How To Win An Election

This week the political masterminds are answering more of your questions. Does Andy Burnham risk becoming all things to all people, and will that inevitably result in disappointment? What jobs would Sally, Polly and Danny have in No 10 North? Have former military figures seized the agenda over defence spending, and is Labour worrying enough about a possible Tory revival? Send your voicenotes, ques...

Nigel Farage has announced his resignation as an MP, saying he will fight a 'people versus the establishment' by-election in Clacton. Is it a high risk stunt by the Reform UK leader? When have by-elections backfired in the past, and will it make questions about his finances, and his future, go away? Hugo, Sally, Polly and Danny analyse Farage's gamble. Send your questions, comments and voicenotes...

What have we learned so far about Andy Burnham's plan for government? Danny has been reading his book, Head North, and thinks he's proposing a clear left turn when it comes to the economy and public services. Does Burnham's vision of a more devolved United Kingdom add up to an electoral strategy, or is that actually coming from Morgan McSweeney's playbook? Plus: We're joined by comedian and host o...

The team bring their years of experience inside Downing Street to the question of how Andy Burnham will construct his cabinet, and who he could pick as chancellor. After the return of James Purnell as chief of staff, is there a risk of having too many veterans of the Blair and Brown years back in power? And - Polly sets out her vision for replacing Chequers with a Mar-a-Lago-style resort in Blackp...

Sally and Danny join Hugo for this extra episode to examine the Keir Starmer legacy - if there is one - and ask whether Andy Burnham could be a more consequential leader than the consensus gives him credit for. And, how will Reform UK attack Burnham - can they make the label 'Captain Flip-flop' stick? Send your comments, questions and voicenotes to howtowin@thetimes.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Andy Burnham has won, and won big in the Makerfield by-election - what happens next in Downing Street and the Labour Party, and what does it all mean for the next general election? Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo discuss Keir Starmer's insistence he won't walk away from No 10, the reaction of the cabinet, who will get the top jobs in a Burnham government, and whether Reform UK will need to change str...

We're only a week away from the Makerfield by-election, when voters could choose the next prime minister. If Andy Burnham wins, what happens in the hours and days after he arrives in Westminster? Will he seize the moment and try to challenge Keir Starmer immediately, or wait until he has a plan for running the country? And if he wins, what does it mean for Reform UK's electoral strategy? We also l...

How is Andy Burnham defining his vision for the country as he tries to win the Makerfield by-election? Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo discuss whether the (possible) next prime minister can really wind back the clock back 40 years, whether Nigel Farage has taken a risk in his response to the murder of Henry Nowak, and whether Kemi Badenoch can define Labour as the party of welfare. Send your messages...

Former cabinet minister, former deputy prime minister, big beast of the Tory jungle - Lord Heseltine joins us for our series looking at how the most significant elections of our lifetimes were won, and how they were lost. He takes us back to the 1983 general election. Margaret Thatcher was fresh from victory in the Falklands, Labour offered voters the 'longest suicide vote in history', and the pol...

The Makerfield by-election is going to be huge - if Andy Burnham wins, Labour will believe it has a route to beating Reform UK at a general election. If Reform wins, then it will clear Nigel Farage's path to power and plunge the government into (further) chaos. Sally, Polly, Danny (and Hugo) weigh up who is the underdog, whether Wes Streeting will run against Burnham, and whether a victorious Burn...

The struggle for the future of the Labour Party, and the country, has begun, even as Keir Starmer tries to hang on. The political masterminds look at the potential pitfalls for Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham - and discuss whether Labour should give up on its working class roots and try instead to unite liberal Britain. Send your questions, comments and voicenotes to howtowin@thetime...

Sally Morgan, Polly Mackenzie, Danny Finkelstein (and Hugo) explain what's behind a chaotic day at Westminster - where Keir Starmer vows to carry on, despite a growing number of MPs and ministers calling for him to go. Why didn't the cabinet speak out, is government continuing to function, and does Wes Streeting need to move within 24 hours or miss out on the leadership? Send you questions, commen...

