468. Starmer in Crisis: Sabotage From Within? (Question Time)

Summary

The Rest Is Politics, Episode 468

Title: Starmer in Crisis: Sabotage From Within? (Question Time)
Date: November 12, 2025
Hosts: Alastair Campbell & Rory Stewart

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Rest Is Politics centers on a turbulent week for UK Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, exploring the internal dynamics and possible sabotage within his team amidst rumors of a leadership challenge. Campbell and Stewart navigate this breaking story with their signature mix of insider insight and candid disagreement, before fielding listener questions on votes for 16/17-year-olds, youth political engagement, the climate crisis, women’s safety in politics, African democracy (with a focus on Tanzania), and the legacy of Dick Cheney.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Starmer Leadership Crisis: Internal Sabotage or Genuine Threat?

[02:08 – 16:16]

• Breaking News Context: Reports suggest a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer potentially led by Health Secretary Wes Streeting post-budget, with speculation swirling around internal briefings from No.10.

• Alastair Campbell’s Analysis

  • Suggests the story was not an organic press leak, but deliberately "inserted" by someone high up in Starmer’s team or No.10, potentially to strengthen Starmer by forcing opponents to deny plotting against him.
  • Criticizes the apparent playground politics in Downing Street and a lack of compelling narrative from the government:

    “Downing street is not a playground. Downing street is… the center of our government.” (Campbell, 07:03)

  • Expresses anger at the destabilizing effect on Labour MPs and ministers, who are confused and frustrated by the lack of clear strategy:

    “…really senior people in the government were saying, I honestly don’t have a clue.” (Campbell, 10:20)

• Rory Stewart’s Perspective

  • Struggles to make sense of No.10’s strategy:

    “…for bears of small brain…I read the newspaper and I think, ugh, now he seems really weak.” (Stewart, 09:30)

  • Highlights how Starmer’s current popularity (“net popularity rating of minus 52”) means anything encouraging doubts is dangerous:

    “This is exactly the wrong time to do it…you’re going to weaken [Starmer]” (Stewart, 11:36)

  • Quotes his mother’s Conservative fatigue:

    “Darling, we cannot keep getting rid of prime ministers like this. This is ridiculous.” (Stewart, 08:23)

• Memorable Moment

  • Campbell’s hypothetical response to staff briefing without reference to the PM:

    “Assuming that’s the first time you’ve done that, which I suspect it isn’t, it is now the last time. Cheerio. I would not piss about.” (Campbell, 14:14)

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2. Political Education and Lowering the Voting Age

[16:23 – 24:22]

• Question from Gabriel, Year 12 Politics Student: On improving political education and news literacy for young people, especially as voting age may be lowered.
• Debate on Votes at 16/17:
  • Rory: Initially skeptical young people are ready for voting, seeing widespread cynicism and distrust in institutions (“slightly nihilistic worldview”).
  • Alastair: Advocates not just for votes at 16, but a parallel rise in political education and debate. Discusses Peter Hyman’s report, “Inside the Mind of a 16 Year Old,” finding hope and optimism among teens—more questioning and informed diversity of thought than often assumed.

    “…one of their conclusions is actually this sort of moral panic which suggests that they’re all hungrily absorbing…fake news…just isn’t borne out.” (Campbell, 18:18) “84% are optimistic that they will have better opportunities than their parents have.” (Campbell, 23:40)

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3. Women’s Safety in Politics: The Mexico Incident

[24:23 – 26:48]

• Incident Recap: Mexico’s president was publicly groped and is taking legal action—sparking nationwide debate about security, machismo culture, and femicide.
• Alastair:
  • Highlights the symbolism—if this happens to the president, the risks are even higher for everyday women.
  • Sheds light on femicide crisis: “98% of gender-based murders go unpunished in Mexico.” (Campbell, 25:12)
• Rory: Notes contrast in security approaches and the precedent this sets in Latin American politics.

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4. African Democracy in Retreat: Tanzania as a Case Study

[26:48 – 33:04]

• Question (Anonymous): Post-election violence, suppression of dissent, and a “sham” 98% victory for President Samia in Tanzania.
• Rory’s Macro View:
  • Africa’s progress toward democratization in the ‘90s has reversed; now sees a rise in authoritarian and military rule in many countries, with only a few bright spots.
  • Astonishing demographic insights: “Tanzania’s population has risen from 10 million (1961) to 70 million (2025) and is projected to hit 137 million by 2050.” (Stewart, 30:35)
  • Links to broader unrest and stagnant international attention/support.
• Alastair:
  • Details on the crackdown: opposition leaders jailed, treason charges, and political repression.
  • Notes “trend inflation”—each new strongman aims to top the last in voting percentage, highlighting growing authoritarian bravado.

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5. Climate Crisis: Critique, Action, and UK Leadership

[37:49 – 44:51]

• Listener Rachel Dehay Calls Out Podcast: For lack of sustained engagement with the climate crisis.
• Alastair: Accepts challenge, recalling interviews with environmental leaders and promising greater climate coverage.
• Jonas Gahr Støre’s (Norwegian PM) COP Message:
  • Progressives weaken their cause when they “glide with populists, away from targets and away from constantly innovating the methods and means.” (Message paraphrased at 39:14)
  • Discusses Norway’s substantial funding (US$5bn) to rainforest preservation with Brazil & Indonesia, new “Tropical Forests Forever Facility” fund, and measurable emissions reductions.
• Rory:
  • Praises Norway’s “specialization” and effectiveness; urges Britain to do more concrete reforestation, not just set “fake targets.”

    “We pat ourselves on the back by deindustrializing Britain…pushing our food production to other countries, but continue to consume just as much.” (Stewart, 41:53)

  • Advocates for UK government to adopt Norway’s approach in leveraging scientific expertise.
• Campbell mentions prior climate-focused interviews and promises a bundled episode:

  "Promise made, promise kept. Just remember, I'm Labour." (Campbell, 44:43)

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6. Reflections on Dick Cheney and the Arc of US Power

[45:01 – 52:18]

• Dick Cheney’s Legacy:
  • Campbell shares war stories from his time dealing with Cheney as Blair’s chief spokesperson, highlighting Cheney’s disciplined, “cold, slightly menacing body language” (45:36) and pivotal role in Bush’s administration.
  • Notes shift: Cheney, once the face of the hard right, now appears moderate compared to Trump.
  • Rory:
    • Remembers Halliburton’s Iraq contracts and the ethical discomfort of privatization and political-business overlap.
    • Recommends “The World According to Dick Cheney” documentary—emphasizing how Cheney, tasked with finding a VP for Bush, selected himself.

