Speaker 1: Kyoda. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is a bonus episode
Speaker 1: of The Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the
Speaker 1: New Zealand Herald. While the final results are set to
Speaker 1: trickle in slowly, the exit poll for the UK election
Speaker 1: has shown a historic landslide for the Labor Party. The
Speaker 1: pole suggests Sir Kurse Darma will be the next Prime
Speaker 1: minister of one of our closest allies, with a potential
Speaker 1: majority of one hundred and seventy seats, while the ruling
Speaker 1: Conservative Party is out after fourteen years of power and
Speaker 1: has suffered their worst ever defeat to Boot. To discuss
Speaker 1: the seismic change in UK politics and what it might
Speaker 1: mean for a Kiwoe to London, we're joined now on
Speaker 1: the Front Page by former New Zealand political journalist turned
Speaker 1: expat Henry Cook. Henry, how significant is this landslide for Labor.
Speaker 2: It's absolutely huge. Labour been out of power for fourteen years.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of adults who are well into
Speaker 3: their working lives who had not seen a Labor government
Speaker 3: in their adult lives or maybe even political memory. It's
Speaker 3: also should we know that it's not been a gradual
Speaker 3: climb back to government for labor since threenty ten. They
Speaker 3: lost one of their worst ever election losses in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: just five years ago that was the last election.
Speaker 2: So this landslide seeming landslide as we're looking at it
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: While it's not quite as strong as maybe some of
Speaker 3: the you know, some of the poles of the last
Speaker 3: few days have shown, is still a massive, massive, massive
Speaker 3: victory for labor just five years after losing so badly,
Speaker 3: and a massive victory for Krestar for the income.
Speaker 2: Prime Minister.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of commentary actually in the last
Speaker 1: week about the fourteen years that broke Britain. Does the
Speaker 1: country feel broken to you? How does it feel when
Speaker 1: you move to there?
Speaker 3: Line?
Speaker 2: You know, there's been things about the UK that work fine.
Speaker 3: You know, the supermarkets are very competitive and things are
Speaker 3: very cheap, but that you can go to Europe very easily,
Speaker 3: the air lines are very competitive, but there is the
Speaker 3: set I guess the real difference. It's not that things
Speaker 3: are broken now, it's that things are getting worse. I
Speaker 3: think that's what's what I find different about the UK
Speaker 3: versus what least the Newseum when I left, that is
Speaker 3: that there was a sense of market kind of a
Speaker 3: widely held sense that the best stays of behind them
Speaker 3: and the things are getting worse. Whether the selection changes that,
Speaker 3: as you know, get to.
Speaker 2: Be said.
Speaker 4: And as big bend strikes ten, the exit poll is
Speaker 4: predicting a Labor landslide. Secure Starmer will become Prime Minister
Speaker 4: with a majority of around one hundred and seventy seats.
Speaker 4: The exit poll predicts that Labor will have captured four
Speaker 4: hundred and ten seats, adding two hundred and nine.
Speaker 1: What is Starmer's vision for the UK? Is it going
Speaker 1: to be a big shift?
Speaker 2: Big question? You know, the manifest might've had one.
Speaker 3: Hundred and pretty one pages, but it wasn't a particularly
Speaker 3: deta out in many things. There are clear sign for its,
Speaker 3: things like adding the equal of JST to private school
Speaker 3: fees to find more teachers, big planning reform kind of
Speaker 3: like what prospression. This is actually to kind of unlocked
Speaker 3: housing and other investment in the UK. But it is
Speaker 3: not a radical shift vision. You know that they've stuck
Speaker 3: to the kind of Tory fiscal being below on on
Speaker 3: overall spending things like that. It's definitely a Labor color
Speaker 3: of that, you know, I think it's pretty easy to
Speaker 3: expect that I'll be generally more spending on how generally
Speaker 3: more spending in education, perhaps listing on defense. But they're
Speaker 3: all overall not be a kind of seismic sure that
Speaker 3: if I was a UK ally or if I was
Speaker 3: a UK business person right now, I would not be
Speaker 3: worrying about some gigantic shift to the left.
