Pod Save the UK
How ruthless is Keir Starmer willing to be? w/ Anushka Asthana and Josh Babarinde MP
Thu, 17 Oct 2024
With just two weeks to go until the Autumn budget, the Labour government is preparing to make some huge reforms. But just how ruthless is Keir Starmer willing to be in reshaping the UK? Coco and Nish dig into it with Anushka Asthana, ITV’s political editor and author of “Taken as Red: How Labour won big and the Tories crashed the party”. Later, in the wake of the Tories latest round of madness, Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde calls in from parliament to discuss how the Government can be held to account in the absence of a sane opposition. And speaking of political ruthlessness, we find out why Labour are demanding a police investigation into the Monster Raving Loony Party’s role in unseating Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South. Useful links: Taken as Red: How Labour won big and the Tories crashed the party. Guests: Anushka Asthana Josh Babarinde MP Pod Save the UK is a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media. Contact us via email: [email protected] WhatsApp: 07494 933 444 (UK) or + 44 7494 933 444 (internationally) Insta: https://instagram.com/podsavetheuk Twitter: https://twitter.com/podsavetheuk TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@podsavetheuk Facebook: https://facebook.com/podsavetheuk YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/podsavetheworld Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Hi, this is Pod Save the UK. I'm Nish Kumar.
And I'm Coco Kahn. With just two weeks to go until the autumn budget, Labour is preparing to make some huge reforms. But how ruthless is Keir Starmer willing to be in reshaping the UK? We're speaking to ITV's political editor, Anushka Astana, to find out.
And later, in the wake of the Tories' latest round of madness, we're joined by Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde to discuss how the government can be held to account in the absence of a sane opposition.
One week on from the great big reset inside Number 10, suddenly it seems like there's a flurry of activity from the government. It's a nice change from the month of stasis, but with a lifeless opposition and a stonking majority, are we about to see some radical reforms?
To find out, we're joined by Deputy Political Editor of ITV News and author of Taken as Red, How Labour Won Big and the Tories Crashed the Party, Anoushka Asthana. Welcome to Pod Save the UK, Anoushka. It's great to have you here.
Thank you very much for having me.
The speed of which news is moving. I did think about that when I was reading the book. And just the point when you're talking about Sue Gravey appointed as Chief of Staff. And you're like, how much of that are you conscious of when you're writing a book about politics, particularly about British politics, I guess, post 2014 or 2015 onwards?
Yeah, it's really tricky. And what I had to do basically was make the book about everything up to that point. So really, it's a book about how they got to the election, how they won the election. I did then attempt to book a chapter on governing and I read it back. It's not that bad.
I mean, I did argue that in theory, Sue Gray as chief of staff and Morgan McSweeney as chief advisor, as he was then. could be Keir Starmer's superpower because they had different skills, but also made clear that there were already tensions at the time.
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