      “He concluded, not very surprisingly, after a few weeks of searching, that the only man amongst 300 million Americans who could really do the job was himself.” (Stewart, 51:18)

  • Both note Trump’s lack of comment on Cheney’s passing as illustrative of today’s party fractures.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We’ve had seven [PMs] since the invention of the iPhone…The seven prime ministers prior to that covered 43 years.” – Alastair Campbell, 08:44
• “Downing street is not a playground. Downing street is… the center of our government.” – Alastair Campbell, 07:03
• “This isn’t a leak…this is somebody briefing a concept and an idea.” – Alastair Campbell, 13:32
• “If they do this to the president, what will happen to all the young women in our country?” – Claudia Sheinbaum quoted by Campbell, 25:12
• “One in ten children born in the world will be born in Nigeria by 2050.” – Rory Stewart, 30:39
• “We…pat ourselves on the back by deindustrializing Britain…pushing our food production to other countries…” – Rory Stewart, 41:53
• “Cheerio. I would not piss about.” – Alastair Campbell, on dealing with rogue briefers, 14:14

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Labour/Starmer Crisis & Internal Briefings: 02:08 – 16:16
• Votes at 16 & Youth Political Engagement: 16:23 – 24:22
• Mexico: Women’s Safety in Politics: 24:23 – 26:48
• Tanzania & African Democracy: 26:48 – 33:04
• Climate Crisis – Norway & UK Action: 37:49 – 44:51
• Dick Cheney Legacy: 45:01 – 52:18

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Tone and Style

Campbell and Stewart’s discussion remains pointed but respectful, often disagreeing with candor but retaining humour and mutual respect. Both draw on personal experiences, direct quotes, and anecdotes, giving listeners a behind-the-scenes look at political life and international affairs, always mindful of broader implications amidst the immediate headlines.

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This summary provides a comprehensive digest for any listener who missed the episode, enabling a grasp of all the significant conversations, perspectives, and takeaways.

Transcript

[Alistair Campbell]

Thanks for listening to the Rest is Politics. Sign up to the Rest is Politics plus to enjoy ad free listening, receive a weekly newsletter, join our members chat room and gain early access to live show tickets. Just go to therestispolitics.com that's therestispolitics.com this episode is powered by Fuse Energy and.

[Rory Stewart]

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[Alistair Campbell]

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[Rory Stewart]

Welcome to the Rest is Politics Question Time with.

[Alistair Campbell]

Me, Rory Stewart and me Alistair Campbell.

[Rory Stewart]

And we're recording this on the 12th of November just after news has broken of a challenge to Keir Sammel with the Labour Party. And we're going to begin with that obviously, and we're recording slightly later, but we're also doing some other very interesting things in this question time. We're looking at issues such as votes for 16, 17 year olds, we're looking at the climate crisis, we're looking at what's happening in Mexico, and we're looking at some of the big questions around African democracy following the elections in Tanzania, with a following reflection right at the very end on Dick Cheney. But let's begin with what's happening with Labor. And can I start, Alistair, with the thing that puzzles me? I look at my newspapers, I open it, and there's a very straightforward story going on, which is there is now a challenge to Keir Starmer's leadership. And the Labour Party is expecting that shortly after the budget, Wes Streeting or some other senior Labour figure, the Health Secretary, is going to make a move to topple Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. And I take it at face value. But I immediately pick up somewhere under the surf that people like you who Understand how number 10 works and journalists know there's something else going on, that this isn't just a straightforward story that some journalists uncovered, that somebody's pushing something anyway over to you.

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, so you and I yesterday, last night were at Hammersmith Apollo talking about all sorts of things with two and a half thousand people, and we were asking them all sorts of difficult questions. Well, some straightforward questions, but the one that really sort of hit home to me, we asked them if in the next election, Keir Starmer is leading the Labour Party and Nigel Farage is leading the Reform Party, which of those two do you think is going to be Prime Minister after that election? And I was expecting something around because it was a pretty progressive, Londony, probably quite Laboury audience. I was expecting something around about 80, 20. It came up at 55, 45. Starmer Farage. As you keep saying, Keir Starmer has the lowest ratings of any prime minister with the possible exception of for a few days of list trusts that we've ever had and ever known. So into this febrile mix deliberately to insert this story that if the budget goes tits up and the public don't like it, West Streeting is maneuvering to make a challenge. When you say, you know, I know how this works, you have to stand back a little bit and say, okay, what's going on here? The first thing I do is I look at some of the bylines. So the byline and the Guardian was Pippa Carrera. Now, a lot of political journalists, and including on the broadcasts and the broadsheets and the tabloids, they're only really interested in trivia, they're interested in personality spats, they're interested in all the ups and downs. Pippa career tends not to be like that. So I thought this is not just some lunch that she's sort of, you know, teased out a few Sexy quotes. Somebody has made this decision and then it gets spills out into the BBC and they say, you know, number 10, allies of the Prime Minister saying this, that and the other. Now my point is that number 10, the Prime Minister most important job in the country, the team that works for him should 24 hours a day, including in their sleep. They should understand their words are his words. You cannot. And sometimes I went over the top. And sometimes I would say things in a way that Tony Blair wouldn't afterwards have liked or whatever, but what I never did was push an agenda of my own. So Keir Starmer has stood up in the House of Commons today and said, I have never authorized briefings against colleagues and it is unacceptable.

[Rory Stewart]

Okay, can I just pause a second because I'm already getting confused and I think the audience will too. So is the story actually that rather than what we expect, which is that somebody's picked up from, I don't know, Wes Streeting's camp, that he's about to lead a rebellion against Keir Starmer, which would have been the story with, you know, Theresa May, some ambitious person like Boris Johnson on maneuvers, leaks, I'm gonna move against. It's actually the other way round.

[Alistair Campbell]

That would be a very different story.

