Coup What A Scorcher

**Helen Lewis** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome to Page 94 Do not adjust your set. This is a special one-off podcast because of the big news this week.
Andy is away because he's preparing to run for the Manchester mayoralty on a platform known as Hunter Murrayism. More details on that as we get it. But for now, Britain has a new prime minister in waiting. Andy Burnham, who won a resounding victory in the make-feel by-election and has caused Keir Starmer to resign. I am joined, as ever, by Adam McQueen in Hislop and guest star Matt Muir to talk over the big events of the week. Ian, I want to start with you. You watched Keir Starmer's resignation speech.
On a scale of one to ten, how moved were you?

**Ian Hislop** (0:34)
Well, I was very moved because it was Monday morning, and we go to press Monday afternoon.

**Adam McQueen** (0:38)
Not only did he time it in time for Private Eye Pressing, he actually timed it in the middle of the Private Eye editorial meeting. So there was a pause as we all went and watched it on our tele and then reunited tearfully to say, what the hell are we going to do now?

**Matt Muir** (0:51)
We're recording one day in advance of it landing on newsstands. Did he get the cover?

**Ian Hislop** (0:55)
He did get the cover, but only in the picture of a gilded coach coming into London with the headline, Andy Burnham travels to London. It was a coronation joke, which we were lucky to get.
Then underneath it, it said Britain Sheds a Keir.

**Adam McQueen** (1:16)
But it was an incredible thing, because I'm still scarred by the day in 2017 that we went to press on a Monday, and Theresa May chose nine o'clock the next morning, the Tuesday, before we were even out on the newsstands to call a general election. So for one thing, I will pay tribute to secure for that one.

**Ian Hislop** (1:31)
Yes. His inadvertent humour will always win. He actually said, without the slightest pause, he said, I've spoken to the king and I thought, what, Andy?
And I couldn't help myself. And we had a long list of the thing that he's achieved. And he just wanted to say, then why are you going? It didn't make any sense to me.

**Helen Lewis** (1:55)
I thought the best thing that he said was when he went, I've spoken to the parliamentary party about whether or not they want me to lead them into the next election. And was it I've accepted their answer with good grace?

**Adam McQueen** (2:04)
All four hundred of them spoke with one voice.

**Matt Muir** (2:07)
So he said in his speech, the hard work of change was with a singular purpose, not power for power's sake, but to change Britain for the better. So the hard work of change was with a purpose which was change, which sort of tells you everything about the past two years, really. There's this lack of, there's no there there, fundamentally speaking.

**Helen Lewis** (2:26)
It was a known soup. But I, in a way, I think it maybe it was the best speech he's ever given. Not least, it was blessedly short. It had three main points, right? Basically, you've all told me to sod off and I'm in fact sodding off.
I would ideally like it to be a contest, not a coronation.
He won't get that one. And the other thing was, he both did a sort of forward jab at Andy Burnham by saying he sort of essentially was opening nominations for this long period. Yeah. But also there was a backwards jab as well at, I was the one who transformed the Labour Party. It was, what was it, electrically, financially and morally bankrupt. Given that so much of his rhetoric during his time in office has been about putting party like behind country, country first, it was a very laboury speech. It was, I changed the Labour Party and now maybe Labour will go on and win a second election.

**Adam McQueen** (3:12)
But that was the bit he was good at.
That's the strange thing about it. He was a very good leader of the opposition and he did sort out the party, which was in a terrible state. And then he sort of got into power and didn't seem to know what he wanted to do with it.

**Matt Muir** (3:22)
I mean, it's part of the general feeling that I know a lot of the electorate do seem to have. The political class currently has become addicted to campaigning rather than governing. And that's sort of been part of his handful.