Labour has taken a hammering at elections in England, Scotland and Wales, with Nigel Farage calling it an ‘historic shift in British politics’ - does this add up to the end of the two-party system, and does it add up to the end of Keir Starmer? Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo explain why things went so badly for the party, how Starmer will respond, and whether the Reform UK leader is going to be the...

Ahead of the local elections in England and parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, the political masterminds ask: just how bad can it get for the Labour Party? If predictions of huge losses come to pass, how will the cabinet, MPs and councillors react, and can Downing Street come up with a plan to circle the wagons around Keir Starmer? We also discuss what impact the terror attacks in Gold...

As regular listeners know, Danny likes to say there is a market failure in political coups - but does Keir Starmer's handling of the Peter Mandelson vetting crisis mean we're entering a period of maximum danger for the PM? How will Labour MPs react if their party does as badly in May as the polls predict, and what do they think about Starmer's potential replacements? Sally, Danny and Hugo are join...

In the wake of Viktor Orbán's election defeat in Hungary, can we draw conclusions about the limits of populism - and the chances of a recovery by the centre here in the UK? Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo also discuss how government prepares for disaster - from foot-and-mouth disease to fuel protests to looming shortages caused by the war in Iran. And, Polly has a plan to rescue sad, empty historic b...

The prime minister is trying to appeal to voters ahead of May's elections by talking about conflict overseas - can branding him as a global statesman rescue his premiership, in the same way Gordon Brown tried to survive after the financial crash? With Danny away, we turn to the next generation - Simon Finkelstein, former adviser to Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab (and Danny's nephew) joins Sally, Pol...

There's an arms race under way as the parties make competing offers to help with the rising cost of living. Is anyone cutting through to the voters? And as Keir Starmer's rivals consider whether to move against him after May's elections, Danny argues that the looming economic crisis makes it a bad time for them to act. We also find out why Sally introduced 'garish posters and loud music' to Downin...

Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo discuss the conspiracies swirling around the theft of Morgan McSweeney's mobile phone. How did government work in the pre-smartphone era, when Tony Blair refused to use one? They also explore how political language is evolving (and whether it’s becoming dangerously loose), and imagine what’s more likely - a Lab-Lib coalition or a Tory-Reform alliance. Plus, the te...

Angela Rayner has fired the opening shot in the leadership race to succeed Keir Starmer, warning that Labour is 'running out of time'. We discuss the art of being on manoeuvres without being caught doing it - from Michael Portillo installing the phone lines, to Rishi Sunak's team secretly registering 'readyforrishi.com'. And, will any of the potential candidates - including Angela Rayner, Wes Stre...

In this special crossover episode with our colleagues at the Times podcast The State Of It, Hugo is joined by Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund to discuss the new edition of their book Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer . Morgan McSweeney was the man credited with rescuing Labour from electoral oblivion and propelling Keir Starmer to power. How did it all go so wrong, and how did K...

Sally, Polly, Danny and Hugo look at what the Mandelson files say about decision making in Keir Starmer's Downing Street. Is there a comparison with Boris Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, which led to Johnson's resignation as prime minister? With Starmer's cost of living agenda in trouble, we ask if lessons can be learned from Edward Heath and the 1973 oil crisis, and from Tony Bla...

We're looking at the implications of the American-Israeli attacks on Iran for British politics - has the prime minister been constrained by a near-religious belief in international law, by cabinet divisions, or by party politics? We also discuss whether the Green Party's bounce in the polls can be sustained, and whether Labour's new migration policy shows the party has made a decisive strategic ch...

The Green Party crushes Labour at the Gorton and Denton by-election, knocking Keir Starmer's party into third place in one of their safest seats. The political masterminds discuss whether the prime minister can find a new strategy to survive, whether the Green Party can replicate the victory across the country, and what the fracturing of the traditional two-party system means for the next General...

As we assembled the How To Win An Election team to talk about Robert Jenrick, Rupert Lowe and Danny's quest for the point of Ed Davey, news broke that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He denies wrongdoing. Sally, Polly, Danny (and Hugo) look at how the news would have been received in Downing Street, and whether republicanism has a future in...