[Rory Stewart]

Okay, just to be really simple, the story here seems to be that number 10, for some reason best known only to itself, has let it be known off the record to journalists that they think there's gonna be a challenge to Keir Starmer.

[Alistair Campbell]

More importantly, what they were trying to communicate is if and when there is a challenge to Keir Starmer, he is not going to. He is going to see us off.

[Rory Stewart]

He is going to fight for bears of small brain. I agree that you totally disagree with this strategy, but what in the best case scenario did they think they were doing? Because it doesn't make any sense to me at all. What were they hoping to achieve?

[Alistair Campbell]

It doesn't make any sense to me either. I guess the only thing you could say might be, well, Wes treating is up to something and we're going to smoke him out. So we have to get him on the radio and the television as he was this morning. To say this is completely ridiculous. The trouble is, it's a bit like the thing with the BBC. It's a game that's just gone too far. And to have. I mean, look, I was regularly raised that Prime Minister's questions. It is never good for a Prime Minister when the people that work for them, the officials are being bandied about in the House of Commons. So when Kemi Badenot today said to Keir Starmer, do you have faith in Morgan McSweeney? That is not a good place for the Prime Minister to be. And it's not a good place for Morgan McSweeney to be. And, you know, I think what's happened is, I think that there is. There's this line that's run against Keir the whole time. He doesn't really understand politics. He doesn't get politics. And he sort of subcontracted it all out to these. These sort of young guys who run around the place, and they're the ones who are doing all the sort of dark art stuff. But I go back to my central point. Downing street is not a playground. Downing street is. Is the center of our government. And the worst thing. You and I were at an event this morning, Rory, and if you remember the very first question that we received from a member of the public, she said, I turned on the radio this morning and I was in despair. I want this government to do well. I want it to succeed. There is so much in the country that we need to fix. And this sounds like the Tories.

[Rory Stewart]

So to quote my mother, who's always to be quoted in these situations, so very long term, strong Tory supporter, she's completely shocked. She said to me this morning, darling, we cannot keep getting rid of prime ministers like this. This is ridiculous. You know, we've been through, whatever it is, five of them in the last few years, and it's mad.

[Alistair Campbell]

We've had seven since the invention of the iPhone in the week that Gordon Brown took office, seven prime ministers. And the seven prime ministers prior to that covered 43 years. And I do think this is partly the media in that the media's so used to the change. And let's have another battle, let's have another challenge, let's have this sort of trivia to talk about. But the point is, if you're the government, you don't feed it. Don't feed that agenda. I'm sorry if I'm not explaining this very well, but I'm very angry.

[Rory Stewart]

You're doing your best, but as. As I understand it, somebody like Morgan McSweeney or somebody pretty powerful in the number 10 machine, Pippa career, wouldn't take.

[Alistair Campbell]

It from, you know, the cleaners or the messengers. There's gotta be somebody with real authority, somebody real authority.

[Rory Stewart]

A number 10 machine decided to tell the journalists that somebody was on maneuvers against Starmer, almost certainly Wes Streeting, and there was going to be a leadership challenge. And Their hope was that that would force West Streeting to deny and would make the whole party gather around Keir Starmer and you'd see off the leadership and it would somehow strengthen his position. Whereas, of course, I read the newspaper and I think, ugh, now he seems really weak. Doesn't seem to strengthen his position at all.

[Alistair Campbell]

My phone on the way back from Oxford was because I switched my phone off for the thing that we were doing and it was just. It was MPs, it was party members, it was ministers, and it was like, you know, what the F U C K was basically what they were saying, what is going on here? And I was asking some of them, what is going on? And really senior people in the government were saying, I honestly don't have a clue. Now, I think they keep having sort of, you know, these, what I would classify as own goals, you know, winter fuel payments, some of the sort of, you know, overseas aid, all sorts of things. Then I would say, why did you do that? And then we say, well, okay, let's, you know, maybe they'll learn from that, maybe the operation will improve, maybe things will change. My fear is that they'll just think, this is. Those who are playing these games will just think, oh, well, you know, this is just the old sort of timers wanging on about this stuff. But actually we're delivering this and the other. And I heard of an interview before I did the World At One just now, and I was listening to an interview with Clive Effort, Labour mp, and he was basically saying, look, there are a lot of things that this government is doing that I'm very, very proud of. And I can say to my constituents, these are good things. There's things that you wanted us to do, we're now doing them. Nobody's talking about this stuff. We talk about all this crap. And this is what happens when there's no driving narrative, there is no clear, coherent strategy that everybody understands. There is no real sense of teamship and unity around that shared purpose. And in this incredibly febrile atmosphere, strategically.

[Rory Stewart]

Just a step back, if I was talking to Morgan McSweeney or whoever this is, I would say this is an unbelievably dangerous game to play. Keir Starmer's on a net popularity rating of minus 52. I mean, Donald Trump's like, on minus 15. This guy is in a very vulnerable, weak position at Bournemouth. When we did a show of hands on how many people think Keir Starmer's going to lead Labour into the next election, it wasn't the majority of the people. So this is not a good time when you have a leader in that position to be raising more questions and getting people talking about whether Wes Streeting would or wouldn't be a better leader than Keir Starmer. This is exactly the wrong time to do it. You're not going to strengthen Keir Starmer's position, you're going to weaken it.

[Alistair Campbell]

Listen, don't get me wrong, I said this morning, I think government is harder than it was. I think the way the media's developed, social media on top of it. But let's be frank, the rise of reform I can blame, as I often do, the over platforming on the BBC and the sort of soft ride that Farage has ever had since the Brexit referendum. I can blame all that. But the truth is it is this operation than this strategy that has led to, in part, the rise of reform. Because there was nothing that was driving it off the agenda. And I'm not underestimating how hard that is. But if I was speaking to these guys, I would be saying, for God's sake, you've got three years. Governing is not the same as campaigning. You need different sorts of skills. You need a campaign mindset all the time, but you need different skills for effective government. Govern, for God's sake. Make the changes you said you were going to make. Use this massive majority to positive effect and have a positive, compelling narrative story about the future. That's what I would say, and I've been saying it till I'm blue in the face, which is why I'm getting really pissed off.

[Rory Stewart]

Final thing, if you were Keir Starmer, what would you say to the member of staff who'd leaked this?

