Is the U.K. ungovernable?
6/23/202626 min
After a weekend of speculation, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared on the steps of 10 Downing Street on Monday and announced that he would be stepping down.
He’s now the sixth British Prime Minister to resign in the last 10 years, continuing a pattern many thought would end after he won a majority government with the Labour Party in a landslide just two years ago.
Zoë Grünewald is a freelance journalist based in London, England. She’s also a regular panelist on the politics podcast ‘Oh God, What Now?’. She’s here to talk about the conditions that have made it so hard for the country to hold onto a Prime Minister, and what that means for people in the U.K.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMary Link0:00
Today, there are more than 3,000 billionaires with a combined worth of $25 trillion, surpassing the GDP of every country except the United States. I'm Mary Link with Ideas, and I've been looking into the impact of this record-breaking level of wealth concentration at the very tippy top, including a deteriorating middle class and the expectation that there will be five trillionaires within a decade. To understand why this is happening, listen to my series, The Billionaire Age, on Ideas wherever you get your podcasts. [upbeat music] This is a CBC podcast.
Jayme Poisson· Host0:38
[upbeat music] Hey, everyone. I'm Jamie Poisson. After a weekend of speculation, the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared on the steps of 10 Downing Street on Monday and announced that he would be stepping down.
Keir Starmer· Soundbite0:59
The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.
Jayme Poisson· Host1:20
He is now the sixth British prime minister to resign in the last 10 years. To jog your memory, he joins the likes of David Cameron, Theresa May,