[Music]
the truism is that it's the worst
job in politics it's a truism for a
reason
in office but not in charge the leader
of the opposition is the permanent
understudy of british public life
and most of them fail but since
starman's election he has resurrected
labour's cadaverous opinion poll ratings
still some worry a ceiling appears to
have been reached or worse
labour's ratings have sharpened the
increase since darma became leader but
the rise has stalled
we see a similar pattern with starma's
personal ratings his negatives
starting to climb quite sharply over the
last few months
and boris johnson has once again
overtaken stalmer on the preferred prime
minister stakes
but many leaders of the opposition never
get into positive territory
at all or only fleetingly ed miliband
managed a few months in positive
territory
even cameron's positive ratings
disappeared after a year
labour old hands say then that this is
nothing to worry about
for kiyostama in a year to not just have
got us back
on equal terms in in the polls we were
26 points behind by the way
but also he's the first leader i think
since tony blair
who's got a personal rating higher than
the
than the current prime minister who who
has been all too often over the last 10
years the leading
conservative party that is a terrific
achievement
in his first year and yet not only are
the tories just about still ahead but
they're now pulling a bit further ahead
and and kyocerma's personal ratings are
starting to dip a little
yeah i don't think that should concern
kia in the sense that
in the middle of a pandemic uh i think
it's very difficult
for governments to actually go down in
the polls given that most people
in britain in any way give them the
benefit of the doubt
and of course hasn't been able to
campaign hasn't been able to make a
conference speech
sometimes unable to leave his own home
and he's had to navigate a coveted
politics
where to be seen to commit politics
maybe a sin
but overall i welcome this statement i
believe the government is trying to do
the right thing
but there are those who whisper that
there's not enough politics within the
man to begin with
that he hasn't the bite of his
successful predecessors that his
critique of the johnson government has
been one anchored in competence just to
the point that through the vaccine
program
the government has shown it has it one
of the critiques of kierstarma this year
has been despite the fact that he's
clearly
a very competent figure uh someone who
many people can imagine being prime
minister perhaps he's a bit too loyal
a little bit too cautious the public
square
and the so-called court of public
opinion are actually very different from
a a court room um even pmqs
um uh where people say kyra has been a a
very able performer even pmq's prime
minister's questions is not
the same as courtroom advocacy but in a
sense
those um those critiques and those
conversations
are our westminster bubble stuff
and what i'm looking for is not really
that what i'm looking for is the
offering
what i'm looking for is the great big
hearted
optimistic offering to the british
people that says
it was labor um that did it after world
war
ii it was labor that that built the
welfare state
and that's the offer to which starman
will turn tomorrow that he will we're
told
start to map out the intellectual basis
of astama labor governments of what
social democracy will look like in the
2020s that he will say that there can be
no return to business as usual
or the failed conservative ideology of
the past
now you may think this sounds rather rum
can labor credibly talk of a
failed conservative ideology when they
have so
that is the conservatives transformed
before our eyes moved away
from the free market become in many
cases born again
status well talk to those around starmer
and they think that in the long
term that isn't going to happen that the
conservatives haven't bought into
a fundamentally new version of political
economy that in the medium term at least
rishi sunak and others will start to
argue for spending cuts for deficit
reduction that will become
a key plank once again of our politics
and that is the opening that labor
starting tomorrow can start to prise
open
and the economic crisis will have a much
longer tail i suspect than the public
health crisis uh
that that covered the code has brought
about but i think this is the
this is a good time to start talking
about priorities
with the long tail of inequality and
insecurity with the end of
the furlough system which was going to
cause all sorts of directions in our
economy
with the with the regional inequalities
that post-coded life will reveal
there's so much that's going to be uh a
re area for reasonable disagreement
between the opposition
and the conservative government many
seem to think
that kierstama looks and sounds the past
of a prime minister
but only two leaders of the opposition
have made that leap since 1994.