[Alistair Campbell]

It's not a leak, is it? I mean, a leak is where you've sort of got a piece of information, but this is somebody briefing a concept and an idea. Look, I'll tell you how these things sometimes work. There are sometimes situations, let me take to it, rather than the personality stuff, which, I'll be honest, sometimes happens. But let's take it to something like the Northern Ireland peace process, where you think we can actually make something happening happen that we want to happen by briefing a chosen journalist or group of journalists a particular story that we feel confident they will project in a way that helps us meet our objective, that goes on. Okay. I wouldn't have done stuff like that without talking to Tony, probably talking to Jonathan Powell and saying, what do you think? Should we do that? And they would say, yeah, okay, or maybe be Careful or do this or whatever. So I'm imagining when I saw this, I thought, sure, look, Because Keir Starm hates this stuff. That's one thing I know about Keir. He doesn't actually like doing much media. He doesn't think the politics. He thinks that politics is far too much about the media and what the media says and does. So I don't believe he would have said, yeah, I think it'd be a great ide do this. So if somebody has done that without any sense of reference to the Prime Minister representing him, representing the institution of the Prime Minister's office in Downing Street, I would say. I would probably say that is the last time you ever do that. I might even go further and say, assuming that's the first time you've done that, which I suspect it isn't, it is now the last time. Cheerio. I would not piss about.

[Rory Stewart]

And you'd make that clear to all the staff, wouldn't you? Whoever did.

[Alistair Campbell]

And therefore it would become clear to the public as well. And you have to understand that's the world you're in. And look, I have some sympathy for Morgan Muswini because I was for many years a kind of lightning conductor. I had way more press attention than he gets and way more media attention. And it was stuff. It was attention that most of the time I did not want, okay? But I always understood there's a merit in this happening to me because it means I'm a lightning conductor. And it's not happening to Tony. And Tony can fly higher and be more attractive and be more compelling and be better at what he does and all that stuff, okay? The problem with this is that it weakens Keir Starmer. And once the people who are working for Keir Starmer are weakening him in the eyes and forget the public, in the eyes of his colleagues. The fact these cabinet ministers can say to me, I don't have a clue what the fuck is going on. That is a bad, bad position for the leader of a cabinet to be in. So it's got to be gripped. It's got to be sorted, and he should do it pretty damn quick.

[Rory Stewart]

Okay, Alastair, thank you. I think enough of that for now. Let's get on with question time. And do you have a question for us?

[Alistair Campbell]

This is a question from Gabriel. Dear Rory and Alastair Gabriel, please spell my name right. I'm a year 12 student and have recently begun studying politics at A level. Good. Glad as part of my studies, I'm required to spend time reading the News and informing myself on recent events. Before, I would have considered myself someone who's relatively politically informed. However, I now realise how much of what I knew was only from social media and word of mouth. How can schools, parents and students ensure young people are politically informed, can find reliable and accessible news beyond social media and learn to question online information, especially as politics becomes more relevant to them. Post 16 and with the potential lowering of the voting age.

[Rory Stewart]

Well, I think there's actually been some really interesting work done worldwide on 16 to 17. It was very relevant for you. You've been a big campaigner for 16, 17 year olds getting the vote, which we really did disagree on agreeably. I was very against 16, 17 year olds getting the vote and my view being that often when I turned up in schools, 16, 17 year olds wanted the vote but didn't seem to know very much about politics and be very uncertain about how they were going to vote. And you had this very romantic idea, I felt, which is, we're going to give the votes 16, 17 year olds and then we're going to reshape the entire society, curriculum and culture to give them a completely different civic education they don't have, and then it'll all be fine anyway. Tell us what you found out about 16, 17 year olds in voting.

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, you have absolutely put your finger on my general position. Always been in favor of lowering the voting age, but I've always felt it had to be accompanied by an improved political debate and improved political education. But what's been interesting this week, you may have seen stuff in the media about this and my old friend and colleague Peter Hyman has been out on the road with a young black guy called Shoab Gamote. So two very different people, generationally professional background, social background. They've gone out together and they've spoken to thousands, thousands of kids of this age and they've written this report inside the mind of a 16 year old. You know, as you, you sometimes sort of take the. Quickly, Adam, with this because you think I'm too sort of, you know, romantic about the views of kids, but actually it is quite hopeful. So, for example, one of the things that they do watch, a lot of these kids are watching a lot of video content they are playing. 96% of boys are playing video games in some form. But for example, in their eyes, this generation, Andrew Tate is kind of irrelevant. He's just not a big part of their lives. Whereas our generation obsesses about the impact that we think that he's having. And so what they've explored is that is a very, very different media landscape that they're in and it does have a lot of challenges within it. And there are some very strange sort of, you know, role models that develop, but that one of their conclusions is actually this sort of moral panic which suggests that they're all hungrily absorbing and sharing lies and fake news and the rest of it just isn't borne out. So there's a lot more questioning going, there's a lot more understanding.

[Rory Stewart]

I'm really interested in this because my sense is that in some ways 16, 17 year olds are an exaggerated version of all of us. And I find this, even with my kids, that actually we're. It's not quite that people are childlike, they're increasingly kind of world weary and cynical about almost everything, even at quite a young age. My children are incredibly good at poking fun at traditional narratives and questioning teachers and questioning authorities and being very skeptical of advertising. You know, they can do a good imitation of you and I promoting brands. And So I think 16, 17 year olds are obviously incredibly smart, very logical, very consistent in their thinking often and very aware of a media landscape where everybody's trying to sell them stuff. But the problem is that it can end up in a slightly nihilistic worldview where you end up almost trusting nobody. You've become so knowing, so cynical. You know, you can, you, you no longer trust the BBC, you no longer trust, you know, I don't know, whatever. Because everything is up for grabs. And sadly that's actually quite an opportunity for the populace that it, it's. Even though they may be equally cynical about Farage, Trump and Andrew Tate, the general atmosphere that it creates isn't very good for thoughtful discussion around politics.

[Alistair Campbell]

That's true, that's true. However, one of the conclusions that Peter and Schraab's report comes to is that when you compare their views of the stuff that they're consuming when it does relate to politics with say, the views of an elderly person who has spent their whole life reading a tabloid newspaper of, of a certain political slant, that they will have much more informed and reflective views than the Daily Mail or Daily Mirror reader who relies entirely on one political viewpoint.

