Craft Politics25 Jun 2025

Sam Coates: Starmer’s Tightrope—Trump, Welfare, and the Trouble Inside Labour

With Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor, Sky News This week, we’re joined by Sam Coates, co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne and one of the UK’s sharpest political analysts, to make sense of a government struggling to hold the line—on foreign policy, economic discipline, and party unity. In this episode: 🇮🇷 Why the UK backed the ends but not the means of Trump’s strike on Iran ⚖️ How Starmer’s deference to legal advice is reshaping UK foreign policy—and what it reveals about his break from Blairism 🇺🇸 What it means when the UK is the only country warned in advance of a US strike 📉 And why the transatlantic relationship may be less stable than it seems Then we go domestic: 💷 Labour’s looming rebellion on welfare reform: • Over 100 Labour MPs openly defying the PM • A government with a 165-seat majority on the verge of losing a key vote • And no clear plan for what comes next 🧨 Starmer’s political gamble: alienating his base to keep markets calm—and failing to please either 🗳 Could this trigger a leadership challenge? And don’t miss: 📈 Reform UK’s surge: is Prime Minister Farage still far-fetched—or suddenly plausible? 🗺 The open question: what is the relationship between Reform and the Conservatives heading into 2028? Also on the radar: ⚖️ Assisted dying and abortion: the social policies no one campaigned on—but that may define this Parliament

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Episoder(80)

Rudy Husny on Quebec's PQ minority win: "Sleep well, all is good."

Six months ago we had Rudy Husny on to ask whether Christine Fréchette could pull off a Mark Carney-style win in Quebec. The answer arrived Monday night: zero seats, down from ninety, and the premier ...

6 Okt 45min

Graham Lanktree on the last one percent of Canada–UK trade

Graham is POLITICO's senior trade reporter in London, and he covers Britain's trade relationships with Europe, the United States, and Canada. Last month he co-wrote the piece arguing that Carney's mid...

29 Sep 45min

Sean Speer: Conservative, but not in a bad mood about it

Sean is editor-at-large at The Hub, was Stephen Harper's senior economic adviser, and is one of the more prolific policy writers in the country. He also spent the last month arguing a position most of...

24 Sep 50min

Sam Coates: Reform's £72 million pay day

Two crypto billionaires gave Reform UK £72 million in 36 hours, more than every British party combined raised in all of 2025. All of it legal, for now. This week on Craft Politics: Sam Coates, Deputy...

16 Sep 43min

Darren Grimes: On Reform UK and What's Next

Reform UK is having the best year of its life. Official opposition in Wales. Seventeen seats in Scotland. Over 1,400 councillors. And yet Middle England still hasn't climbed aboard. This week on Craft...

8 Sep 45min

Ginny Roth: Trade War Reality Test

Ten days ago Ginny Roth posted a thread arguing that Canadians need to stop being shocked by Donald Trump and start making hard choices from a weak hand. Jason Kenney replied, accusing her of "craven ...

1 Sep 56min

How Vote Leave Actually Won — Nick Varley on the Brexit Ground War

Ten years ago, everyone who was supposed to know — the British government, the Bank of England, the IMF, half the world's economists, even President Obama — said Leave couldn't win. Then a campaign wi...

1 Jul 53min

UK By-Elections Quick Take: What Just Happened?

We're trying a new episode format, so let us know what you think of it. We didn't have time to record a full show, we have as a short and snappy take on this week's by-election results in the UK and w...

19 Jun 9min