Trump and Reform: Is US-style populism set to sweep the UK?
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump has stunned the world with a raft of extraordinary interventions this week, prompting Keir Starmer to keep his head down. But what happens when it’s Britain’s turn in the new US administration’s headlights? Host Lucy Fisher is joined by Political Fix regulars George Parker and Robert Shrimsley, as well as the FT’s chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman, to examine the UK government’s options. Plus, days after the first major national opinion poll put Reform ahead of both Labour and the Tories for the first time, the panel examines whether the hype over Nigel Farage’s party is outpacing reality… or whether the UK’s two-party system is in trouble.
Follow Lucy on Bluesky or X: @lucyfisher.bsky.social, @LOS_Fisher, Robert: @robertshrimsley.bsky.social, @robertshrimsley, George: @georgewparker.bsky.social, @GeorgeWParker, Gideon: @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman
Want more? Free links:
Trump is sowing the seeds of an anti-American alliance
Is Nigel Farage’s Reform hype outpacing reality?
In charts: will Reform rock Britain’s two-party system?
Peter Mandelson’s back: The Prince of Darkness returns
Labour cannot afford to look like the status quo party
You can listen to Gideon’s award-winning podcast The Rachman Review here. Sign up here for 30 free days of Stephen Bush's Inside Politics newsletter, winner of the World Association of News Publishers 2023 ‘Best Newsletter’ award.
Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Lulu Smyth. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music and mixed by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Lucy Fisher and this is Political Fix from the Financial Times. |
| 0:07.0 | Coming up, Kier-Starma is straining to retain his business-as-usual approach to Donald Trump, |
| 0:12.4 | but for how much longer? And what will happen when Trump's spotlight inevitably falls on the UK? |
| 0:18.4 | Plus, reformed Tops Labour and the Tories in a major national opinion poll for the first time ever. |
| 0:24.0 | Is it a blip or a sign that the UK's two-party system could be in trouble? |
| 0:28.5 | To discuss at all, we have in the studio my FT colleagues Robert Shimsley. Hi, Robert. |
| 0:33.0 | Hey, Lucy. |
| 0:33.8 | George Parker. Hi, George. Hi, Lucy. |
| 0:35.7 | And the FT's chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon Rackman. Hi, Gideon. Hi, Lucy. And the FTs chief foreign affairs commentator, Gideon, |
| 0:38.6 | Hi, Gideon. Hi. |
| 0:43.8 | Gideon, so with more than two and a half weeks into Trump at 2.0. Only that. Only that. And so far, |
| 0:51.2 | the UK has remained unscathed by any punitive actions. We'll see how long that lasts. |
| 0:56.9 | I just wondered if you can sum up for us in this very early days. What's been different about Trump 2.0 |
| 1:03.7 | from what we predicted or foresaw before he returned to the Oval Office? |
| 1:07.9 | Well, I mean, I think it's even more frenetic than the first term. And I think one |
| 1:12.8 | thing certainly is somebody who follows foreign policy that's really interesting because it was |
| 1:17.3 | unanticipated and hard to find something about Trump that nobody had thought of. But this expansionist |
| 1:22.4 | imperialist bit, you know, who knew that his first big foreign policy moves would be to lay claim to Greenland, |
| 1:30.1 | to Canada, actually, and suggests Canada should become the 51st state to suggest that he might invade Panama. |
| 1:36.2 | And now, actually, to suggest he wants to annex Gaza. |
| 1:39.5 | So that was very new because I think a lot of people's reading of the battles within Trump world |
| 1:45.6 | over American foreign policy was that there was one group who were kind of traditional neo-conservatives, |
... |
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