563. Britain’s Afghanistan Shame and the Jason Arday Tragedy
19 August 2026
545. Burnham Beats Reform: Britain’s Next Prime Minister?
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Podcast
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19 June 2026
Has Andy Burnham’s huge victory against Reform in Makerfield shown the Labour Party how it can beat Farage? What does this defeat mean for the right, and how tricky will the coming months be for Andy Burnham? What does the Tory victory against the SNP in Aberdeen mean for British energy policy?
Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more.
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Allowing Burnham to oust Starmer without a proper leadership race seems like an awful idea for the country and for Labour. It would mean that we had a Prime Minister who has not publicly presented his ideas to the public and the party and had them tested in debate (which, arguably, is what happened to Starmer, who carried his “Not the Tories” Ming vase over the threshold without ever granting us a peak at its contents).
More dangerous, perhaps, is that the Labour members will not have a proper say in the selection process. That is good and well if Burnham delivers, but we all know he won’t to everybody’s satisfaction and with no investment in him personally the membership will angrily turn against him, opening the way for another challenge. That takes us back into the ugly old march of left-right, left-right swings, as Streeting or some other middle-aged white dude with no obvious values presents themselves as the next agent of change and bringer of hope.
There has to be a contest, not just a changing of the flabby, sad failure at the top with another equally flabby, sad failure with a little more hair gel.