[Rory Stewart]

Except you've also been sharing other stuff that we've seen over the last few months about how there is a disproportionate number of young people rejecting democracy, favoring authoritarian governments, interested in military rule. So it'd be interesting to see how that all comes together. One final thing, just before we move off this, when people often ask Us on, for example, we're doing live shows at the moment, London, Manchester, Glasgow, and people will say, what should I do as a young person? How do I change the world? I'm not saying everybody should do this, but I'm quite interested in what somebody like Peter Hyman is doing and indeed what Gerald Knaus is doing, which is these figures who are beginning to, without being in government, leading policy debates in really quite interesting ways. And often in the case of Peter Hyman, pretty good at getting media attention. I mean, he's a former, I think, head teacher was an advice at a Starmer. But instead of working in number 10, what he's been doing is out on the road with Trump supporters. Then he got very interested in the grid. Now he's very interested in 16, 17 year olds and he's quite good at sort of shaping policy debates and. But I wonder whether that's also interesting, the way that people can now use things like substack to help develop arguments.

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, I'll tell you, I mean, Peter worked with me and as part of our team when we were in power and he was with us in opposition as well. And he's a very, very bright, quirky guy. I think it's a shame he's not still with the Keir Starmer team because I think it's his sort of thinking that we need more than the sort of thinking that seems to be dominant there. Now, I also do think you mentioned the thing about, you know, desire for strongman leadership. One of the things that comes through this, this report is that there is a desire for strength in leadership and there is a desire for clarity in communication. We talked on the main episode about Mamdani and we talked about Farage and Polanski as these two sort of poles of this sort of communication. And I think they do need, they do need more of that. And the other thing, they're very, very, very focused on knife crime. Can't understand why governments can't do a better job of dealing with it. But here's the thing, sort of maybe cheer you up because we have a sense of, and I often say, look, why shouldn't young people be pissed off? They're the first generation in history to grow up without a guarantee they're going to be better off than their parents. But of all the thousands that they have talked to, 84% are optimistic that they will have better opportunities than their parents have. So I think there is more optimism out there than maybe we think. But listen, we'll put the full report in the Newsletter because it's quite long, it's quite chunky, it's got a lot of data in it. But it's, it's a good read. And I promise that next week we won't mention Peter Hyman. Okay. And I won't send you any, anything that he sends me to say. Could you talk about this?

[Rory Stewart]

So, Alistair, question for you, Georgia Tipper. What does it say about the state of women's safety in Mexico and around the world if a president is being subject to public groping and harassment?

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, it says a lot. And the reason that George has asked that question, I suspect is because there's an extraordinary incident in Mexico a few days ago when the president herself was groped, sexually assaulted during a public walkabout.

[Rory Stewart]

And she was on a walkabout. And am I right, a man reached out, groped her, tried to kiss her, and she's now decided to take legal action against him.

[Alistair Campbell]

Yeah.

[Rory Stewart]

And this, and this has got bigger symbolism because Mexico is the great home of machismo.

[Alistair Campbell]

Correct, Correct. And also because she made a big thing of it in her campaign that we've got to change the culture. I was with somebody last night who's recently been in Mexico, was telling me that she'd gone on a train in Mexico and there were women only carriages. And the reason for the women only carriages would be because most women on trains have reported being sexually harassed. This was quite an extraordinary thing. And the other, the other debate that it sparked off in Mexico is a debate about security because she's got this big thing, as did her predecessor, amlo, the back. You know, you've always got to be out with the public and she doesn't have very heavy security. So this guy had no trouble whatsoever. And it wasn't just the, you know, he basically went up there, tried to kiss her, tried to grab her breasts, tried to touched her on the hip. And she came straight out and said, if they do this to the president, what will happen to all the young women in our country? And femicide, which is a really big problem. I think there's something like 800 women killed, four being women, and 98% of gender based murders go unpunished. So this is a real problem. What's happened is I think she's done this deliberately in saying, I'm taking this guy to court, I'm going to press charges. I think she's doing it as a way of, of showing I'm taking this.

[Rory Stewart]

Issue also because in many ways Claudia Chamberne is seen as sort of protege of amlo. And so there's a narrative which would say it's a sort of left wing populism, that there's some very worrying moves against judges in Mexico, attempts to control the military in Mexico, but there's something that she's doing here which is different and that's particularly on these kinds of social issues and issues around women.

[Alistair Campbell]

Now, Rory, we've got a question here which unlike most of our questions, is what we call deliberately anonymous. In other words, this person does not want their name to be read out in public. You'll understand why. Please talk about the desperate situation in Tanzania. Post election violence has seen over 1,000 protesters murdered by security forces. President Samir's implausible 98% election victory on October 29 followed months of her main opponents being jailed, abducted and disappeared. Curfew, Internet blackout and chaos ensued. It is now illegal here to share video and photos of images likely to cause distress. Few international journalists are in the country to report. So the world is now silent and ignorant. It is a total crackdown on dissent. What next for this normally peaceful country? Well, thank you for that question. And Rory, this is part of the world, you know pretty well, so why don't you answer this one?

[Rory Stewart]

