Will the bond markets undo Burnham?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andy Burnham’s campaign for Makerfield is already gathering pace, complete with Oasis soundtrack to a new campaign video. But as Labour’s would-be challenger tries to pitch himself as the man to replace Keir Starmer, questions remain over his economic credibility.
Michael Simmons and Tim Shipman join Noa Hoffman to Burnham, the bond markets, and if Starmer can really dig in if Burnham wins the by-election.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.3 | Hello and welcome to Coffeehouse Shots, the Daily Politics podcast from The Spectator. |
| 0:40.4 | I'm Noah Hoffman, the Spectator's political correspondent, and today I'm delighted to be joined by |
| 0:45.6 | Michael Simmons, economics editor at The Spectator, and Tim Shipman, political editor at The Spectator, too. |
| 0:52.8 | Michael, let's start with the economy. In recent weeks, |
| 0:56.5 | we've had some positive signs. Should we all be relieved that the cost of living crisis is |
| 1:03.1 | over? Is that set to continue? Where are we at now? Well, you're right. In the last few weeks, |
| 1:08.0 | kind of against the trend, Kirst Armer and Rachel Reeves, |
| 1:10.9 | I've had a few things to celebrate. |
| 1:13.7 | I mean, we had the news last week that our first quarter growth is the highest in the G7. |
| 1:19.6 | And in fact, yesterday the IMF upgraded their forecast for Britain's growth. |
| 1:24.5 | And I was just thinking, I don't think in my brief time as a journalist, |
| 1:28.5 | I've ever written that the IMF has upgraded their forecast for Britain's growth. It's usually |
| 1:34.1 | always saying things are going to get worse. But the good news, I'm afraid, stops there. |
| 1:39.5 | Because this morning we've had the latest figures on the labour market from the ONS and they find that |
| 1:45.3 | the unemployment rate has ticked up to 5% having come down slightly the month before. |
| 1:52.6 | But actually, the news is even worse than that because we've spoken about this in the |
... |
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