Transcript: Labour’s worst nightmare?

This is an audio transcript of the Political Fix podcast episode: ‘Labour’s worst nightmare?’

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Lucy Fisher
A seismic shift or a flash in the pan: what does George Galloway’s by-election victory mean? Welcome to Political Fix from the FT with me, Lucy Fisher. So the Rochdale results — what does it tell us? With me to discuss that and more are my FT colleagues: political editor George Parker. Hi, George.

George Parker
Hi, Lucy.

Lucy Fisher
Columnist Robert Shrimsley. Hi, Robert.

Robert Shrimsley
Hello.

Lucy Fisher
And the FT’s Jim Pickard. Hello, Jim.

Jim Pickard
Hi.

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George Galloway in clip
Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza.

Lucy Fisher
So we’re meeting on Friday morning after George Galloway put Labour’s leader on notice last night in his victory speech in Rochdale. On Monday he’ll be back in Parliament. But what does all this mean for Labour? George, it’s pretty embarrassing, isn’t it, that Labour have had to apologise that they weren’t able to field a candidate in this by-election? They claim that that’s the only reason George Galloway won. Is that a credible line of argument?

George Parker
Well, it’s quite a big reason, I guess, but it’s also a big failing on the part of the Labour party that they selected this candidate in the first place and then had to reverse out of it. But obviously it’s a huge failing for the Labour party. It’s a massive headache now for Keir Starmer as well, because you’re gonna have George Galloway turning up in the House of Commons and basically trying to inflame divisions within the Labour party on the question of Gaza. And, you know, it’s a humiliating night, I think, not just for Labour, but also for all the mainstream parties in Rochdale. I think out of the three main parties, including Azhar Ali, who was going to be the Labour candidate until he was suspended, they managed to muster 25 per cent in total of the vote. That’s a really shocking indictment, I think, of mainstream party politics at the moment.

Lucy Fisher
I think that’s right. And when you look back to 2019, those three big political giants swept 90 per cent of votes, so it’s a huge fall. Robert, does Rochdale, does that result then suggest there is a wider sense of dissatisfaction with the mainstream political parties, or are there specifics pertinent to Rochdale that, I mean, we can’t read too much into this resul?

Robert Shrimsley
Well, I mean, it is one of the oddest by-elections ever. I mean, not only did you have essentially no Labour candidate, the Greens had disowned their candidate. The Liberal Democrats didn’t realise in the seat where they had once been, the incumbent didn’t realise that there was a chance so they didn’t bother campaigning. You know, the Tories went nowhere. The Reform party selected a disgraced former Labour MP. It’s almost like a comedy, if it wasn’t so serious. So I think it’s probably a mistake to read too much beyond. It’s clearly not an outcome that Keir Starmer would have wanted.

I think it probably doesn’t portend very much for the shape of what’s coming in the election and in national politics, unless the Gaza conflict is still going on at the time of the general election. The only place where I think it could have any sort of long-term resonance is in Scotland, where the SNP has pushed very, very hard and campaigned very, very hard on Gaza and is a major viable alternative vote to the Labour party, clearly the biggest party in Scotland at the moment. And I think they might feel this gives us a reason to push on on this because it’s a differentiation with Labour for a party that people ordinarily vote for. But I think unless the conflict is still really dragging on in the kind of awful way it is now, that I don’t think it will have major ramifications come the election.

Lucy Fisher
Jim, what do you think about that? I mean, Robert rightly points out the SNP are outflanking Labour from the left in this sort of pro-Gaza, pro-Palestinian position. We’ve also seen Momentum, the Corbynite campaign group within Labour, leap on the Rochdale result to say this is down to Starmer’s twin failures on candidate selection. But again, on Gaza, is Labour’s position on the Israel-Hamas war gonna have to move further in light of this result?

Jim Pickard
Yeah, I mean, I think the problem that Labour have is that they have changed position considerably from where we started out in October, when Keir Starmer declared to the Labour conference that he would back Israel to the hilt. Since then we have ended up in a position where only last week Labour was supporting an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, albeit with caveats including Hamas needs to hand over the Israeli hostages. But I think that’s not enough for people who have been concerned about Israel’s acts in Gaza from the beginning. And of course, we had that LBC interview before Christmas where Keir Starmer appeared to say that Israel had the right to cut off water and power to the Gaza Strip, which absolutely infuriated people, particularly Muslims, but not only Muslims. That clip went viral, and there’s an attempt to undo that, which is taking a long time and is very problematic for Keir Starmer.

I think what we’ve seen in Rochdale, which is really interesting, is that the issue beforehand was and what is the salience of Gaza, particularly in a seat like that, which has over 30 per cent Muslim voting population. A lot of people said there are loads of things people probably care about more like housing, jobs, NHS. I think there’s something about a by-election there where it can become a lightning rod for a single issue. Gaza was the single issue, but when we get to the general election, not only will turnout be higher, but people’s minds will be turning back to the things that matter most to them and their families. I kind of agree that this isn’t gonna be the defining factor in the general election at all. There will be a few specific areas in the North West, South Yorkshire, east London where there is a very high Muslim presence where you could you could see this being a factor changing the overall outcome. I don’t think there’ll be, you know, a multitude of seats where independent pro-Palestinian candidates win, I think.

Robert Shrimsley
But I think the danger for Labour is it’s not so much the handful of seats where they could be threatened. It’s if this issue begins to consume the party, if Keir Starmer is having to spend too much time on it and there’s too much infighting and you’ve got Tories pushing at this, punching at this bruise from the other side, I think the danger for Labour is not the handful of seats where you correctly say there’s a risk. It becomes too big a subject for Labour when it’s not what the voters are on.

Jim Pickard
But the corrective to all of this, which we ought to point out before we forget it, is that in Wellingborough and in Kingswood, only two weeks ago, of course, Labour enjoyed some of the biggest landslides they’ve seen in decades. So overall, I think the tide is still going the right way for them, despite what Robert just said.

Lucy Fisher
And of course, I think in Rochdale as well, there are these specific elements of its recent history — the child sex abuse scandal, you know, long-term poverty — that have served to undermine trust in the sort of political establishment or authority figures. That’s said, George, what do you make of Galloway talking about his Workers party having 60 candidates waiting in the wings, being, you know, ready to negotiate. You know, Robert thinks it’s not gonna have much electoral purchase, but it will have pressure on Labour. And could they, could he pick up significant votes to swing the result in some seats?

George Parker
Well, Robert and I were speaking to a member of the shadow cabinet earlier on today and they were saying that maybe four or five seats could come into play because of this kind of, you know, Workers party Palestinian faction, but relatively small number, I would suggest. The other thing, of course, to say is this there’s only one George Galloway. I think it’s the point being made by John McTernan, one of Blair’s former advisers; that he’s a kind of a unique figure in his rabble rousing, sort of fiery invective and so on. So I don’t see it being a sort of a huge factor at the next election, apart from, as Robert was saying, this idea that he becomes this agent for sowing division in the Labour party. He’ll get a platform on some of the media channels. I imagine even GB News will (inaudible) at him, will make him quite a regular presence, because it’s a way of stirring things up as far as the Labour party is concerned.

Lucy Fisher
And he certainly has a way with words, doesn’t he? I must say I was struck by his soundbite that Labour and the Conservatives were two cheeks of the same backside and that backside had been spanked. Robert, for anyone listening who doesn’t know that much about Galloway and his background, give us a bit of a potted history.

Robert Shrimsley
Oh, God. OK.

Lucy Fisher
Putting you on the spot.

Robert Shrimsley
He is a former Labour MP for Glasgow and he won two different seats in Glasgow (inaudible) for boundary change realignments. He found himself on the wrong side of Tony Blair and the Labour party over Iraq, forced out of the party, after which he became a sort of professional irritant to the Labour party, standing and toppling Blair favourite Oona King in east London. He then did something similar in Bradford. On both occasions he then subsequently lost his seat.