It's very, very troubling and it's part of a much bigger story in Africa, broadly speaking, for listeners who don't follow sub Saharan Africa all the time. In the 1970s, Africa was dominated basically by authoritarian rulers and military governments. During the 90s, there was an amazing explosion of democracies. There were these transitions in Zambia and Malawi and Ghana and Mozambique and Namibia and Tanzania, where the end of the regime of Julius Nyere was followed by multi party elections. Tanzania in some ways was a bit of a success story. It was a place which was showing good results on education, quite good results on development. When you were being optimistic when you were in office in the 90s, you would have had a story that Nigeria had transitioned from military rule, Kenya had transitioned from basically strongman rule. East Africa, Southern Africa, of course, South Africa going through this democratic transition now. Now fast forward to today. Africa is in a very, very different situation. There are still some countries which are fully, you know, going in a democratic direction, including really big cornerstone countries like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa. But there is the authoritarian story. You know, you were talking about how much you liked Ethiopia. Ethiopia, very much authoritarian, just coming out of civil war. Rwanda, authoritarian, where again you get election results like this up in the 90s of percent for Kagame. Other countries we've talked about Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Central African Republic, which are on the edge of civil war. There's been the coups in the Sahel. So that's Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon being taken over by military coups and Tanzania being a kind of representative of, yeah, elections take place, but basically the opposition is intimidated, driven back and it's essentially forms of one party rule. She followed on from somebody I knew reasonably well called Magufuli, who I went to visit in Tanzania and who I stayed in touch with, who became a Covid denier. He had a scientific background, but he appeared on television, I think testing a watermelon for Covid, saying Covid was all a fake. And then he died, died of COVID himself. Here's a final thing for you just before I come back to you on Africa. Tanzania only became independent from Britain four years after you were born. And by 1961, the population of Tanzania was 10 million people when the population of Britain was 53 million. By 1989, when the fall of Berlin Wall happened, the population chance had already doubled to 24 million. By 2004, when you were in the Labour government, the population was at 37 million. When the UK population was then at about 60 million. Fast forward to today, 2025, the population of Tanzania is 70 million. It's larger than the population of the United Kingdom. So it's gone from 10 to 70 million in your life.

[Alistair Campbell]

I'm loving the way that you're sort of making it sound like I'm somehow responsible for these.

[Rory Stewart]

You're responsible for the whole thing. And I hold you particularly responsible for the fact that in 2050 the population of Tanzania will be 137 million.

[Alistair Campbell]

Wow. And what's your amazing stat about Nigeria which I always quote?

[Rory Stewart]

So 1 in 10 children born in the world will be born in Nigeria by 2050 and 40% of the world's population will be sub Saharan African by the end of this century.

[Alistair Campbell]

Yeah, that's one thing. I do want to come back to another point. It's too big a subject just to sort of COVID off now. But is this, this issue of what's going on with Christians in, in Nigeria and why the American right is, is getting so engaged and so involved in this. Your point about the the one party state. So the opposition leader, guy called Tundu Lisu, he was arrested prior to the vote, so he couldn't stand. His deputy had already been charged with treason. And although there's not been an execution since the mid-90s, treason can carry the death penalty. And as our anonymous questioners said, there have Been hundreds being charged with treason. So that is a pretty firm keep your mouth shut sort of charge. And now the second, the deputy Secretary general of the opposition Tadema Party, he's also been arrested. So the top three of the opposition party are now basically in jail. So it's grim stuff. I was going to say, if you perish the thought. If you were a dictator running a sham democracy, what proportion of the vote would you tell your people to give you? I mean, 98%. It just is too. It's too much.

[Rory Stewart]

I remember talking to a friend of mine who was a journalist visiting Iraq in 2003 when Saddam had got, I think, 99.8% of the vote. And he said to the spokesman, pretty impressive. 99.8% of the spokesman said, in fact, this may be an undercount. He may have got more.

[Alistair Campbell]

Okay, well, listen, that's. That's a very, very sad story. Thank you, questioner, for bringing it to our attention. And they're absolutely right, Roy, that these are stories that just don't get any ventilation.

[Rory Stewart]

No, no. And we've. And I think we've lost the whole bigger story. We've lost this whole arc of remembering how Africa came out of a lost decade in the 80s, went into this incredible period of democratic transition. Even when I was Africa minister, there was still so much optimism about democratic transition. Of course, you know, American administrations were really important in getting behind human rights and liberal democracy and governance and of course, USAID funding, DFID funding, trying to support these transitions. And basically that's all fallen away. And Africa is in a much more. In democratic terms, a much more authoritarian place than it was 20 years ago.

[Alistair Campbell]

All right, let's take a break, and when we come back, we're going to talk about the climate. This episode is brought to you by HSBC uk.

[Rory Stewart]

Okay, here we are. Alistair. Question came in from one of our listeners. In fact, in your experience, Alistair, how do politicians try to ensure that the decisions they make are the right ones?

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, it's all about analysis of a problem. And I think, especially if you're a very, very busy prime minister or cabinet minister, it's about having a really good team around you. I mean, I know Michael Gove, who we interviewed recently, said we've had enough of experts, but I think experts are quite good when it comes to making decisions.

[Rory Stewart]

So I guess it's best to take advice from people in the know, eh?

[Alistair Campbell]

Absolutely, Rory. Which is why if people are planning their financial future, they should consider HSBC uk. That will mean knowing that wealth means more than money and understanding your financial ambitions, which is what they do. Whether you're saving to retire early or giving your kids the best possible start, they have the experience and investment options to support your goals. To find out more, search for HSBC Wealth HSBC UK current account holders only £100,000 investments or savings required for the advice service Investing Rory, as you know, has its ups and downs so you could get back less than you invest. Eligibility criteria and fees apply.

[Rory Stewart]

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[Alistair Campbell]

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[Rory Stewart]

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[Rory Stewart]

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[Alistair Campbell]

Well, listen, Rachel, thank you, Roy. I love the way you said that was pointed at me because actually we were both in the room and she said that the podcast generally and she actually felt that you were the one who had the sort of slightly unsound views on Climate View.

[Rory Stewart]

I was by far the least sympathetic in the room. You, you, you were in your full 16, 17 year old model.

[Alistair Campbell]

Exactly.

[Rory Stewart]

Oh yeah, you're completely right. We should do more on this. And I was like, there's all these other issues we need to talk about.

[Alistair Campbell]

I think she's right. And what was I should we should tell our listeners and viewers who weren't at this event as she introduced herself, said, I'm a Trip plus member. So we both sort of grovel and said, well, we love you more than everybody else in the room. But then she, she sort of basically said, well, I don't have a question, I have a point. You don't talk about the climate crisis enough. And I think she's right. Anyway, Rory, guess what happened on the following morning? The following morning as I was thinking, how can we talk about the climate next week? I was sitting there, my phone pinged with a WhatsApp message from none other than Jonas Gastora.

[Rory Stewart]

One of you, oh my goodness, one.

[Alistair Campbell]

Of your, one of your heroes, the Prime Minister of Norway. And he said, said greetings from early morning at COP in Belem this is the COP that's been going on in Brazil. Just heard your latest on climate. That was you and I talking about climate where you said some very kind of non progressive things.

