Are Labour "clutching at straws" on growth?
The New Statesman | UK politics and culture
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rachel Reeves' latest growth speech has failed to convince one curious listener.
George Eaton and Rachel Cunliffe join Hannah Barnes for a special listener questions episode. They tackle your questions on Labour's latest intervention on growth, which George describes as an "attempt" at a vibe shift.
They also discuss whether Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have a charisma problem, as well as one listener who asks if the media should be giving the Liberal Democrats more attention.
Ask a question for us to answer in a future episode: www.newstatesman.com/youaskus
Get more politics coverage every day direct to your email inbox by signing up for our daily politics newsletter: morningcall.substack.com
Save money on a New Statesman subscription to get full access to all our reporting and analysis from just £5 for your first 5 weeks: www.newstatesman.com/jan25
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by EDF, Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity. |
| 0:07.3 | At EDF, they're not just generating zero carbon electricity, they're helping you save cash and carbon. |
| 0:14.8 | Take EDF's Sunday Save a Challenge, shift your weekday peak usage by 40%, and you could earn up to 16 hours of free |
| 0:23.3 | electricity to use the following Sunday. When you install solar panels and a battery with EDF, |
| 0:29.1 | you could pay zero for your electricity. EDF is leading the charge in zero carbon electricity. |
| 0:35.0 | They generate more British wind, nuclear and solar electricity combined |
| 0:39.6 | than anyone else. And if you drive an EV, you can charge it overnight for under £10. It's good |
| 0:46.4 | for your wallet and the planet. Ready to save cash and carbon? Remember, change is in our power. Find out |
| 0:53.9 | more at edfenergy.com. |
| 0:56.9 | Hello, I'm Hannah Barnes, and this is Politics from the New Statesman, where every Thursday |
| 1:01.7 | we bring you the latest from Westminster and beyond. Today, I'm joined by our senior editor, |
| 1:07.4 | George Eaton, and our associate political editor, Rachel Cunliff. Hello. Hello. |
| 1:15.8 | We are going to do things a bit differently this week. We're going to include some of the questions |
| 1:20.8 | that you've been sending to ask via newstatesman.com forward slash you ask us or by leaving a comment on |
| 1:27.0 | Spotify or YouTube. |
| 1:28.5 | And that is because tomorrow's show will be a conversation between our political editor, Andrew |
| 1:33.3 | Marr, and the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who six months ago had the Labor Whip suspended for voting to remove the two-child benefit cap. |
| 1:43.6 | So I'm going to dive in straight away. |
| 1:45.2 | Our first question comes from Robert, who suggests that the government is clutching its |
| 1:50.4 | straws to get economic growth? He asks, does it feel like a rabbit darting around a field |
| 1:56.6 | trying to escape a fox? And could this approach accidentally lead to a trust 2.0 moment? |
| 2:04.2 | George, obviously the big political news this week, the Chancellor's speech, you were there. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -57 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Statesman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Statesman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.