YouSaid · the spoken record

Morgan McSweeney

lines on the record: 79
first: 2026-07-02
most recent: 2026-07-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Can't say forever, but certainly for the next few years, I'm committing to being out of politics for at least the next few years ahead. So no, I'm not doing this because I intend to come back. That's not what I want to do. I'm doing this actually because I want to move on to a new chapter and a different life. I loved it. I'll miss some of the brilliant people I worked with, but it's time for me to move on to something else. But I'll always help labor as much as I can.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Want to help the Labour Party win elections all the time. Just three weeks ago I was still delivering direct mail from my brilliant candidates in the Scottish not three weeks ago, a couple months ago, my brilliant candidate in the Scottish elections in Lanark. Come the next election, I'll be delivering leaflets or knocking on doors. But I'm professionally moving in a completely different direction now. My focus, my interest is just changed. I don't think as much about the mechanics of elections that I once did way more interested in the future of democratic security, the impact AI will have, what the Russians are doing in Eastern Europe, what is happening with these tech giants and the risk that that brings. I have no intention of coming back to British politics in the foreseeable”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he almost always did. So I think he was a man of integrity and I think he didn't deserve comments like that. I think it was cheap shot. But I also think that when people look back to these six years of leadership of Labour Party, people will see he left the Labour Party in a better state than he found it. And he left a country in a better state than he found it. And very few politicians get to say that.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“100% it wasn't me. It was a very, very disrespectful comment of care. I think it's one of the worst things about politics, it's the thing that I won't miss is cheap shots from anonymous quotes sources. I think it's pretty awful. I think it's crossover. I did not say that that's very disrespectful. What I thought all the time about him was I always felt I trusted him to make the right judgments, no matter how bad things got, no matter how concerned I was about things, I was always glad that he was in that office, that he sat on that desk. Always knew that he would take the right decisions.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Rest up before it starts as much as you can, but I'm sure he won't be able to enjoy every minute because you're making such a valuable contribution. Just push through the things that you want to do as fast as you possibly can.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is just the kind of excuse making that you often hear. It just sounds like these are fixable problems. And the one thing to say about when I think things are going wrong in the country, no matter how bad something is, no matter how bad the status quo of something is, it is because somebody benefits from it. Load of people won't like it. I think it's a good idea. I think he should just push it through the logistics can be sorted out.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not going to worry too much about the desks and the seats and that kind of thing, but I think it's more than that, actually. I think there is a problem that nearly everyone who makes decisions in this country lives within two miles of this building. The vast majority work on one street sometimes for their whole lives. And I live in Scotland and I've lived in Scotland for the last six years. And what you notice is just such a different way of life outside of London. So when it comes to talking about things like house values or high streets or transport, people in London talk about it in a very, very different way. So if at the top of government there are people who don't just have a desk somewhere outside London but actually live their whole lives outside of London, I think that will be a good thing.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think I feel optimistic about it. I didn't watch the full speech, but I quite liked the idea of a number 10 for the North.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually think it's not about one individual. I think it's a collective. When I say we weren't prepared, I really do mean the Labour Party more generally.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Walking into the cabinet office, having had work for 45 days in a row, having had two or three hours of sleep, you're given a coffee and a bacon sandwich, and then you're wheeled into the prime minister's study to help assemble the government of a G7 nation. I don't think that's sensible. So my view is you should be a week off, let people recharge and focus on the government rather than the election. But yeah, the counter is still going on when we were walking into Downing Street.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Means, I mean, we're different people, but we got on quite well. I mean, getting into Darling Street is more chaotic than I realized. I didn't really think about it at the time because you work on a 45-day campaign where you're working 16 hours a day. You get to the very last day of the campaign where at 10 o'clock at night you're going to find out if you're a success or failure. You then do recounts until or counts and recounts until about six in the morning. You have a couple of hours sleep. Then you go into number 10. And so where you put your. And my reflection on that would be there ought to be some sort of transition period.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so our office moved. So we were in one office and then the other. I don't think that Sue was doing that in any kind of malicious way. I didn't take that seriously at all. When I saw it in the papers, I thought this is some kind of joke. It made me worried about the state of the interest that the media had on some of these things.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think that's a yes. She did move on to school once or twice. We didn't replace the car. I think we had one big disagreement”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're senior women in the Labour Party who played major roles, and those roles were written out of the history of the Labour Party. And I think that's wrong.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a critique about Labour Party headquarters and about Labour Party and about SPADs in number 10. And I have no doubt in my mind that the women in senior jobs in the Labour Party had faced challenges and misogyny to do their jobs all of the time. But at the same time, this sense that they weren't there, that they weren't counted actually does a massive disservice. So some incredibly brilliant women who I think changed the history of the Labour Party played major roles in the election, played major roles in number 10, are written out of the Labour Party story and they're not talked about enough. So I don't know why journalists don't write about them more because they did some amazing things. People like the Labour Party General Secretary Holly Ridley reinvented field organizing and that's never talked about.