[Rory Stewart]

That. That's me roaring.

[Alistair Campbell]

You roaring.

[Rory Stewart]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alistair Campbell]

And yeah, I've said that. Not. That wasn't Jonas saying that. That was me saying that. Jonas goes on. I am persuaded that progressives make a huge mistake. Rory. That's me saying, Rory. If they glide with populists, away from targets and away from constantly innovating the methods and means. So here is an example of innovation from this cop. Rainforest preservation, probably the most significant climate measure to date. He then tells me about a new kind of corporation that Norway launched with Indonesia and Brazil back in 2008, when basically essentially you were paying countries for not logging. And he says they've spent 5 billion American dollars since then. Despite some ups and downs downs Under Bolsonaro, for example, 50% decrease since Luli came back. This joint effort with several states has had huge effects. We estimate the climate gas emissions saved represents several times Norway's annual emissions. He then goes on to explain a new fund, the tfff, which is being launched alongside other partners, including the World Bank Tropical Forests Forever facility. And he goes on, explains what it is. But the point he's making, Rory, is that just because Trump's not there, just because Putin's not there, just because modi's not there, just because Xi Jinping's not there, we shouldn't back down from the fact that those who do believe the climate crisis is real, do believe that governments have to take a lead. They have to bring up with initiatives like this 100%.

[Rory Stewart]

I think this is a really, really interesting subject. I've been mesmerized by what Norway's doing here. Here, Norway is an interesting example of relatively small country and therefore a relatively small development budget, even if it's, even when it's trying to get to 0.7%. But what they chose to do is specialize. And they really chose to lean into this question around forests. And you're always posting your trees the day. But at the back of this story is of course the fact that particularly the Amazon rainforest, but also the Indonesian forests in places like Borneo are the lungs of the world world. And if we lose those forests, the effect on climate is unbelievable. Effect on carbon is unbelievable. The effect on biodiversity is unbelievable. One of the things that's been happening, of course, in Indonesia is a lot of logging for replacement with monoculture palm oil plantations. And in the Amazon Logging in order to grow soybean or to pasture cows, which we all eat in Britain. Right. And we come back to this issue that one of the things that fundamentally is so wrong with what we're doing in Britain is we're setting fake targets on our own production, not on our consumption. Basically what we do is we pat ourselves on the back by de industrializing Britain and pushing our food production to other countries, but we continue to consume just as much energy and eat just as much.

[Alistair Campbell]

Are you not repeating the same huge mistake here, Rory, that Jonas says you made last week?

[Rory Stewart]

Well, what I'm trying to do is say what he's doing is the right thing to do. And it would be wonderful to see Britain doing the same. Because one thing that we really need to think about in the Amazon is often when they log and then put intensive agriculture in, forest soils are incredibly thin. You imagine because of a rainforest that it's very rich soil. It isn't, and it's exhausted very quickly. And so the land is then abandoned. So about a third of what was previously rainforest has just been abandoned. It's kind of empty land. So reforesting, replanting the rainforest there is absolutely vital. And this is one of the things that I really was proud of when I was the different Secretary State. I doubled our international development spend on climate and the environment. I put that in the single departmental plan. I made that my big launching thing. What we should see as the British government, given that we've shrunk our aid budget so much, is to take a leaf from Norway's book, and I'd almost like them to go and say, on the basis of this question, okay, we're getting in behind Jonas Gastora. We're going to focus on reforestation. We have huge expertise in the Forestry Commission, in our universities around this. Why don't we get into the single big play, which I think is not just stopping deforestation, but replanting the Amazon rainforest.

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, he did say in his message that the UK was one of the countries that is working with him on this. He also says, roy, here's another opportunity for you to plug your new book. One of the conditions that Norway is stipulating about the fund is that at least 20% of the new fund must go to indigenous peoples and local communities. Rory Q. Plug Middleland.

[Rory Stewart]

Q, Plug Middleland. Absolutely. Thank you very much. So, yeah, thank you for everybody who's buying Middleland, and thank you for always taking an interest. It is not just about local democracy, it's about local communities, indigenous Communities, working landscapes, small farmers, and the ways in which we think in Britain as much as elsewhere, about what we can do to make this thing that's so precious to our culture, so vital for our food systems, properly understood and supported by governments and loved by us.

[Alistair Campbell]

I've got a little bit of news for Rachel, partly inspired by you and also partly because I went into a bit of a defensive mode afterwards. I thought, well, yeah, she's got a point. But also we have done quite a lot of good interviews on leading with a very, very strong environmental theme. Ed Miliband, most obviously, I guess. But also Bill Gates actually was to some extent about climate and the environment. So was Kate Raworth.

[Rory Stewart]

Absolutely. And also Dieter Helm, the energy economist Cristiana Figueres, who set up the COP process, and Emma Pinchbeck, who chairs the Climate Change committee.

[Alistair Campbell]

Here's an idea for you, Rachel. We'll put together a single episode package of some of those interviews. I'm not saying this is an excuse for us not to talk about climate. We are going to talk about climate more. That is a promise. Promise made, promise kept. Just remember, I'm labor. And there we go. No, we'll do that. We'll put it out soon.

[Rory Stewart]

Very good. Okay. Well, here's my final question for you, Alistair, from Alex Frobes. Alistair, what are your memories of Dick Cheney?

[Alistair Campbell]

Oh, I have many. Alex, go to volume four of the diaries.

[Rory Stewart]

Younger listeners just remind people he was famously a secretary of defense and then vice president for George W. Bush and has just died. And the father of Liz Cheney, who was the Republican who stood up against Trump.

[Alistair Campbell]

He was also, prior to his own political career, the youngest White House chief of staff, age 34. He was Mamdani's age when he was chief of staff. He was one of the most consequential figures of the Bush era. No doubt at all you've heard me say often, Rory, because you know how obsessive I am about punctuality, except when I'm very occasionally late. But that George W. Bush had a real thing about punctuality and didn't let people late into meetings unless they were Dick Cheney. He had a lot of power. I found him. It's interesting. I've actually written a piece about him for the New World because I do think he's a consequential figure and I think he's also very interesting. At the time we thought, my God, this guy's so right wing. He and Bush have emerged as sort of voices of calm, temperate moderation compared with what has followed. And I guess that shows you you a trend, because I think you can probably make the case that Reagan was to the right of Nixon on many issues, and then Bush was to the right of Reagan. And now what we've got with Trump is way to the right of anything we've had.