He’s also got some really awful friends. He’s been photographed and filmed in sucking up to sort of Saddam Hussein, to Castro. He’s probably the cleverest stupid man in politics. He’s been on the wrong side of almost every position but he does it with great brio and vim. And as you say, he’s tremendously articulate. He’s a superb campaigner, which is obviously one of the reasons why he’s won. Although he probably was the only person campaigning apart from (inaudible). But he’s an extremely effective performer. He’s pro-Brexit, by the way. So he crosses over his populist areas. He’s almost the perfect Labour populist.

George Parker
He’s an apologist for Putin as well.

Robert Shrimsley
Absolutely. And until really late, I mean, he was denying Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury poisonings well after it was logical to be doing so. So that’s who he is. But he is an extremely effective wedge campaigner, particularly where he sees significant pockets of Muslim voters who he can appeal to on Middle East issues, which is always been his biggest personal campaigning issue. So he’ll be a big, loud figure. He won’t do very much for Rochdale and if past form is anything to go by, he may well be voted out at the general election, if not the one after. But he’s a big figure and just inserts himself into the debate.

George Parker
Funnily enough, I used to play football for the lobby football team and George Galloway was always a frequent member of the MPs team. (Inaudible) play on the leftwing. And I don’t think, I know that’s (inaudible) sort of probably predictable thing is he always seemed to come off injured after about 10 minutes.

Lucy Fisher
Oh, is that right?

George Parker
So he’s not what you call an impact player.

Lucy Fisher
Well, let’s not forget as well one of my favourite moments: him in that leotard, pretending to be a cat drinking milk out of the cupped hands of an actress on Celebrity Big Brother. But as I’ve been glib, Jim, I mean, there are concerns the campaign against antisemitism has said that it is very worried by his election. George Galloway, he’s made lots of remarks that are against Israel. He has always denied being antisemitic, but there are concerns about the way he prosecutes his politics, aren’t there?

Jim Pickard
Yeah, and he’s quite litigious and he threatens legal action against anyone who would suggest him having any antisemitic tendencies. But what is very clear is that he is hostile to the state of Israel. The recent actions of the state of Israel have obviously fired him up in that regard. And he sees this political opportunity for that the legitimate concerns that millions of people in Britain have right now about the extents of the deaths happening in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombardment, which is, of course, triggered by those horrific atrocities by Hamas in October. One of the interesting things about him is that like Robert was saying, he’s quite mercurial. One of his parties was called All for Unity, which I think is quite an ironic name when he’s been in four different parties: Labour, All for Unity, Respect, Workers Party of Britain. I agree with Robert that he’s not gonna last that long. One would have thought. But while he’s there, he’s just gonna stir the pot an awful lot on that issue.

Lucy Fisher
George, just a final word on the by-election, then. Reform — I mean, they just managed to hang on to their deposit, getting 6.3 per cent of votes, but they came sixth. It’s a big setback for them, isn’t it?

George Parker
It is. I think there was some speculation that Simon Danczuk, who’s previously a former Labour MP for Rochdale, suspended over sexting a 17-year-old. Maybe he was an inappropriate candidate, but certainly it’s a massive disappointment for Reform after they polled over 10 per cent in the two most recent by-elections. So I think that is one big setback.

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Lucy Fisher
George Galloway’s victory came days after the prime minister warned that there was a growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule. And of course, we heard this week Lee Anderson, digging in on his claims that the Islamists had gained control of London and of the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. Robert, you’ve written your column this week about the Conservatives’ failure, as you see it, to police the boundaries of acceptable speech. Tell us more about that.

Robert Shrimsley
Well, I mean, it very much touches on the Lee Anderson point that you mentioned, but I’ve also been very struck in the last few days. We had Liz Truss in America sitting on a platform with Steve Bannon as he praises Tommy Robinson as a hero and her saying absolutely nothing. Now, you know, sometimes when Liz Truss is just being flat-footed, you have to allow for that possibility. But she’s also talking about, you know, the deep state which sabotaged her premiership. We’re part of it, by the way, the FT.