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This was an attack that was made on us both in opposition and government and in opposition the Labour Party had half of our directors were women, the senior spads in number 10 about in my time as a chief of staff about half were women. And it's not just numbers, it's real people who made Big differences both in number 10 and the Labour Party. And”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So he was somebody who all went to Ferdinand. That was known. I was quite open about that, so I didn't hide that. And it was part of the reason why I didn't push it, because I think that was known. I don't necessarily see that was a problem because he was qualified to do the role. And there were plenty of people who was close to who wanted jobs, who I didn't recommend them for. It's not the case just because I talked to somebody or got advice from somebody, I would definitely recommend them for that role.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, he disputed some of the things that was in the media. I can't say exactly what he said and didn't say because I sent him an email and the police now have that email and it's part of their evidence. What I can say is that if we had known the nature of that relationship, I wouldn't have recommended him. I don't think that Keir would have, I'm certain Keir wouldn't have pointed him. I don't think he'd have got that close. So we didn't know the nature of the relationship. He disputed the nature of that relationship. He described it in a very, very different way than it later emerged. So I don't think anyone, male or female, would have recommended him had that nature of that religionship be known. I also know that here we're speaking to people, he was getting a wide range of views. And most people at the time their view was it's a risk, but it's a risk worth taking. There's downsides, but on the other hand, he's got some capabilities.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know what Jess Phillips' view on it was. Here, talk to a lot of people before reaching a final conclusion. And he was very deliberative about it. I can say is, and so I don't know whose views he took on board and whose views he didn't take on board”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think my advice was that Peter Mandelson's experience on trade made him the right candidate for the job. It was my view that he was the right candidate for a job. That was my recommendation, my rationale behind my recommendation. But I did know it was a risk.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, he just said he just said he wanted a shortlist of viable candidates. I met George Osborne to kind of gauge his interest in it. And my recommendation to the Prime Minister was he was appointable candidate. So I didn't push it.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't determine the timetable. I'm not sure I certainly didn't It at all costs. I was very, very clear that there were downsides and there was risks with appointing him. I also said to the Prime Minister there was more than one appointable candidate. There was another appointable candidate.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I recommended them to the rule. That was a mistake. And that's why I felt I had to resign. I thought my job was to protect the Prime Minister from political risk. And I failed and failed my duty. So I think I had no choice but to resign at the beginning of the year when I did.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we'd have been faster to kind of correct the record on what he said. I think that was the main thing. I don't think that he was being apologist at any point.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think Greens do get some support from their position on Israel-Gaza, but I think it's more complex than that. And I think a lot of the Green Vote comes from, I mean, they've always had some support, but a lot of it's built on their domestic agenda.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Out receipting, and some people were trying to deliberately misinterpret the media on it, but he wanted to show solidarity with Israel after the initial attacks, but he also, as Prime Minister, took decisions to make clear when he thought Israel was doing the wrong thing.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think Politically, yes, I think there was a perception that he wasn't doing the right thing, but I think that Keir's position on it was always rooted in. A set of values.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think the answer is the nature of the relationship is changing. I don't think it's over and I think that there are things that the president does. There are things that are particular about this administration because of where the Republican Party are going. But there are things that are true, I think, of the American people that is going to change the relationship over the long run. I think Europe will need to spend more money on defense. I think I can't see that the tariffs are going to end even if it was a Democrat president. So the nature of the relationship with the US is going to change, but it's still vitally important. And the relationship with Europe, this was a big part of Kyrgyz agenda, that needs to get stronger. Britain needs to get closer. But it needs to be much more focused on a future relationship, not on a past relationship.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think he felt that he was doing the right thing. And that was the one thing that always felt that about Keir, that whatever he was doing, he felt he was doing the right thing. And I think on the issues of Ukraine and on the trade deal on NATO membership, I think he understood what he needed to do.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And Kir was always prepared to do that when the time was right, but he was not prepared to be performative about his politics. And some people wanted him to do so, and I think he never would. And there was a lot of pressure at various different times for Keir to come out and say something when the time wasn't right. And Keir knew that the most important part of relationship was about defense of Ukraine. And what the people of Ukraine need. It's not the Prime Minister making comments on Twitter. What the people of Ukrainian need is guns and food. And Kir was completely focused on keeping Ukraine as a priority on the trade deal, protecting the jobs as a result of the trade deal. And this was far more important than performative attacking the presence of the United States. The trade deal saved jobs in the West Midlands. The trade deal was important for the country.