Speaker 1: The elephant in the room, I guess Reform UK looks
Speaker 1: set to get to parliament. Is there any concern on
Speaker 1: the ground about them?
Speaker 2: So he's Reform UK are having so far an incredible night.
Speaker 3: When we were talking right now, the actual first result
Speaker 3: just came in and Reform came thickened and a Labor
Speaker 3: health seat. So Labor retained a labor seat, but they
Speaker 3: actually lost some.
Speaker 2: Polt to reform. So the Reform, who are usually.
Speaker 3: Seen as basically ruining the election for Tories, are also
Speaker 3: eating into Labor vote warring on the ground. Look, it's
Speaker 3: all mostly contained within the Conservative Party, who's had a
Speaker 3: two caps one tap of the Conservative Party says a
Speaker 3: lot of Reformer basically winning over our voters because they're
Speaker 3: saying what we should be saying, we should combine with them,
Speaker 3: which has some kind of reproachable them where we come together,
Speaker 3: and maybe even Nigel Farrage the character of charismatic leader
Speaker 3: of reform becomes a Tory and Pete again the Utorian
Speaker 3: pe a long time ago. And then there's another cap
Speaker 3: that says, basically, we should reject births that we shouldn't,
Speaker 3: you know, we should you much closer to the center,
Speaker 3: and reform will died down eventually.
Speaker 1: Is it a bit of an incredible shift. I know
Speaker 1: that Nigel Farrage didn't he announce that he was running
Speaker 1: like three weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Or something, just just when when Russie announced in the
Speaker 3: reign and with rets of he remember the election date.
Speaker 3: Kind of, he had a very dead week with the
Speaker 3: one good thing that happened to him was that Niger
Speaker 3: Bryan said, well, oh look I'm not going to get
Speaker 3: into this election because I'm too busy kind of being
Speaker 3: involved helping Donald Trump when in the US.
Speaker 2: But then kind of about a.
Speaker 3: Week later he actually he suddenly kind of came back.
Speaker 2: To my mind, I'm going to run.
Speaker 5: Yet I have decided I've changed my mind, so I
Speaker 5: am I'm going to stand in this election. Perhaps more
Speaker 5: important than that, I've made a far bigger decision than that.
Speaker 5: But I'm coming back as leader of Reform UK, but
Speaker 5: not just for this election campaign. I'm coming back for
Speaker 5: the next five years.
Speaker 3: As a pretty incredible result for reform coming from nothing,
Speaker 3: coming from from zero seats. But I guess it also
Speaker 3: speaks taps less to reformers sheets and also more so
Speaker 3: more conservative streams. If you if you know, it's much
Speaker 3: harder to find that space on the right when the.
Speaker 2: Other right wing party is very strong.
Speaker 3: But the Tories were so weak but so week before
Speaker 3: reform came in, and there's so week now that reform
Speaker 3: coming even more week that it opens up in space
Speaker 3: much more Realistically.
Speaker 1: We constantly talk about under investment in key infrastructure and
Speaker 1: services here in New Zealand and how expensive it is
Speaker 1: to turn that ship around. Is labor over there planning
Speaker 1: to try and reverse some of those austerity measures.
Speaker 2: To be fair, Austereo is kind of kind of Finnish.
Speaker 3: In twenty nineteen when Boris Johnson won, so the like
Speaker 3: the worst of the kind of stopping investing in Britain
Speaker 3: UK stuff was more post GFC and kind of tweeting.
Speaker 2: In the twenty fifteen term.
Speaker 3: There is you know, there is there is government money
Speaker 3: flowing into various places. Labour definitely will want to spend more,
Speaker 3: but not.
Speaker 2: In the immediate term. Right now they're very focused on,
Speaker 2: I guess, seeming fiscally responsible.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And the the investment that.
Speaker 3: The UK needs is you know, in New Zealand you
Speaker 3: think about think about a lot of them and roads
Speaker 3: and that's definitely a big thing here. It's definitely you know,
Speaker 3: LA they have a huge fun to potholes. I think
Speaker 3: was based on my biking around London. I think potholes
Speaker 3: are actually worse in the UK than in New Zealand.
