Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 20/09/2026

0:05Hello and welcome to Coffeehouse Shots, the Spectator's daily politics podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman and this is the Sunday Roundup. This week, Bridget Phillipson defends the government's performance as Andy Burnham prepares to meet Donald Trump. And at the Liberal Democrats conference, Ed Davey insists he's more popular than his rivals. On Sky News, Equalities Minister Bridget Philipson told Kamel Ahmed that Andy Burnham's previous criticisms of the president were just politics. Now, we know that a number of your colleagues in the Labour Party, if you went through their social media feeds, there may be some rather uncomfortable comments before they got into government about the president of the United States.

0:48We had a little look at what Andy Burnham had said previously about the president of the United States in 2021. Your new Prime Minister said any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now. In 2019, he said he wouldn't be welcome in Manchester. Isn't that going to make it a little bit awkward? And the reason I say awkward is because whatever you say now publicly, our viewers know that Labour generally is very uncomfortable with the President of the United States, but you can't tell people the truth about how you feel? Look, I think what you've just described there is politics and the President knows that.

1:30This is not far from unique. And people will express views at different points on different topics and that's no bar to having a strong relationship. And the reason that matters is because the US is someone that is essential to our ability to share intelligence, to work together on defence, whether that's Ukraine and much, much more besides. That will be at the forefront of Andy Burnham's mind when he meets President Trump face to face. But of course, there are differences of opinion. We don't have the same political outlook. But the relationship between the UK and the US goes beyond any one president, any one prime minister.

2:04It's something that has stood the test of time over many centuries, despite political differences. They come and go. What matters most is the British national interest, and that's what Andy Burnham will deliver for our country. Philipson also admitted that youth unemployment would likely keep rising for some time. You've gone into the issue around youth unemployment and young people being out of work. But, again, you're in charge now. Two years you've been in the government. The jobless rate amongst young people, is it going up or going down? I imagine it's going up and probably will for some time because these are long-standing challenges.

2:43If we could have fixed all of this in two years, we absolutely would have done so. But these are long-standing challenges that run deep over many, many years. I mean, the pandemic escalated some of this, but this is not a new phenomenon and it is one that requires intervention early on, right from when our children are very young, right through the school system and then into the labour market. These are deep-seated, long-running challenges that we will absolutely grapple with because it's right for the country. I understand that, and as you say, that's completely fair points that you're making, but two budgets by Rachel Reeves since you've been in power have raised the cost to businesses for employing young people and have raised the cost to businesses on regulation, which means that businesses say we are not going to be able to employ so many young people.

3:34So the numbers of young people out of work is directly linked to the policies you have put in place since you became the government. This is the question I think the voters look at this and say, well, they're saying they're going to do all these things, but the figures are going in the opposite direction. Just like welfare, jobless unemployment for young people is going up, not down. Chancellors and budgets will always have to take decisions as to how they balance all of this. And whilst I understand what you've just raised there in terms of what business will often see, we also have voters who quite rightly want to see investment in the NHS, want to be able to see a GP more quickly, want to get that hospital appointment.

4:13So chancellors do have to take decisions about how they raise money and how they spend money. And I do think it was the right approach where it came to employers' national insurance contributions in order to invest in our NHS, something that matters very much to the people of this country. But what I would say alongside that is that, of course, most employers won't be paying national insurance for young workers because unless they're earning over£50 ,000 a year, they're not even going to pay it. Plus the changes we've made to the employment allowance also mean that the majority of employers, especially smaller employers, aren't paying that either.

4:42So whilst we will always listen to businesses, I'm sure the Chancellor is hearing a lot from them in the run-up to this budget about what they would like to see, governments always have to strike that balance in order to allow us to invest in public services too, something that people also know is incredibly important given the state the NHS was left in and how critical it is. We make sure that people can see a GP, have an ambulance when they need one, get that appointment at hospital. Anne Philipson defended her new task force on misogyny after a leading campaigner branded it a nonsense, nothing piece of work.

5:14Yesterday, we got in touch with one of the UK's leading campaigners on this issue. Someone who's been involved in these campaigns for many, many years. She didn't want to give her name, but this is what she wrote to us on text when we spoke to her about this new task force you are announcing today. This will be a nonsense, nothing piece of work, and Bridget should focus all her attention of this, open quotes, task force, close quotes, on how to prevent growing rates of abuse and violence in young people, something I'm afraid she did not do as education secretary. It's fine for her to do this, but it won't shift the dial.

5:59I think the deeper point here is what is a task force actually doing? You announced in 2025 a new strategy on violence against women and girls, which is almost exactly the same wording as this task force. Again, it's saying lots of things, but it's not actually doing anything. So what I'd say is to the person who's been in touch with you, it's a shame that their name is behind this, because I'd love to have a chat with them about how serious I am about tackling this. And my message to them, to campaigners, to women across the country, is judge me and judge this government by what we deliver. And if you look at the approach, for example, that I've taken on child poverty, that brought together campaigners, it brought together experts and it brought together government, and it's delivered watershed results and will deliver a phenomenal reduction in the number of children growing up in poverty in our country.