Lucy Fisher
Well, shall we just listen to a clip of Liz Truss talking to Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, at Cpac, a big gathering of Republicans in the US.

Liz Truss in clip
The economic establishment in Britain wanted to keep things the way they were, and they did. They got me. But I have learned from that, Steve.

Steve Bannon in clip
You did. Hold on. Was it The Economist that got you? Was it the Financial Times of London? Are these the people we got to (inaudible) the party a bit? The City of London? Are they the ones that run the deal over there?

Liz Truss in clip
These are the friends of the bureaucratic establishment. They are the friends of the deep state.

Lucy Fisher
That was Liz Truss talking to Steve Bannon at Cpac in the US. Here’s what Keir Starmer made of it.

Keir Starmer in clip
A Tory MP spent last week claiming that Britain is run by a shadowy cabal made up of activists, the deep state and most chillingly of all, the Financial Times. At what point did his party give up on governing and become the political wing of the Flat Earth Society?

Lucy Fisher
Robert.

Robert Shrimsley
Well, given that Liz Truss had a go at us when she was talking to Steve Bannon, all I can say is I prefer our friends to hers. I’ll start with that. Look, but what I was getting is that, you know, he used a former prime minister. I know that it’s possible to paint Liz Truss is now being on the fringe of the Conservative party, but she held five cabinet jobs and they elected her prime minister not that long ago. And then on top of that, and she took these paranoid theories about the deep state, you know, those of us who were there at the time, which is all of us. Remember that she was actually removed by her own party. So, you know . . . 

George Parker
And the free market.

Robert Shrimsley
And the free market, which she believes in. So you’ve got her pushing these paranoid conspiracy theories to sell a book in America, but she’s still doing it. And then you have Suella Braverman writing in The Telegraph something a bit cuter than Lee Anderson. She manages not to personalise it, but she’s also saying, you know, Islamists are in control of Britain. And I just look at all this and think, you know, what the Conservative party is in danger of doing is in its attempt to claw back the votes that it fears it’s losing to Reform, it is failing to police the boundaries of what is a mainstream political party should be.

And if you look at what happened to the Republican party in the US, it didn’t turn Trumpist overnight. There was a series of minor compromises, one after another, where they let it go to win or they let it go to shore up their vote. And you end up, you know, with Republicans in Congress and in the Senate trying to pretend that the election was stolen, that Donald Trump wasn’t responsible, at least partly, for the Capitol riots. The point is, you don’t lose a party overnight, you lose it gradually. And I think that’s the danger, given the Conservative position. And you end up with Rishi Sunak talking about mob rule. It’s a bit of an indictment of a government that’s as been in power for 14 years if we have mob rule in this country. So tactically, I don’t think it’s clever.

But what I find alarming above all of this, especially if you feed in the Rochdale result, is you are seeing people who see political value in division and sectarianism, and pushing against is one of the things that Tories were instructed to do after the Lee Anderson issue was not use the word Islamophobia, and even not use anti-Muslim prejudice. And when one cabinet minister, Tom Tugendhat, did use it, they took him off the broadcast round for the rest of the day. So the point is, they don’t want to be seen to be going against people who are inflamed about Muslim activism. And so it’s a really unpleasant time, and it’s a time when responsible political parties actually need to be toning down the rhetoric. There are issues that are gonna be addressed. There’s no point to pretending there aren’t problems to be tackled. But you tamp down the rhetoric. You don’t fan the flames.

Lucy Fisher
There was a significant pause, wasn’t there, George, between Lee Anderson making those very controversial remarks and Downing Street finally stepping in to remove him from the whip; some suggestion it took for Sajid Javid, you know, a Muslim former frontbencher, to ring up and say, look, you’ve got to take action.

