The Edition: Labour turns on Starmer – inside the collapse, with Guto Harri, Tim Shipman & Toby Young
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
‘Authority is like virginity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone’ – that's just one of the damning quotes about Keir Starmer that Tim Shipman has extracted from sources inside the Labour government. Much of Starmer's bad luck this week is arguably of his own making, so why is he seemingly so bad at being the Prime Minister?
For this week's Edition, host Lara Prendergast is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, associate editor – and Conservative peer – Toby Young, and the broadcaster Guto Harri, who – as a former director of communications at Number Ten himself – knows a thing or two about the brutal reality of being at the heart of government.
As well as Starmer's torrid week, they discuss: why defence minister Al Carns of the 2024 intake is being talked up as a potential successor to Starmer; whether Kemi Badenoch has improved as Tory leader – and can she avoid being the Iain Duncan-Smith of the 2020s; how the Epstein files have proven royal biographer Andrew Lownie right; why we are seeing a boom in children's toys for adults and whether it matters; what the panellists make of the new Wuthering Heights adaptation; and finally, is there anything wrong with a man wearing a wig?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Join me, Toby Young, on Wednesday the 18th of February for another installment in the Spectator's Speaker series. |
| 0:07.3 | I'll be joined by the star of Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones, John Reese Davis. |
| 0:12.6 | We'll be covering his fascinating childhood in Tanzania, the secrets behind his lasting success, |
| 0:17.8 | and what he sees as the challenges facing Western civilization. |
| 0:22.2 | Join us in the library at Old Queen Street Cafe at 7pm on Wednesday the 18th of February. |
| 0:28.8 | Book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash book now. |
| 0:43.2 | Hello and welcome to the edition from The Spectator. |
| 0:48.7 | I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor, and the latest issue of the magazine has just gone to press. |
| 0:51.3 | To discuss what's in it, I'm joined now by our political editor, Tim Shipman, |
| 0:55.9 | our associate editor and columnist Toby Young, and the broadcaster and former Downing Street |
| 1:01.3 | director of communications, Gito Harry. |
| 1:09.2 | This week's cover has the headline, The End is Kier. |
| 1:12.6 | And in it, Tim takes a look at where things started to go wrong for Stama. |
| 1:17.5 | So Tim, where did they? |
| 1:19.5 | Well, they've gone wrong almost everywhere along the line. |
| 1:21.8 | We've got the end is Kier and the headline inside is Kier and Lothing. |
| 1:25.5 | And I think that sums up what's basically been going on for the last 18 months. |
| 1:30.0 | He's just had the most difficult week of his premiership. |
| 1:33.0 | He's lost his chief of staff, his director of communications, and his cabinet secretary. |
| 1:38.1 | We're told he's full of beans and roaring to continue. |
| 1:41.7 | Let Kear be Kear. |
| 1:42.8 | But the problem is, as this piece explores, |
... |
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