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In The Room

Local elections: Green vs Reform heats up as Starmer comes out swinging

5/6/202636 min

Local elections are often a stick used to beat the government with. That’s never been truer than in this Thursday’s contests. Across the country, voters are expected to desert Labour, exposing the real dividing lines in British politics that have been emerging since before the 2024 general election.

In this week’s episode, we reveal whether Labour can survive a two-front battle against Reform and the Greens, what happens when unvetted fringe candidates win seats, and whether projected election disasters will ultimately topple Keir Starmer's leadership.

Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose

Producer: Sam Durham

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clips

Bold election predictions rapid-fire
Labour’s two-front London squeeze
A rare moment of unity
Rayner’s awkward “support” video
Populism’s fairness frame explained
When vetting fails, chaos wins
Can we use the helicopter?
SNP resurgence despite sliding support

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Cleo Watson· Host0:00

    Hello, and welcome back to In the Room.

  2. Helen MacNamara· Host0:01

    Cleo has been banging on about it for ages, but it's finally upon us, local elections this week.

  3. Cleo Watson· Host0:06

    It's true. It's my Christmas. This week, we're discussing what the contests mean for the Labour government and for the other parties, and give you a little sense of what's going on behind the scenes.

  4. Helen MacNamara· Host0:16

    I'm Helen MacNamara, the former Deputy Cabinet Secretary.

  5. Cleo Watson· Host0:18

    And I'm Cleo Watson, a former special advisor in Number Ten.

  6. Helen MacNamara· Host0:21

    And this is In the Room.

  7. Cleo Watson· Host0:23

    [upbeat music] Welcome back, everybody. Before we get into the bonanza that is the local elections week, we just want to say a big thank you for listening so far. It really does mean a lot to us that you rate us, uh, hopefully a very high rating, and that you leave reviews. Don't forget to click follow on your podcast player of choice and follow us on YouTube, where we are In the Room Politics, and of course, you can go to Instagram for all our best clips at intheroom.pod. Every like, every follow really does help us grow, and we so appreciate it.

  8. Helen MacNamara· Host0:57

    Now, I know that you're not sadly actually in the room with us, but Cleo's excitement is genuinely tangible, ladies and gentlemen. Cleo, get us up to speed with what's going on this week.

  9. Cleo Watson· Host1:07

    So this week, we have some local and actually some national elections going on in the devolved nations up and down the country on Thursday. So let's just have a quick reminder of what these local elections are for because I think with all the chat about leadership contests and so on, we can kind of lose sight of what the purpose of these elections even are. So fixing potholes, providing care for

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