Willie Howard

speaker

78 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 22 Jun

Willie Howard’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Liveline · "People can look out their front window and see a sense of decline..." · 22 Jun 2026 podcast

It's coming up to nearly 20 years ago when I first came over.

I went back to Ireland briefly for a couple of years, but 17 years in total since about 2007.

I was a member of the Labour Party.

I actually joined under the leadership of Ed Miliband and I left shortly in 2019, shortly after the election of

Keir Starmer, really, as Labour Party leader, because I just think the party was changed in a way that it no longer kind of reflected my values, you know?

In what way?

Well, I suppose, look, I'm not saying the period that under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership there wasn't mistakes or issues with that, because there were, but I think it's important to realise that in the late 2017, for instance, Jeremy Corbyn received, I think it was the second highest

ever Labour vote, second only to 1997, where Tony Blair won a landslide victory.

I think Corbyn achieved something like 42% of the vote, something quite massive, and actually considerably more than Keir Starmer got when he got elected.

But I mean, look, the carbonate period is finished.

It's over now, and we're kind of in a new period.

hopefully Andy Burnham will mark a departure from what's been going on.

Not particularly.

And to be honest, I have to say I disagree with a chunk of what Matt, you said there, you know, in the sense that Starmer is a fundamentally decent person.

I mean, look, you don't want to personalize politics too much.

But, you know, you're talking about a man here when he was asked about the situation in Palestine, said that Israel has a right to cut off food and water to a starving population and said, yes, I do believe they have that right, which is in essence a war crime.

And for a man who's a human rights denier should know better about that as well.

Also, Matt, you mentioned about the two child benefit cap and things, you know, and yet eventually repeating that was progressive.

But he did also allude to the fact that there was a proposal in Parliament to remove that.

Labour with their MPs to oppose the removal of that benefit cap and even suspended those who voted to try and take those children out of poverty.

Showing 1–20 of 78 · page 1 of 4