In The Room

Andy Burnham’s camp is caught between euphoria and fear. After his victory in the Makerfield by-election and Keir Starmer’s resignation, the path to No 10 appears to have opened up for the former Manchester mayor.

On what would be his third attempt at the Labour leadership, Burnham could be prime minister by mid-July – and the UK’s seventh in ten years. But with the clock already ticking, is his team prepared for power?

Helen MacNamara and Cleo Watson assess the mood inside Burnham’s camp, the mistakes he must avoid repeating from the Starmer years, and why greater urgency and ruthlessness will be needed if he is to govern successfully.
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It wasn’t so close after all. Andy Burnham achieved 9,241 votes more than the second place Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon. Even talk of Restore Britain stealing votes from Reform mattered little in the end. The reality of the Makerfield by-election is it’s a thumping win for Labour’s Andy Burnham, and a disappointing night for Nigel Farage, whose attempts to dial up division in recent weeks didn’t pay off.

In this bonus episode we react to this week’s two Westminster by-elections where voters in Makerfield and Aberdeen South went to the polls. The latter is an interesting case study of single issue campaigning and a sign of a possible Tory revival in Scotland. We also reveal what our advice to Andy Burnham would be as efforts to oust Keir Starmer from No 10 heat up.
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Keir Starmer announced a ban on social media for under-16s. It’s a punchy policy announcement. And it’s a clear sign that he has activated legacy mode. Today, we ask: what will his legacy really look like? And why are prime ministers obsessed about their legacy?

On the week of the announcement, Nigel Farage has dialled up his divisive rhetoric with a brand new Substack page. His numbers on the platform are already towering over Starmer’s. We’ll discuss the prime minister's inability to engage in and win arguments with fringe political leaders, giving breathing room to extremist ideas in the UK - and ask: why the hell are politicians all on Substack anyway?
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next week will see one of the most consequential by-elections in UK political history. Journalists, pollsters and politicians are swamping the small market town near Wigan - where the voters of Makerfield could make Burnham king.

At the time of recording, Labour are 10 points ahead of Reform in the polls. To close the gap, Reform must win a battle of ideas on the right, where Restore Britain are currently polling at 8%. In this episode, Helen and Cleo discuss what happens if Burnham actually wins - will he become prime minister any time soon? And is Keir Starmer really in ‘legacy mode’?

Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 83 days of waiting, the government has finally released the second tranche of files on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador to Washington. The first tranche was already heavy on the filler, but the latest set of documents takes it to a whole new level. It features an incredible amount of seemingly pointless material: Mandelson’s resignation letter appears 8 times, there’s pages of printed versions of Microsoft Teams notifications and the full transcript of a President Trump interview with ABC News.

Today, we dissect the files, picking out the parts that do really tell us a lot - in particular about how Peter Mandelson himself operated behind the scenes.

Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.

This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios

Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.