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Best of the Spectator

Coffee House Shots: Keir Starmer and the lost art of political oratory

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From Churchill to Thatcher to Blair to Farage, Parliament has seen some truly fantastic rhetoricians over the years. But last week came the news that – in a bid to improve his own oratorical skill – Keir Starmer employed a voice coach: former actress Leonie Mellinger. Mellinger has been at the centre of a fresh COVID-19 row, as the Prime Minister considered her to be so important that she qualified as a ‘key worker’ in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve 2020 to advise Starmer.

It is not an unusual practice to employ a voice coach to improve a politician’s public speaking, and on the podcast Michael Gove is joined by his own former coach  Graham Davies, to recover the lost art of political rhetoric. They discuss what makes a great political speech, share some of their favourite examples and ask: has Mellinger actually improved Starmer’s delivery?

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.

Transcript

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0:00.0

We are very pleased to announce the full line-up for our Coffee House Shots live event on the 26th

0:04.8

February at the Emanuel Centre in Westminster. Join Coffee House Shots regulars, Michael Gove,

0:10.1

Casey Balls, Kate Andrews, as well as very special guests, Robert Jenrick and Jonathan Ashworth

0:15.0

for a look to the year ahead. They will be tackling such questions as, can the Chancellor

0:19.9

reframe the budget in her first spring statement?

0:22.1

What will Trump's first 100 days look like? And will reform cause an upset at the local elections?

0:27.3

So that's Emmanuel Centre, 7.30, 26th of February. And for tickets, go to spectator.com.com.

0:33.2

We look forward to seeing you there.

0:40.2

Hello, I'm Michael Gove and this is Coffee House Shots.

0:45.3

Kirstonger has been in the news for hiring a voice coach, Leonie Mellinger,

0:50.5

in order to ensure that rather than just sounding like an adenoidal insurance salesman from Surrey,

0:56.0

he sounds like an authoritative adenoidal insurance salesman from Surrey.

1:01.3

And Leonia Mellinger's support for Kea Stama as a coach in encouraging him to present himself better

1:09.0

has raised two questions.

1:12.7

One, were the COVID rules broken, but two, how much do our politicians now rely on external help in getting

1:20.7

their message across? I'm joined today by Graham Davis, who's coached a variety of politicians,

1:27.2

most of them conservative,

1:28.5

at various different stages in their career, helping them to get their message across,

1:33.0

whether it's from the podium or on broadcast.

1:36.2

Graham, very good to see you.

1:38.3

Thinking about Kirstama and the impact of the only Mellinger,

1:42.8

why do you think Kirstama felt that he needed a voice coach?

...

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