George Parker
Yeah, there was a very long delay. Rishi Sunak subsequently claimed he acted immediately to suspend Lee Anderson. That isn’t the case. I was working on the Friday night when Lee Anderson made the remarks and the Conservative Central Office put out a statement basically defending the remarks and saying they were just a legitimate criticism of Sadiq Khan’s policing of demonstrations. Then there was the contortions over the weekend where he was offered the chance to apologise, and then subsequently he was obviously suspended for not apologising, and Rishi Sunak tried to rewrite history by suggesting he was suspended for the original words and he’d acted immediately. Neither of those two things were true.

Lucy Fisher
And what about this consensus, this growing consensus about mob rule. Who is this consensus?

George Parker
Well, this is an extraordinary thing. And I was at the lobby briefing this week where I think probably at 45 minutes of questioning about Rishi Sunak’s comments. You know, how does he explain that there is a growing consensus, a general understanding in the population that Britain is now being run by the mob rather than by democracy? And the Downing Street spokesman said he didn’t really want to name names of who was part of this consensus.

Robert Shrimsley
Secret consensus. It’s a secret consensus.

George Parker
It’s a secret consensus. (Laughter) I mean, obviously, if you went down to, you know, Tiverton in Devon where I’m from and asked people what they’ve . . . they would have no idea what Rishi Sunak was talking about. There plainly is not a growing consensus that mob rule is running the country.

But I want to develop Robert’s point. I totally agree with everything Robert said about policing the boundaries of what’s acceptable for a mainstream party to say. But I think that what you saw with Truss and Braverman and Anderson and then the prime minister is all in a continuum of mainstream politicians who’ve been in power for 14 years, as we said, basically saying we are not in control. The country is being run by the deep state or the FT or Islamists.

And if you create the idea that you elect people, send them to Westminster where they’re in power for 14 years, and at the end of it all, they say we’re not in control, someone else is, then you get into a situation that we saw in Rochdale where people think, well, what’s the point of voting for these people? Like, they seem to be out of control. I think it’s been a really, really bad week for mainstream democratic politics in Britain.

Lucy Fisher
Jim, you were trying to get in.

Jim Pickard
Yeah, I mean I think what’s happening here is that Tory MPs are trying to conflate two things. They are taking these huge, anti-Israel protests that are happening regularly in London, and they’re trying to imply that these mobs are so huge and some of the stuff there is so offensive that somehow in this city controlled by Sadiq Khan, who happens to be Muslim, everything is a bit out of control. They sort of give the impression, if you were living somewhere outside London, that this is happening all the time, no one can go about their daily business because of these huge demonstrations.

And they are ignoring the fact that as far as I know, the vast majority of these protesters are people who are concerned about what Israel is doing in Gaza, and they’re not deranged Islamists who want to create a caliphate. It’s an absolutely absurd idea that it’s being hinted at, nudged at, played up by certain Tory MPs. But if you are in somewhere like Grimsby, which is where I was on Tuesday and Wednesday doing some reporting for a long peacetime thing, and you don’t regularly go down to London, you might get this totally erroneous impression what is happening in the capital city.

Robert Shrimsley
Hang on, let’s not be too . . . We have to be careful not to be overly glib about the issues. There are threats to MPs. There are threats to people. There are threats to the Jewish community. There are things going on that people are frightened about so . . . And politicians shouldn’t pretend that everything’s rosy and there’s nothing going on. There are different security threats that have to be tackled. The issue is reducing it to language like “mob rule”, which stirs up anger and hatred.

Jim Pickard
Of course.

Robert Shrimsley
Rather than addressing the specific concerns.

Jim Pickard
And to be totally clear, some of these protesters at these anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rallies are saying and doing unacceptable things — of course, they are. But to somehow make some sweeping blanket claim about all of them is my point.

So anyway, so I was in Grimsby, had a wonderful time. I went to the fish market, went to see offshore wind farms in the distant Humber estuary, talked to an awful lot of people, went out for a few pints with Charlie Bibby, our photographer, chatted to an awful lot of people. The thing that is really striking is the political apathy and the hostility towards Westminster and the main parties, not just from people who have no hopes because they’re unemployed, they have no housing, all the rest of it. People I spoke to on, you know, engineers on 50, 60 grand a year, couple of successful entrepreneurs, they were telling me how they think Westminster is rotten and, you know, not working the interest of the people and all the rest of it. There’s a very, very, I would say, kind of dangerously nihilistic attitude out there which if a Trump-type character came along, you know, there could be (inaudible). For now, some of our populists seems to be not particularly popular. But should a very, very charismatic populist come along, there is quite a sense out there that the country’s fed up with the main parties.