and it isn't yet clear that he plays
that part nearly as well
lewis goodall when in a moment i'll be
joined by james schneider co-founder of
momentum and former director of
strategic communications with jeremy
corbyn
and anna turley the former labor mp for
red car
but first i'm joined by jonathan
reynolds the shadow work and pension
secretary
good evening jonathan reynolds first of
all giving the various crises in the
pandemic from ppe
to schools to care homes to track and
trace and even to dominate cummings
given all that
why is it that the conservatives are not
only ahead in the polls but
pulling further ahead look if you look
at where the labour party is
today based on where we were a year ago
i think actually the rate of progress
has been
uh fantastic and i certainly feel much
more comfortable about where we are
today if you look at governments around
the world incumbent governments
have got a boost as you see in a
national crisis people rally around the
government they want the government
to succeed and we want the government's
corvid strategy to succeed nobody wants
to
to continue the disruption to people's
lives the loss that we have all felt
so that is natural if you look at the
poll that really does count which is
does the public
see we've got a new leader yes they have
seen that do they like him yes they do
do they see him as a potential prime
minister
yes they do now i've known some good
people who've been the leader of the
labour party who haven't had poll
ratings like that so on that yes i think
that's a good position for us to be in a
year on and you
acknowledge that the government's done a
very good job in the vaccine because as
i say it's not just about the government
being ahead of the polls it's about
pulling the head just pulling ahead
despite the fact that people know who
kirsten is and think that he might be a
trustworthy leader
tories are pulling ahead just now well
we've been ahead in the polls and lost
big elections i i don't think frankly
people should look too much
at where things are right now except for
the fact that we know they've noticed
we've got a new leader
and they like him quite a lot in terms
of your question about the handling
of the pandemic now if you look at where
this country has got to tragically with
the highest
death toll in europe and the biggest
recession of any major economy what kira
is going to say tomorrow
is yes that is about decisions the
government have made in the pandemic but
it's also about the country we had
going into this crisis the inequality
the poverty the insecurity in the
workplace
and that is why when we're talking now
about what should come after the
pandemic
kira's going to say we kind of go back
to business as usual yes he says
something better and only labor can do
that he says under my leadership labor's
priority will also be financial
responsibility
so what is more important spending what
it takes to repair britain
or reducing the massive deficit it's
about spending
on the things that matter we've seen
this government spend very large
things that frankly haven't worked like
test and trade so what kira is going to
say tomorrow
are the priorities that we would have to
make that difference but there can be no
return to austerity people always forget
in these type of discussions
it's not just about spending cuts and
tax rises to get a grip of the deficit
it's about shrinking that debt as a
proportion of gdp
shrinking it as a proportion of the
economy and that requires growth
and i would just say we cannot think
that we'll get to where we need to be
by ignoring rising levels of child
poverty heading towards five million
people five million children sorry
and that will take and that will take
spending and that will take spending and
i wonder about the whole radicalism of
that because
what he says he's going to do according
to the speech tomorrow is
going to reverse the planned cuts to
universal credit which will benefit six
million
families by a thousand pounds a year
that is only taking it back to
pre-austerity
rates that is not a radical agenda
well you're right to say that there has
been in social security
a very punitive set of settlements for
many years i don't deny that
but that commitment on universal credit
which is obviously directly
in my brief yes that is absolutely the
right thing to do
for british families i mean let's just
not forget you've got to go back to the
great depression to find a government
that was willing
to cut out of work support in a major
recession
but that is also the right thing for the
economy because otherwise
you'd be taking six billion pounds worth
of spending that would be spent in local
shops
and on local services out of the economy
now that's fine so the point
is i return to the original question
which is you'll spend what it takes
to repair britain the way you want to
repair it
rather than being concerned about
drawing away from the deficit
about reducing the deficit you cannot
presumably in the short term do both
you can't do the short term do both in
the short term well i'd say you can do
both courses because if you look at
where
we've been for the last few years if you
look at the george osborne plan on
austerity
and it's planned to tackle the deficit
it didn't work it didn't work and you
can't find anyone now
saying that's the right way forward you
can't find the imf or the oecd
or major publications who specialize in
this area they all agree
that isn't the right way forward so
let's surely learn the lessons of the
past
but the way forward to tackle both the
national finances
and the opportunity that people need in
this country is to say look let's not go
back to what we had going into that's
not a prime minister who doesn't even
know that child poverty's rising and
doesn't seem to care
anything about it let's not be food bank
britain let's be britain with
opportunity
hope security for everybody after every
major crisis in this country's history
we've come out with something better if
david blanc if if david blanket is
saying tonight as he did
that he wants to know what labor stands
for surely that's a bit of an indictment
of a former such a former senior figure
in the labour party in the center right
saying even now all these months after
kirsten we're doing he doesn't know what
labour stands for
no i i don't think that is unfair at all
i think what we all know is when you've
got a new leader
they have to set out their new territory
how they want to take the party in the
country forward
there have been restrictions on us in
the pandemic but in terms of what we've
been able to do to challenge the
government where they should have been
challenged
to make sure the government's response
is as good as it could be and if they'd
listen to us more i think their response
would have been even better but yes at
this stage now let's be clear if at the
beginning of this pandemic we were
talking about
the long-term aspirations for the labour
party what we wanted to do that wouldn't
have been the right time but this is the
right moment we're at a stage with the
vaccination program where we can look to
the future but we also have the budget
we also have a very big set
of elections this year this is the right
time this is the right moment people
know he is new they like him
this is the chance to step out his
vision thank you very much jonathan
reynolds