00:00Let's talk to Jennifer Nadal, the political commentator. Jennifer, welcome. Is this a reshuffle or a bloodbath?
00:08I'm afraid it's both. I mean, the thing about Rayna's resignation is that she has resigned.
00:15She did apologise for making a mistake. Anyone who has read her resignation letter will be left in no doubt
00:22that she deeply regrets her actions and she fully understands that it's necessary to pay the price
00:29for them. At the same time, Labour has been struggling and it could be portrayed as a
00:35bloodbath, but actually I think it's a moment for renewal. They're moving around some of the
00:40really big hitters in the Cabinet. David Lammy, who was Foreign Secretary, is now going to become
00:46Deputy Leader. Then we have Yvette Cooper, who has been Home Secretary, moving to the Foreign Secretary
00:52position. So we're getting not just the resignation of Rayna, but also the government's clearly
01:01presenting this as an opportunity to rejig things and move people around. And I think that will help
01:07Starmer ultimately. The big shame, Jamie, is that the moment she realised she'd made a mistake,
01:12if Rayna had resigned at that moment and said, I didn't do it on purpose, but nevertheless,
01:19a mistake when you're at this level of government must lead to a resignation. She could have then
01:25retired to the back benches and possibly come forward again into ministerial position. But by
01:31waiting to see whether or not she could cling on to power, she's really made that more or less
01:38impossible. And that's great loss for politics. Angela Rayna is an incredible politician. And as your
01:44viewers may know, she went from being a single parent, never went to university, she was working
01:51as a home help to occupy the second highest position in the government in this country. So hers is an
02:00inspirational story of real social mobility. Okay. And it's a great shame to lose her. Okay, well,
02:08she's gone. Can we expect policy changes from a new foreign minister, a new home office minister,
02:15a new deputy prime minister, and frankly, many others as we've come on air? Is this about a change
02:21of policy or is it simply about delivery?
02:26I suspect that a number of those figures have been deeply unhappy in the position they've been put in.
02:31Even if we look at David Lammy, who has been foreign secretary at the time of the Gaza,
02:38the Gaza conflict and starvation, I'm sure he's been deeply uncomfortable about not being able to take
02:47more action. The fact that the British government is still selling arms to Israel has probably been
02:54problematic for him. So moving him out of the foreign secretary position removes that. Yvette Cooper,
02:59who is a tougher politician, will now be in that position. Similarly, Yvette Cooper has been in
03:06trouble because she oversaw the ban on a Palestinian organization and described it, had it prescribed
03:13as a terrorist organization, even though it was a violent protest group. And that in turn has seen
03:20large protests on the streets in the UK. So it feels that there have been some blocks and those may
03:27now be slightly released by the change in personnel. And the new home secretary is no easy touch. She's
03:34very hard on immigration, which, of course, is the main issue in politics at the moment, driven by
03:41the agenda of Nigel Farage, who is really whipped up concern and hate and bile against, against those
03:49seeking to enter our shores. Prime Minister Keir Starmer seems to prefer the world stage, but he's
03:57very much struggling on the domestic front, isn't he? Why is that? Well, I think on the world stage,
04:03he is able to operate from a position of integrity and alignment. And ever since he became prime minister,
04:11you know, in the run up to the election, he had to be very careful of what he said,
04:15because anything he said could frighten the horses and prevent him getting into the doors of number
04:2110 Downing Street. And once he was inside 10 Downing Street, everyone expected him then to reveal who he
04:28really was. But he stayed in this position of trying to pacify everyone. He hasn't connected with his core
04:37values. Internationally, when he's in traveling and when he's talking about the Ukraine, we see that man with
04:45integrity and leadership. But domestically, he's making far too many compromises on his core values
04:51and on lay core values to try and appease the right wing press, to try and appease reform voters,
04:58to try and appease the markets. But if you try and please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.
05:04Jennifer, good to talk to you. Thanks for coming on the program. Jennifer Nadell, the political commentator.