[Rory Stewart]

The one that I knew in that period a little bit and corresponded with a bit was, was Donald Rumsfeld.

[Alistair Campbell]

Well, they were very much a pair. They were. You've got to see them together.

[Rory Stewart]

And Rumsfeld, I think, was the youngest sexual defense and then the oldest sexual defense. So there was this weird thing that with both of them, he'd brought in these people who'd been young stars and were now very old and had gone on into the private sector. One of the things that always made me a bit uneasy about Cheney was that he'd been connected with Halliburton, which became the big American contractor on the ground in Iraq. And I remember when I was stuck for stuff in my office in Iraq, when I was living in Iraq, you had to go to a little shipping container where there was a Halliburton contractor who would charge you an unbelievable amount of money to get a new broken plastic chair to come in. Everything had to be done. It's like a sort of one of these ghastly sort of privatization contracts where they put a cross past 30% and a plastic chair which you could buy in the market for $30. I wasn't allowed to buy in the market for $30. It had to be delivered by Halliburton for about a cost of $300 taxpayer.

[Alistair Campbell]

We're back to the stuff you talked about in the main podcast about this sort of, this mixing of politics and business that we talk about in Czech Republic. I mean, we're seeing it in America now, but it's always been there to some extent. I went through, as I often do when. When people die and our masters sort of talk about them or write about them. I did go and look through my. Through my diaries. And so you hide this story. After our very, very first meeting with Chaney, which was at Blair House, you know, the official guest house in. In D.C. and I said if this, if he was a Brit, you'd say total Tory. So he obviously didn't make a great impression. And then there was another point after 9 11, because I'd been involved working with the Americans on a sort of coordinated communications and strategy following during the Kosovo war, Karen Hughes, who was working in Bush's team, she asked me to send out all the papers that I'd written at that time, as a result of which she asked me to go out and speak to the Pentagon and the staff, State Department and, and others. But it was, and I also had a meeting with Jack Straw was in Washington at the same time and we had a meeting with Cheney partly to discuss this new proposal that I was putting forward. And it was really interesting talking to Karen and talking to the people in the State Department and, and everybody else. They were, they were saying, are you seeing Cheney? Will you be seeing Cheney? Does Cheney know about this? There was very much, he was a kind of. So it was made obvious to me if you didn't have Chaney on board, this was going to be quite tricky. So we had this meeting and I, I, I said this is what I wrote. He had cold, slightly menacing body language, listened very intently without giving much away. Now, as it happened, he did kind of put a tick on it and away we went. But then we had this, one of the most extraordinary music I've ever been at that was at Camp David in the build up to the Iraq war, when Bush had accepted Tony's argument that they should try to take the whole thing back to the United nations and at least try to get another resolution. And Cheney and Rumsfeld thought this was a absolutely terrible idea. And we didn't know that Cheney was going to be at this point, meeting and what it dawned on us that Bush wanted Tony to persuade Cheney and it was fascinating. And he sort of did. He wasn't listen, he was pissed off, there's no doubt about that. But he did in the end agree. And there's one bit where one of the things I quite liked about Bush, he always, he didn't just sort of do the talk with the, the fellow leader. He would always try and bring other people in and say, and at one point he said to me, me, he said this, you're always gone about any Americanization. What is all this? Any American. What is it all about? This anti Americanism. I see it everywhere. And I said, well, I just think sometimes when you say democratization, people think you actually mean Americanization. You think the whole world should be like America. And Cheney, who'd said very little, he's just sitting there, he's asking Holmes for. He said. So we stopped talking about democracy, huh? Well, no, well, well.

[Rory Stewart]

So he said, totally missed the point. Well, or wanted to only selectively hear.

[Alistair Campbell]

Very grouchy. Very, very, very grouchy. But I mean a huge figure and probably the most powerful vice president there.

[Rory Stewart]

Has Ever been also wanted. Just recommend for people who want to get deeper into it. There's a extraordinary documentary called the World According to Dick Cheney that takes you all the way back to his childhood, his time working on pylons and we'll put a link into it to the newsletter. But my favorite bit from it is that he's hired to take the vice presidential search forward by George W. Bush. Yeah, that was his job. He was meant to be finding who the best vice president would be. And he concluded, not very surprisingly after a few weeks of searching, that the only man amongst 300 million Americans who could really do the job was himself.

[Alistair Campbell]

I don't, I don't think he quite put it like that, but I think he managed to persuade, drop the seed into George Bush's head.

[Rory Stewart]

I think the way he did it actually was to produce completely implausible candidates till eventually Bush in total horror fell back and said, why don't you do it yourself? And Cheney was like, oh, I'd never thought of that. Well, if you're serious, the other thing.

[Alistair Campbell]

Whenever he came over to see Tony, because John Prescott was Deputy Prime Minister, so you know, technically Chady's opposite lover. So JP would often want to make sure there was a, there was a bilateral with Chaney before he saw Tony. And I mean some of those conversations were absolutely brilliant. That was chalk and cheese in so many ways. But it is extraordinary that. And did you notice this goes to the small mindedness of Trump? Trump didn't put out a single comment about Cheney's death.

[Rory Stewart]

Oh, wow.

[Alistair Campbell]

Not a thing, not a word. Okay, Rory. Well, I'm seeing an awful lot of you at the moment, aren't they? Because we've got another show tonight in Hammersmith. Tuesday, we've got another one tomorrow, then we're off up to the best country in the world.

[Rory Stewart]

That's true.

[Alistair Campbell]

What did you say your favorite country in the world was the other day?

[Rory Stewart]

Yeah, I got in a bit of trouble that. But that was you absolutely sucker punching me. You were like, what's your favorite country in the world? This is on Bournemouth. And I said Afghanistan. You went, ooh, well, mine is Scotland. And I thought you politician this time I'm going to remember when I'm asked what my favorite country in the world is, I'm going to say Cumbria. And if you read my book Middleland, you'll discover it is in fact act an independent nation.

[Alistair Campbell]

Very good. Well, see you soon.

[Rory Stewart]

See you soon. Bye bye.