Will Starmer’s new milestones become millstones?
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2024
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sir Keir Starmer unveiled six fresh pledges as part of a major government reset this week, which included diluting a green target and redefining his economic goals. It followed a tumultuous start to government for Labour after 14 years in opposition. As the administration reached the five-month mark on Thursday, Political Fix hosted a live special as part of the FT’s Global Boardroom online conference. Host Lucy Fisher was joined by the podcast’s regulars Stephen Bush, Miranda Green and Peter Foster to take stock of the ups and downs of Labour’s record in power to date.
Follow Lucy on X: @LOS_Fisher, Stephen on @stephenkb, Miranda on @greenmiranda and Peter on @pmdfoster
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The broadcast engineers are Andrew Georgiadis and Petros Giumpassis. 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 and welcome to this special live edition of the FT's weekly UK politics podcast, Political Fix. |
| 0:08.6 | I'm Lucy Fisher, host of the podcast and Whitehall editor here at the Financial Times. |
| 0:14.0 | As we are meeting today, it is of course the five-month anniversary of Labour taking power, |
| 0:19.2 | and it's been quite a whirlwind as the party has tried to |
| 0:21.9 | get to grips with government after 14 years in opposition. We've had a big tax and spend |
| 0:26.7 | budget and investment summit. We've had infighting and backbiting in the heart of number 10, |
| 0:32.0 | an overhaul of personnel, and of course rafts of policy. And as we meet today, the Prime Minister has just set out his plan for change, |
| 0:39.9 | a new set of targets for his government ahead of the next election. |
| 0:43.3 | So there is plenty to get our teeth into in the next 45 minutes. |
| 0:47.2 | And I'm delighted that we've got a terrific panel of political fix regulars lined up. |
| 0:51.7 | Stephen Bush, Associate Editor, Miranda Green, Deputy Opinion Editor, and Pete Foster, Public Policy Editor here at the FT. |
| 0:58.3 | Welcome to you all. Thank you. |
| 1:02.9 | To kick off, Miranda, let's talk about this big, don't call it a reset moment that Kirstama has done today. |
| 1:11.1 | Downing Street don't want to call it a reset or a relaunch, |
| 1:13.5 | but people think this is an attempt to try and turn the page |
| 1:17.8 | on what's been quite a tumultuous first five months. |
| 1:20.4 | Tell us a bit about this big moment we've just heard. |
| 1:22.8 | So in their defence, in rejecting the label reset, |
| 1:25.9 | this has been coming for a while and a very key figure |
| 1:29.1 | in the Starmer government is in charge of it. Pat McFadden, a veteran of the Downing Street years under |
| 1:35.6 | Tony Blair and someone who understands, as a close ally also of Morgan McSweeney, the political brains |
| 1:43.3 | behind Starma's election win, that the |
... |
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