George Parker
And I think that’s why, although there are specificities around the Rochdale by-election, it is a canary in the mine for exactly what Jim is saying, for dissatisfaction and growing detachment from mainstream politics.

Robert Shrimsley
You don’t think the mob rule is mobs of FT journalists going around (laughter) making sure the deep state is functioning properly?

Lucy Fisher
Can we be sure that’s not the case?

George Parker
We’re not gonna let you know if we’re part of the deep state.

Jim Pickard
Yeah, that’s the last thing we’re gonna admit.

George Parker
The first rule of Deep State Club is not to talk about it (laughter).

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Lucy Fisher
Well, next week we’ve got the Budget. It’s all hands on deck at the FT, of course. George, what should we be looking out for?

George Parker
Well, one thing we should be looking out for is whether the nods and winks coming out of the Treasury come true, and that they end up stealing a load of Labour party policies, because I’m gonna report to you what people are saying inside the Treasury and you have to aim off, of course, because we’re into the period of management of expectations.

But the overall picture is that there’s very little money available for tax cuts, which the chancellor and the prime minister want to prioritise, whether it’s national insurance or income tax cuts. So they’re rattling the tin to try and find money to fund those tax cuts. And one of the things they’ve alighted on are a number of things which would be very tempting from a party political point of view. So one of the things that we’ve reported on is the idea that they could, but that’s not confirmed it by any means, reduce the amount they say they’re gonna spend on public services after the election, the so-called scorched earth policy. Sometimes the Labour party talks about that, can release £5bn or £6bn if you knock a bit off the spending assumptions after the election. Or you could raise money by nicking some of Labour’s flagship policies, for example, as we also reported, the idea of taking Labour’s plan to scale back or scrap the non-dom tax break. Another suggestion being made that the government could nick Labour’s idea about windfall tax, extend that as well.

Now, the tempting thing about that is both those things would raise money for tax cuts now. But of course, the other thing it does is it allows Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to say to the Labour party, well, we spent all that money already on tax cuts, so how are you going to fund your policies on the health service or breakfast clubs at schools? And then you get into quite the position that the Tories desperately want to get into, which they tried to line up a Labour tax bombshell on them for the election.

Lucy Fisher
So they obviously think that might be canny politics. But Jim, isn’t the flip side that Labour can say, well, look, you know, these guys are so out of ideas. They’re having to reach into the locker for ours. That’s great. We welcome that. Why don’t you just hand over the keys to the car now, you know. You’re endorsing us as, you know, people who are putting forward responsible fiscal policies.

Jim Pickard
I mean, my experience of politicians nicking ideas off each other is that no one really remembers it. So if you think of all the U-turns that Boris Johnson did, you know, I can’t remember half of them. I think Boris Johnson nicked quite a few Labour policies. It’s a pretty regular thing to do. I totally agree with George that it basically, you know, firstly, a couple of these ideas could raise money if Jeremy Hunt went down that route. So getting . . . reducing non-dom status, maybe extending the windfall tax. And you also just make Labour’s offering, which has already been reduced, on the green prosperity plan recently. You make it look more diminished, especially if you also said, as Jeremy Hunt, we’re gonna to have a look at private equity tax breaks as well. He doesn’t even need to change private equity tax treatment straight away. He could just say, you know, we’re gonna carry out a review of it. And then that just leaves Labour with almost only one fiscal policy, which would differentiate itself from the Tories, which is the take away the tax perks enjoyed by private schools. And I think that’s one thing the Tories wouldn’t, they wouldn’t go down that particular avenue.

Lucy Fisher
No.

