BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

You can judge a political leader by the allies he chooses.

When Keir Starmer had a vacancy for shadow education secretary, after he sat to Rebecca Long

Bailey, the woman who'd run against him to lead the Labour Party, he appointed in her

place a woman who'd opposed Corbyn at pretty much every turn.

Kate Green, who before becoming an MP, was the chief executive of the Child Poverty Action

Group.

She's a self-proclaimed policy geek and represents Stretford and Ernston in Manchester, just

down the road from the real home of the Reds.

Old Trafford.

Kate Green, welcome to Political Thinking.

Thank you very much, Plescher, to be here.

My first question is, can I have your job?

You are the MP for Old Trafford, I would happily spend the whole of my time at Old Trafford,

I don't get there often enough, so can we just do a swap?

Well, you know Nick, there are a lot of my colleagues that think this constituency is totally

wasted on me.

Not only do I have Old Trafford, the vote all ground, but I also have the crickets ground,

and it's fair to say over the last ten years I've been on quite a learning curve about

those two sports.

Is it fair to say that you're not really interested in football at all?

Oh no, no, no, that wouldn't be fair.

...