Starmer's make-or-break conference
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour conference kicks off this weekend in Liverpool – but the mood going in is far from triumphant.
On today's Coffee House Shots, Lucy Dunn is joined by Tim Shipman and More in Common’s Luke Tryl to take the temperature ahead of Labour’s big set-piece. They discuss why some voters already see Starmer as ‘just as bad as the lot that came before’, and whether Labour can turn things around with new policies aimed at revitalising local communities – from saving libraries and pubs to giving residents more power over development.
There is also a fascinating hypothetical poll in which an Andy Burnham-led Labour party outpaces Reform UK, turning a deficit into a narrow lead. Luke explains how Burnham’s appeal lies less in his own charisma than in Labour’s ability to win back disillusioned supporters from the Lib Dems and the undecided.
But if Labour is struggling to meet expectations, Reform faces its own dilemmas. Farage’s recent flirtation with fringe debates – from vaccine-sceptic speakers to entertaining Trump's edict on paracetamol – risks alienating the mainstream voters. As Tim and Luke point out, Reform’s future depends on whether it can stay focused on bread-and-butter issues like immigration and the cost of living, or whether it strays into conspiratorial territory.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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Transcript
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| 0:38.7 | involves risk. Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Lutty Dunn and today I'm |
| 0:49.3 | joined by Tim Shipman and more uncommon poster Luke Trill. We're just days away from the annual Labour Party |
| 0:55.4 | conference in Liverpool, where we'll expect to hear speeches from Keir Starmour, Chancellor |
| 1:00.0 | Rachel Reeves, and even be lucky enough to witness a deputy leadership hustings. Look, what is |
| 1:05.8 | the moods like amongst Labour voters just now ahead of this Labour conference? I think disappointed, |
| 1:10.6 | it's probably |
| 1:10.9 | putting it mildly. I think, you know, if you think back to 2024, Labor got that very broad, |
| 1:17.7 | but quite shallow coalition, and what united them was a sense that we need change, that things |
| 1:23.5 | aren't working, and we need a Labour government to come in and sort things out. |
| 1:32.2 | And, yeah, when we speak to voters, the assessment ranges from mild disappointment, |
| 1:38.0 | but maybe we should give them a bit longer through to they're just as bad as the lot that came before. |
| 1:45.0 | And I think it's fair to say that a lot of this has personalized around Kea Stama in particular. |
| 1:49.4 | You know, when we speak to people in focus groups about Keaastama, their reactions are very negative and an increasing sense, I think that, you know, amongst the electorate, |
| 1:56.2 | that he perhaps isn't in control. He isn't able to guide things and get us out of the mess. |
| 2:02.3 | So I would say it is pretty gloomy. In our purling over the past week, there would be |
| 2:06.2 | maybe some signs that things might have reached an idea and are getting better, but I've said |
... |
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