Labour Together? Party morale & the threat of Reform
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 April 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Less than two weeks to go from the local elections, and only a few months away from marking one year in power, what is morale like in the Labour Party? While Patrick reflects on who might, or might not, be feeling happy, Ashworth provides more reasons for Labour supporters to feel bullish – particularly when thinking about the threat from Reform.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Transcript
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| 0:35.0 | Hello and welcome to Coffeehouse Shots, the Spectators Daily podcast and my penultimate podcast while serving as the spectator's political editor. I'm Katie Balls |
| 0:39.8 | and I'm delighted to be joined by two of my favourites, Patrick McGuire from The Times and Jonathan |
| 0:44.4 | Ashworth, currently the Chair of Labour together, but you have some news for us today. I certainly |
| 0:49.2 | have and what a pleasure it is to be here for your penultimate podcast, Katie. Yes, so I always said to my friends, |
| 0:55.7 | anyway, probably not publicly. I said it to my friends. I was going to do 12 months at Labor |
| 0:58.8 | Together. And 12 months will be July, because it was obviously last July when I unexpectedly |
| 1:03.8 | lost my seat. So in July, I will be moving on from Labour Together. It's been absolutely great. |
| 1:09.1 | I've loved it. And it was a great place to go |
| 1:11.9 | when you unexpectedly lose your seat in a general election and all your colleagues go in the |
| 1:16.6 | other direction to government. But I always said I was going to give it 12 months. And I'm going to |
| 1:21.3 | be working on a book about my life in Manchester, the son of a playboy bunny girl and some of the stories of Manchester |
| 1:29.6 | of the 70s and 80s. And I'm also going to be setting up a rival podcast to you guys. I'm afraid. |
| 1:35.4 | That's actually why I've had to leave the country. Sorry to say that. I was worried about what |
| 1:38.1 | might do to our listening figures. Indeed. And I've got one or two other projects, |
| 1:42.2 | which I'll be saying more about soon. So as you hang up your hat or put down your pan at Labour Together, it's really because |
| 1:48.9 | of everyone, you need to change jobs again, Patrick, so you can be part of this. |
| 1:53.5 | But what would you say looking back, your big achievements that Labor Together have been? |
... |
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