The Owen Jones Podcast

After Labour narrowly held Batley & Spen in the recent by-election, former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell talks to me about how the party is losing voters who stuck with it in 2019, let alone failing to win over new supporters; how Muslim Labour voters feel utterly betrayed and disillusioned; how the Tories have been allowed to get away with their catastrophic handling of COVID-19, and Labou...

After Labour narrowly kept its seat in the Batley & Spen by election, Keir Starmer’s leadership has been spared any challenges. Can he now defy his critics and return to his promises of offering the political vision that is currently lacking, uniting the party and reversing the slide to electoral calamity? We're joined by John McDonnell to discuss the future of the Labour party, Ali Milani and...

Geoff Norcott is that rare thing - a Tory comedian - who has written a book called WHERE DID I GO RIGHT: HOW THE LEFT LOST ME. We have a ding dong about right wing ideas, does 'individual responsibility' explain social problems, minority rights, 'woke', his problems with the left - and the most left-wing opinion he has. Support the channel here! https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show ht...

When Labour got clobbered in May's elections, Andy Burnham defined the trend by winning a landslide in Greater Manchester's mayoral elections. He tells me what Labour can learn from his success, about whether he has ambitions to replace Keir Starmer, about how devolution is Labour's routemap back, and why the people of Batley and Spen should vote for Labour's Kim Leadbeater. Help us take on the ri...

Kim Leadbeater is standing to be Labour's next MP for Batley & Spen. The sister of Jo Cox - who was murdered by a far right terrorist four years ago - she is an energetic campaigner who is fiercely proud of her local roots. We discuss the far right, why she is standing, Labour's vision, why Muslim voters are disillusioned, Palestine and Kashmir, and Keir Starmer's leadership. Help us take on t...

Former Labour MP George Galloway is one of Britain's most controversial individuals, and is standing in Batley & Spen with the slogan 'STARMER OUT'. We talk about his pitch for the seat, including Palestine - but why he's focusing his fire on the opposition, rather than the Tory government which presided over 150,000 deaths; why he campaigned alongside Nigel Farage after denouncing him; why he...

Launched to throw petrol on the raging fires of Britain's culture war and take on the BBC and Sky News, GB News has been an embarrassing flop. Technical failures have been followed by ratings in freefall, and Andrew Neil - founder and the flagship presenter - has taken himself off the air indefinitely after just two weeks. Why was it such a failure, what does it tell us about the media landscape -...

Weeks after losing Hartlepool to the Tories, Labour has another major test in the Batley and Spen by-election. This is the constituency once represented by Jo Cox - murdered by a far right terrorist in 2016 - and it's a diverse community. But many voters feel disillusioned with the current main opposition, not least British Muslims, 86% of whom voted Labour nationally in 2019 but who feel that loy...

Will Young became a music sensation after winning Pop Idol in 2002 - and became one of the earlier pop stars to come out. We discuss his brilliant book To Be a Gay Man, about what it was like growing up gay in a profoundly homophobic society, about what he was up against when he came out, the lived experience of gay people that straight people might not know, and the uncanny parallels with the ons...

After the Lib Dems smashed the Tories in Chesham and Amersham, the idea of a "progressive alliance" - of anti-Tory parties working together to get the government out - has revived. But are the Lib Dems "progressive" - and is this an idea emerging out of desperation because Labour is so weak? I'm joined by Labour MSP Paul Sweeney - who is for - and Tribune's David Broder - who is against, plus, the...

Michael Lewis is the acclaimed author of books such as The Big Short, Moneyball and The Fifth Risk. In his brilliant new book The Premonition: A Pandemic Story , he exposes how factors such as US privatised health helped turn COVID-19 into a national catastrophe which claimed the lives of well over 600,000 Americans. Help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Suppor...

As the Tories mess up the pandemic again with 'Freedom Day' due to be kicked back by a month, we're joined by epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani - who has been proven right time and time again - to discuss just how bad things really are. We're also joined by James Mills - former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn - to talk about just how big the stakes are for the left in the Unite election. Help us take on th...