Speaker 3: But it's also in the UK often on on on
Speaker 3: kind of mega projects, the kind of mega projects that
Speaker 3: I guess most of the governments are largely ditched here,
Speaker 3: things like high Speed Term which is a huge rail
Speaker 3: project between London and originally Manchester Birmingham, which was you.
Speaker 2: Know, I can't pick up the exact noumer now, but
Speaker 2: it's kind of.
Speaker 3: In the hundreds of billions of cost and I don't
Speaker 3: see labor immediately following a lot of money into there,
Speaker 3: just because well, the UK's destination is worse in New
Speaker 3: Zealand's uh. And they have very much promised to not
Speaker 3: kind of rock the boat in that area.
Speaker 1: I suppose everyone here, especially in New Zealand and in
Speaker 1: your field this as well, that we all know someone
Speaker 1: who is living in London or is going to live
Speaker 1: in London planning to move over there as their big oe, right.
Speaker 1: Is it a good time for KIWI expats to move there?
Speaker 1: Do you think what does Starma's Britain look like to
Speaker 1: us Kiwi's look?
Speaker 2: I do that.
Speaker 3: I'm in the middle of my oay, so obviously I'm
Speaker 3: somewhat pro the moves. I did it before Salmon one
Speaker 3: or was even surely favored to win. I I think
Speaker 3: as the reasons through open through road to the UK
Speaker 3: and not going to najorly change by Starmer at least
Speaker 3: maybe you were someone who wanted to work in a
Speaker 3: government job which only going to be high a public
Speaker 3: center employment. Other than that, I'd say the reasons to
Speaker 3: move to the UK, uh, you know, there's so many
Speaker 3: things to do, with so many europe to visit.
Speaker 2: That's not going to change. If Sarma does.
Speaker 3: What he wants to do and really raise his wages,
Speaker 3: that will be a big change there. So you know
Speaker 3: money will be in the UK. But for now, I
Speaker 3: fact that that could the immediate future. Your region to
Speaker 3: move in the UK is about as good now as
Speaker 3: it was to EXCO.
Speaker 1: And finally, drawing on your experience as a political editor
Speaker 1: here in New Zealand and then now working over there
Speaker 1: during this election, what kind of comparisons have surprised you
Speaker 1: between what's happening there and what had happened here last year.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of similarities in that.
Speaker 3: I think a big part of both labors last twenty
Speaker 3: three and the the Tory lost and twenty four here
Speaker 3: is around things kind of outside of the government's control
Speaker 3: or a little bit of the government's control, around things
Speaker 3: like inflation and just wait right, you know what which
Speaker 3: is going really really high.
Speaker 2: That stuff just kills governments, you.
Speaker 3: Know, And it's the perception of how you deal with
Speaker 3: that problem that is really crucial.
Speaker 2: And both labor avatories, especially Victoria has.
Speaker 3: Really failed to look like they had to handle on
Speaker 3: it and look like they are making it better. They
Speaker 3: failed on kind of data competence more of an ideology
Speaker 3: in terms of difference.
Speaker 2: Is the really huge thing that the method that Forterier
Speaker 2: is the electoral system. So obviously it's.
Speaker 3: First past the post here in Ford of MP Whichry
Speaker 3: have a New Zealand is that that's them where if
Speaker 3: you lose a little bit, you can lose.
Speaker 2: Really really badly.
Speaker 3: So later I know the overall boat year old have
Speaker 3: at the end of the night, but it's probably going
Speaker 3: to be somewhere around late thirty percent. They are going
Speaker 3: to have probably seventy percent of the seats based on that.
Speaker 3: Vatories are not going to have anywhere near that. And
Speaker 3: when you lose it can get really really bad. And
Speaker 3: that's that's the really really difference here that the third
Speaker 3: parties here, instead of kind of taking a bit of
Speaker 3: their vote but still being kind of a partner, are
Speaker 3: kind of really big competitors.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Henry. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of The Front Page. You can read more about today's
Speaker 1: stories and extensive news coverage at enzid Herald dot co
Speaker 1: dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sells
Speaker 1: and sound engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: The Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and tune in on Monday for another look behind the headlines.