Starmer’s tightrope—Trump, welfare, and Labour's ongoing troubles

With Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor, Sky News

In this week’s episode of Craft Politics, we’re joined by Sam Coates, co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne’s 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 massive 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

Full episode on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts: