has become the mayor of New York City. |
| 0:42.6 | He is a charismatic communicator. He has captivated New Yorkers. |
| 0:48.5 | Does British politics have something to learn from that dynamism? |
| 0:52.7 | There were several Democrat successes last night, |
| 0:55.6 | but we're focusing on Mamdani in this episode because he is, in essence, the poster boy. |
| 1:01.0 | The poster boy for a new look politics, a different kind of politics, a braver, slightly edgier |
| 1:08.7 | politics. Is that what progressives need to learn if they want to regain the trust of a sceptical public? |
| 1:17.1 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:22.1 | The newsagents. |
| 1:23.7 | It's John. |
| 1:24.4 | It's Emily. |
| 1:25.2 | And I guess the first thing we have to say about Mamdani is he was incredibly lucky in the race he fought. A Republican candidate who barely got 7%, whose name recognition was pretty small, even amongst Americans. And a disgraced former Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, who had already lost the party support over sexual harassment allegations some years ago. |
| 1:51.8 | So in a way, Mamdani had the field to himself. |
| 1:55.3 | Nevertheless, I think his victory was quite astonishing in terms of the turnout, more than 2 million voters, |
| 2:03.9 | and in terms of the way he managed the messaging, he was not scared of the voter. |
| 2:10.2 | He was not scared of his own policies. |
| 2:12.7 | He knew what he wanted to say, and he delivered that message to them. |
| 2:16.4 | We've seen a politics, dare I say, |
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