Will Labour’s green U-turn weaken Starmer?
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keir Starmer dismantles Labour’s flagship pledge, shredding the party’s £28bn green investment plan. The FT’s Jim Pickard joins Miranda Green and chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley to assess the damage to Labour after weeks of confusion over the policy. And in the week when Liz Truss launched the latest Tory ginger group, the team dissects the Tory party’s threats on the right - including from Reform UK. Plus, FT Ireland correspondent Jude Webber discusses whether a Northern Ireland executive led by a Sinn Féin first minister now moves Ireland closer to reunification.
Free links:
Labour’s green U-turn: how Starmer dropped £28bn ‘albatross’
Mandates are overrated - Keir Starmer just needs the win
Sunak urges Northern Irish executive to focus on ‘day-to-day matters’
Northern Ireland revisits the success of ‘constructive ambiguity’
Liz Truss takes aim at Tories for failing to tackle ‘leftwing extremists’
Follow, Miranda on @greenmiranda, Jim @PickardJE, Robert @robertshrimsley, Jude @jude_webber
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Presented by Miranda Green. Produced by Audrey Tinline. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music and audio mix 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 | Get direct access to 28-day UK Treasury bills and earn current annualized returns of 5% or more with free trade. |
| 0:07.5 | Put your money to work with low-risk UK Treasury bills issued and backed by the UK government. And right now, free trade is offering UK Treasury bills fee-free until April 2024. |
| 0:18.2 | Head to free trade. |
| 0:19.7 | I.O. slash finance to get started today. Capital at risk, this is not investment advice. |
| 0:25.0 | Rate is indicative in May change. |
| 0:27.0 | Free trade is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. How damaged is labor by its 28 billion pound U-turn. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello, I'm Miranda Green and welcome to Political Fix from the Financial Times. |
| 0:45.0 | Lucy is taking a well-earned break so I'm in the hot seat this week |
| 0:51.0 | delighted to be joined in the studio by my |
| 0:53.1 | F.T colleagues chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley. I'm Miranda. Hello and |
| 0:57.8 | the F.T's deputy political editor Jim Picard. Hello Jim. Hi. So after weeks and Jim, months even of wobbles, |
| 1:07.0 | labor has finally ditched its 28 billion pound green investment plan |
| 1:11.0 | and move widely anticipated not least on this podcast and in your own reporting. |
| 1:16.5 | It's down to 4.7 billion pounds, Jim, from that huge 28. |
| 1:21.9 | A large cut. Is it really a shaving off of the ambitions? |
| 1:26.7 | And also, we're really interested to hear from you, why now? |
| 1:30.2 | You've joked about the need to update the list of Kirstama's U-turns as leader of the Labour Party, |
| 1:36.0 | but actually this is quite serious, isn't it? |
| 1:38.0 | There have been an awful lot of U-turns. |
| 1:40.0 | When the Conservatives call them Mr. Flip-flop or Sir Flip-Flop or whatever it is, |
| 1:44.0 | they have a point because there are all sorts of things he used to say, |
| 1:47.0 | particularly when he was running for the leadership, which were very left-wing, which he no longer says. |
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