The race to be Unite's next general secretary could not be more politically important: the union is as the very heart of the British left. But there are three left-wing candidates standing, and the right-wing candidate - Gerard Coyne - has every chance of winning because of a split vote. The political consequences for the left would be nothing short of catastrophic. Steve Turner - who won the most...

The Palestinian people have endured over 5 decades of Israeli occupation, the longest belligerent occupation on earth. Their land is being colonised by illegal settlements on the West Bank, while Gaza is under perpetual siege. This is not just occupation, siege and colonisation: as Human Rights Watch have recently announced, this is apartheid. In Israel-proper, Palestinians are treated as third cl...

Most of the British media is spending Pride month monstering trans people and Stonewall, the country's main LGBTQ+ charity. The same tunes that were once repeated about and gay and bisexual people are being played about trans people. We're told trans rights are a threat to women's rights and a threat to children's safety. To tell the truth - about the actual lived experience of trans people, about...

The government's has refused to learn from its catastrophic mistakes - and it's not looking good. The so-called Delta variant - which originated in India - is now dominant and positive cases have surged by over 46% in a week. Will the mass vaccination programme stop a new surge in hospitalisations and death - or are we heading not just for a delay of 'freedom day', but the reimposition of restrict...

Paris Lees is a trailblazer: a trans woman who emerged into public view at the beginning of the 2010s when trans people had very little visibility at all, she was the first trans columnist at Vogue, a presenter, a journalist, and campaigner. Her stunning new memoir - What It Feels Like For A Girl - documents a life that began on a Nottinghamshire council estate, the anti-LGBTQ hatred she suffered...

Ed Miliband regrets not being bolder when he was Labour leader, and his new book - 'GO BIG: How To Fix Our World' - is bursting with ideas, like universal basic income, citizens assemblies, a housing revolution, a Green New Deal, and why struggle from below pays off. We talk about how a world wracked with crisis needs courageous and bold ideas - and I ask why Labour is failing to dismally to offer...

As Dominic Cummings’ confession underlined, the government sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to premature graves. Revolutions have started over less - but will they really get away with it? We’re joined by writer James Butler and by Prof. Susan Michie from SAGE, who will update us on just how serious the current situation is. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-p...

Bashar Murad is a queer Palestinian singer, songwriter, artist and campaigner in east Jerusalem. He brilliantly exposes not just the injustices of occupation and apartheid, but destroys the cynical abuse of LGBTQ rights by the Israeli state's apologists to justify the oppression of the Palestinian people. Help us take on the right-wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show...

Ian Lavery is a former miner and trade union leader turned MP for the community he grew up in. With Keir Starmer's position in crisis after losing the Hartlepool by-election, we discuss why the party is in a mess, whether there should be a leadership challenge - and whether Labour represents the working class anymore. Help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Suppo...

As a tentative ceasefire is called, the world is finally talking about apartheid in Israel. We are joined by Sarit Michaeli, from Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, live from the West Bank, and Abraham Gutman, an Israeli refusenik. Help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast . Hosted on Acas...

Rebecca Long-Bailey stood as the left candidate in Labour's 2020 leadership election, in which Keir Starmer's triumphed. We discuss Labour's election battering, the party's lack of vision, whether Starmer lied to the membership, the coup against Angela Rayner - and whether the left should mount a leadership challenge. Help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Suppo...

As the Israeli state escalates its violent onslaught against Palestinians, we are joined live from occupied Jerusalem by Fayrouz Sharqawi, director of Grassroots Al-Quds, and Afaf Alnajjar from We Are Not Numbers, live from Gaza. Help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast . Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Joe Biden is currently on a political honeymoon: the world is relieved by the fall of Donald Trump, and some of his domestic policies have surprised progressives in a good way. But what about his foreign policy? Award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill details his extensive research into Joe Biden's foreign policy history - and what it tell us about US power under his administration....