Does Starmer know what a woman is?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Parliament is back after the Easter holiday and the Supreme Court ruling over 'what is a woman' continues to dominate talk in Westminster. The Prime Minister has changed his tune on trans, declaring he does not think that trans women are women. This has caused some disquiet in the party, with a number of senior MPs breaking rank over the weekend. Was Starmer right to row in behind the ruling?

Also on the podcast, as we edge closer to the local elections, they look increasingly important for the two main parties. Pollsters are forecasting a good result for smaller insurgent parties such as Reform and the Greens, with big losses for Labour and the Conservatives. It is not an overstatement to suggest that these could be the most important local elections in recent history. What will these elections mean for the two-party system?

Natasha Feroze speaks to James Heale and Paul Goodman.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On Thursday, the 15th of May, the Spectator is hosting a live book club event. Sam Leith will be joined by
0:07.0	former Telegraph Editor-in-Chief and military historian Max Hastings. It will be an opportunity to talk
0:12.2	about Max's new book, Sword, D-Day, trial by battle, as well as mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
0:19.6	The full details are as follows. 730 on Thursday the 15th of
0:23.3	May at the Shaw Theatre in Houston, London, and tickets start from £27.50, although I believe
0:29.5	there are ticket options that include a signed copy of the book. For those tickets, go to
0:34.4	www. Spectator.com.com.com. We look forward to seeing you there.
0:44.0	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectators Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Natasha
0:49.0	Froes and I'm joined by Paul Goodman and James Heel. Now, Parliament is back after an Easter holiday and the big things
0:56.6	to look ahead for are the local elections, which we're going to be talking about, plus the
1:01.5	IMS forecast on the economy. Paul, tell us about it. So, I mean, local elections usually,
1:08.0	not always, are difficult for the government and I don't expect Labour to come out of
1:13.3	these elections smelling of roses. But looking at them in their broader context, they were actually
1:20.0	quite good for the last government under whom they happened at this point in the cycle, namely the
1:25.6	Conservatives. So this is a very difficult
1:28.1	set of local elections for the Conservatives because they're fighting from a very high point.
1:33.6	Most of these elections are, what was it were, rural elections, they're county elections.
1:38.2	The Conservatives have got to defend a lot of seats. So they in Labor, I think,
1:43.4	will be under attack from reform, from the Liberal Democrats,
1:49.5	up to as a point for the independence. So I suppose the thing to watch from them will be how the two
1:54.5	main parties do. From the point of view of the economy, obviously these economic problems
1:59.9	and the general background of Trump, they
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