Ask Political Fix: Starmer’s fightback, election turmoil and defence
5/11/202650 min
You sent in your burning questions, now our panel answers them. Will Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘relaunch’ work? Has Britain become ungovernable? Will the UK’s voting system be reformed, is the student loans system punishing youthful ambition, and what about defence? Host Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s George Parker, Miranda Green and Robert Shrimsley to discuss a range of topics spanning politics and policy.
Follow Lucy on Bluesky or X: @lucyfisher.bsky.social, @LOS_Fisher; Miranda @greenmirandahere.bsky.social, George: @GeorgeWParker & @georgewparker.bsky.social and Robert @robertshrimsley, @robertshrimsley.bsky.social
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Clare Williamson. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and mix by Breen Turner. The broadcast engineers were Andrew Giorgiades and Petros Gioumpasis. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of Audio.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLucy Fisher· Host0:01
[upbeat music] The prime minister has been making the speech of his life today. After a disastrous week for Labour at the polls, his job is on the line. This is Political Fix from The Financial Times with me, Lucy Fisher. Welcome to the show. It's a slightly different format today, another of our Q&A specials, where I'm putting to the panel the burning questions that you, our listeners, have sent in. With me on the show are the FT's Chief Political Commentator, Robert Shumsley. Hello, Robert.
George Parker· Panelist0:30
Hello, Lucy.
Lucy Fisher· Host0:31
Deputy Opinion Editor, Miranda Green. Hi, Miranda.
Miranda Green· Panelist0:34
Hello, Lucy.
Lucy Fisher· Host0:34
And Political Editor, George Parker. Hi, George.
George Parker· Panelist0:37
Hello, Lucy.
Lucy Fisher· Host0:38
Well, first up, I know we wanted this to focus on some of the questions in the ether that we don't always turn to, but we can't escape the news agenda. It's a huge week. So let's digest what we've heard from the PM on Monday morning. George, heralded as the speech of his life, quite low on policy substance, higher on rhetoric. Was it enough?
George Parker· Panelist1:00
It's a good question. Certainly, the speech had been built up in advance, and I think there's a question about how realistic it is for any speech by any politician to really change the political weather. It's hard. What can we think of? David Cameron's speech to the Tory leadership back in two thousand and five.
Robert Shrimsley· Panelist1:14
I've been thinking about this actually, 'cause I-- Maybe George Osborne's speech at the Tory conference where he announced the inheritance tax changes that persuaded Gordon Brown- Yep ... not to stand. And I actually asked a few people on Blue Sky about this, and one that came back was Theresa May's red lines speech in the Brexit debate as changing it.