Jim Pickard
They know that’s potentially unpopular for Labour. The jury’s kind of out on that one. Yes. It is interesting politicking ahead of the general election.

Lucy Fisher
Robert, what are you looking at for the Budget?

Robert Shrimsley
Well, I do think this is the fascinating central question, because we know that Labour’s every instinct is just to say yes to whatever the government has done in the Budget. They won’t absolutely reverse that. You know, unless they do something screamingly easy to attack, like maybe abolishing inheritance tax, then Labour’s instinct is to say, yes, look, we’ll deal with the world we inherit.

But I do think we’re getting quite close to the point where, you know, a decent political party promising to give Britain its future back has to engage in the argument and say, well, look, actually, we don’t think that these extra tax cuts are light, and we would spend this money differently. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s not a tradition they wanna get into. They don’t wanna go into an election saying we’re gonna raise taxes.

But the truth is, at some point, if you’re going into the people saying the NHS doesn’t work, our schools don’t work, our councils are bankrupt, they can’t provide basic facilities, social care is not functioning, we’ve got a defence budget we have to fund — at some point there might just be an argument to make this as actually, we didn’t think this was the right time for tax cuts. We think this is the right time to invest in our crumbling public services. And there are polls that suggest that people might be interested in hearing that. It’s a dangerous strategy. I’m sure they won’t take it, but there is an argument that has to be made.

Lucy Fisher
We’ll be back next week to fill it; all the details and minutiae from the big fiscal statement.

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We’ve just got time left for Political Fix stock picks. Jim, who are you buying or selling?

Jim Pickard
I’m selling George Galloway. No disrespect, of course. It’s George. It’s just that you should always sell when stocks are at the top. And I’m gonna buy Paul Waugh because he’s not even a Labour candidate for Rochdale at this point in time. One might think that the political journalist Paul Waugh could be the next Labour candidate for the seat and if precedent is any guide to what happens to Galloway when he is elected in by-elections, he could be replaced.

Lucy Fisher
George, who are you buying or selling?

George Parker
Well, I think I’m gonna be selling Darren Jones this week. He’s the Labour shadow chief secretary, who’s the person who’s gonna have to try and make the sums add up after Jeremy Hunt has taken the axe to some of their spending proposals. So let’s sell Darren Jones.

Lucy Fisher
Robert.

Robert Shrimsley
So I think after much hesitation and delay I’m gonna buy Nigel Farage this week. I think the kind of politics we’ve seen in the last week are exactly those that are conducive to his kind of politics, and he’s got lots of issues he can fight on. If there’s mob rule in the streets of Britain, that’s exactly the territory he wants to be fighting on. So Sunak has given him another weapon. I think he’s increasingly attracted to the idea of standing for parliament in Clacton-on-Sea, which he might win, and coming back in some way to spearhead the Reform party campaign. So, yeah, I’m reluctant. I think I’m gonna have to buy Farage. What about you?

Lucy Fisher
I’m gonna hold Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader. She’s come under some pressure this week after the big headline out of a new book on her by Lord Ashcroft found she may have underpaid capital gains tax on her house.

But I think she’s weathered the storm pretty well. And that’s the worst they could find on her. I don’t think she’s gonna suffer too much. And I think she’s an effective campaigner who can reach parts of the electorate that Starmer and some of the other smoother, slightly blander members of the shadow cabinet struggle to do so.

Well, that’s all we’ve got time for this week. Robert, Jim, George, thanks for joining us.

George Parker, Robert Shrimsley and Jim Pickard
Thanks.

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Lucy Fisher
That’s it for this episode of the FT’s Political Fix. I’ve put links to subjects discussed in the episode in the show notes. Do check them out. They’re articles we’ve made free for Political Fix listeners. There’s also a link there to Stephen Bush’s award-winning Inside Politics newsletter. You get 30 days free.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the show. Plus, do leave a review or a star rating if you have time. It really helps us spread the word. Political Fix was presented by me, Lucy Fisher, and produced by Audrey Tinline with help from Leah Quinn. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Original music and sound engineering by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio. We’ll meet again here next week.

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