6:47That's the same kind of energy, the same kind of ambition I have for this area to make sure that, yes, we tackle the violence we see, but also we tackle the attitudes that lead to the violence. This is serious and I'm deeply committed to this. Before I was a Member of Parliament, I used to run a women's refuge. So I've seen it firsthand where this leads if we don't tackle it. And I am really worried about what we see, particularly as your correspondent describes in relationships amongst young people and much of what we're seeing. It's why I totally overturned the curriculum. There's much more now in the curriculum on misogyny, on healthy relationships, on consent.

7:20There's more to do, but this taskforce will give us the basis to bring together everyone in our country who really cares about this and deliver real results. And as I say, I'll come back on in a year or two's time and people can judge me on what we've actually delivered. At the Lib Dem conference, Kamil Ahmed pressed Ed Davey on polling showing that voters see the party as weak. Davey said he'd rather offer practical, well-thought-through policies than imitate Zach Polanski or Nigel Farage. If you look at the latest polling, 52 % of voters describe the Liberal Democrats as weak. 43 % say they are unclear what the party stands for.

8:01The Liberal Democrats, nice bunch of people, but you don't cut through. In this political world of Nigel Farage, Zach Polanski, Kemi Baden-Hog, Andy Burnham, all with big momentum, Come to Sir Ed Davey, and it's a little bit, yeah, just remind me who that is again. Why are you not getting that cut through? Well, I look at elections, and elections, not indeed we'd have our best result for 100 years just two years ago, but at local elections we keep winning. We run more councils than the Conservatives. And it's elections that obviously matter in politics. Now, you know, there are exciting politicians around.

8:37Donald Trump's terribly exciting. He's damaging America and he's damaging the world. Nigel Farage is terribly exciting. He wants to bring Trump's America to the UK and damage our country. You know, you can be excited and all that if you want to. I want to put forward practical, well thought through policies that will help people's lives. Now, your deputy leader has said it's time for gloves off. You do need to get more cut through. There are people here at Brighton saying that Sir Ed has to get more maybe exciting, maybe aggressive. Is that something you need to do? Take the gloves off and somehow become become slightly more like your opponents, which is the Kemi-Batendoks, the Zapolanskys, the Nigel Farage?

9:19Well, I don't want to get like Mr. Polanski or Mr. Farage. Look at their poll rating numbers. I can't speak for them and their spin doctors will tell them. Well, I think you're behind all of them in polls. No, no, no, no, you're wrong. Mr. Polanski and Mr. Farage are quite unpopular. I'm way more popular than them. That's what the polls say. And on GB News, Camilla Tominey challenged Philipson over the rising cost of the welfare bill and a warning from businessman Jim Ratcliffe that the UK is on the slide. There's a central deceit here, which is this notion, this false notion that the welfare bill is in any way being cut.

9:51It isn't being cut. PIP benefits are set to double by 2030. The welfare bill isn't coming down. So basically we're going to have a budget on October 28th which hammers people who are working, people like your single mum who brought you up and helped you to socially mobilise all the way to Hertford College. Meanwhile, those who don't work are going to be given a handout. And people like Jim Radcliffe are saying that is why this country is going to the dogs. You can sympathise with that. Working people can see it very, very clearly, the working people that Labour's meant to represent. I'm not sure I want to be hearing too much from someone who's a tax exile as to what they think is to the direction of our country.

10:27Well, he's a successful man who did once pay a huge amount of tax into our economy. And other people who are very high rate taxpayers are leaving in their droves under this Labour government. So we've just lost from Chris Roccos 350 million quid in taxes because the Labour government is hammering the rich too much. Look, I do get the point about working people, people who work hard, expect to see rewards for that contribution. It's why they will have seen in recent months with the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, a real focus on giving people more breathing space around VAT on electricity bills, around bus fares, around business rates cuts for hospitality, which is an incredibly important part of our economy.

11:03I think that shows the direction that this government wishes to go in, to recognise the contribution that people make and to make sure that they are awarded for doing so. There are, of course, always decisions for any Chancellor in a budget as to the balance that you strike and how you seek to achieve that. But I think what you have seen in the last two years is the public finance has stabilised. We've got the highest growth in the last six months of any economy in the G7. That's a good foundation to take into the budget. Yes, there are choices ahead. The economy cannot be stabilised when guilt yields are higher now than they were under Liz Truss.

11:37Quite fairly, people could accuse the Labour government of crashing the economy. That's all for this week. I'm Isabel Hardman and this podcast was produced by Joe Bidel Brill. If you enjoy Coffeehouse Shots, don't forget to click the follow button on whatever platform you're listening to us on. That way you'll get the latest episodes straight to your feed as soon as it's released. and do subscribe to our daily evening blend email. It's a free roundup of all the political news each day, along with analysis and a diary on what to expect next. Just go to spectator.co.uk forward slash blend. Thanks for listening and I hope you join us again next week.

12:32Thank you.