The Labour Deputy Leader Interview
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 December 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Adam is joined by Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell to reflect on her first few weeks in the role and what lies ahead for the Labour government in 2026.
The pair also discuss Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s new comments on the UK’s relationship with the EU, his leadership ambitions, and the importance of the party sticking together and showing a united front.
Plus, how will Labour take on the political challenge represented by the Reform party and Nigel Farage next year? And, crucially, does she think that Keir Starmer will still be Prime Minister by next Christmas?
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Rufus Gray with Adriana urbano. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Stephen Bailey. The assistant editor was Jack Maclaren. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Hello, even though MPs have gone home from Parliament and are getting ready for Christmas, |
| 0:11.0 | there's still some political news going on. For example, some comments where Streeting the Health |
| 0:15.7 | Secretary gave to the Observer being interpreted as him being in favour of joining the EU's customs |
| 0:20.4 | union, and also the speculation that a growing number of councils in England are going to ask to postpone the elections in their area as they grapple with the local government reorganisation. |
| 0:30.6 | Now, it just so happened, we'd arranged already to speak to Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, about the year that she's just had and the year that the government is going to have next year. |
| 0:41.7 | So it's very good timing to discuss all those things together in this episode of Newscast. |
| 0:46.8 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:49.1 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. |
| 0:52.0 | I was the tattle tail in the class. |
| 0:53.3 | Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody. That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam in the Newscast studio, and thank you very much to all my colleagues who kept the seat warm while I was doing some training last week, which I passed with flying colours. |
| 1:17.8 | It was about how to survive in a war zone, which you have to do every three years. And it was nice to have my first age training refreshed. |
| 1:25.4 | Anyway, we're going to spend this episode chatting to |
| 1:28.1 | Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party. She won that election against Bridget |
| 1:33.3 | Philipson, the Education Secretary a couple of months ago. And before that, she was the leader of the |
| 1:38.6 | House of Commons, but she got reshuffled out of the cabinet during the reshuffle that followed |
| 1:43.9 | the departure of Angela Rainer |
| 1:45.8 | as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Deputy Prime Minister. Although crucially, Lucy Powell |
| 1:50.9 | did not also get to be Deputy Prime Minister as well, because that job went to David Lammy. |
| 1:56.3 | She campaigned on being the person that told the truth about politics to the prime minister and |
| 2:03.0 | government ministers. And she called for a course correction in how the government ran the country |
| 2:08.6 | and communicated its message when she won the deputy leadership. So plenty to discuss with |
... |
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