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, the first priority was we got to make this work. The relationship between the UK and the US underpins security in Europe. It underpins security around the world. It is a major trading partner. We thought Kia would never have performative politics, but he also knew that time would come where he had to stick up for the country. And he did it when the president made his comments about British soldiers in Northern Ireland. He made it on Grock when Grock was producing images on X at the beginning of the year, and he did so on Greenland. And then after I left he did it on Iran.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's very different. He's much funnier than I expected him to be. So the first call that Keir had with the presidents, he got into a conversation about windmills. Started saying, Look, Britain's beautiful country, but you have too many windmills. Fine. He was making his point. He's made that publicly enough times. Then he started to say the windmills are killing your birds. The birds are falling by the windmills. The foxes are eating those birds. And at this point, the officials that were in the room were barely able to contain themselves because it was extremely funny. But this was the first call between the Prime Minister and the President, and everyone wanted to be professional, but were struggling to hold it together. And he went on to say that as the foxes ate so many birds and became lazy, they became fat. And as they became so fat, people no longer knew what kind of a creature they were because they were too fat, there were these fat foxes walking around Scotland, eating dead birds. And this was the first call between the President and the Prime Minister. And thought, this is just going to be so very, very different.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very unpredictable. Before he got elected, his campaign reported me to some court in the US about going to the Democrat Convention in Chicago. So I thought, well, this is going to be different and it's going to be a challenge. So we prioritized building those relationships, understanding the politics of the president and his people.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's stuck by that principle. And when he was told by colleagues, by friends of his, look what you said offended us. What you said offended me, what you said made me feel like I can't be part of your story of the country. I think he reflected on it and thought, look, okay, that wasn't my intention. My intention was to make an argument about how the immigration system needs to change, bring the country together, because if we don't bring the country together, things will get much, much worse. Now, this was the argument he was trying to make. Now, in the course of that, he said something that he didn't intend to offend people with, and then he did, so he apologized. And I think that's the right thing to do. But I agree with your point. You have to, in politics, I think, work out quicker which are the conflicts that can be avoided and which are the conflicts that need to be addressed at speed. I think that's reasonable criticism.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I could understand why, but I think Kir made the speech. I know what he intended to do with the speech, and he certainly did intend to offend anyone, but he wanted to make the point unless we get this right, it's going to cause major cohesion issues in the country.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, although I think You've got to be careful about that as well because my view is that you want politicians to listen and to reflect. And if they're getting it wrong to change their position. And I don't think it's right to say that politicians should never U-turn. That when a policy isn't quite working, or if they've said something that offended people they didn't mean to offend, then they should apologize. They shouldn't say, oh, I didn't intend to do that, but I'm not going to apologize.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's no question of damage to us. But at the same time, I would advise any campaign to have a wardrobe budget for their candidate for Prime Minister. I think it's just a perfectly sensible way of managing your campaign.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Work 40 to 45 to 50 days in a row be on telly every single one of those days be TV presentable every single minute of every single one of those days. So it's not just that it was some nice pair of glasses. It was probably half a dozen or more pairs of glasses because if you lost a pair of glasses and couldn't make the BBC the bait or couldn't make your press conference and Joe Kupatson, who was the campaign manager on the road, said to me, oh, we're wandering around boots trying to find a pair of glasses for the boss. I said, why don't we just buy a spare pair? So what I'm saying?”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it wasn't for him, it was for his campaign wardrobe. And I think what should have happened is the money should have come out of campaign funds rather than a direct donation. And I think we should have defended a bit more robustly because these weren't clothes and glasses for him. It was the fact that he was being expected to do something very unusual.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't know about it. And I think had the money gone directly to the party and the money been spent from the party on the Prime Ministers or the leader of the lay party's campaign wardropping kits, I think that would have been fine. It's an unusual job if you're the leader of the Labour Party during a general election. You're on the roads for nearly 50 days in a row, you're on TV two, three times a day, you have to have suits and spare suits and if something gets damaged or somebody throws something at one of those suits, you have to have a spare one ready straight away. These have to be TV ready suits. They can't just be suits that you'd buy and use for everyday work.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think, what do I think? I think at the time we were presented with the risks to market reaction to the Chancellor saying there's been this $22 billion overspend and we need to rein it in without a plan to rein it in. And that was the alternatives that I was told that the only choices that were in front of us that weekend.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think probably speaks to not having enough of a plan. And a new team came in, saw that there was massive overspend going on, felt the need to rein it in. And I think it was a mistake. I think it was one of those early mistakes, and it defined the government in a way that really did us a lot of damage.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it wasn't a mistake to say that we want a means tested, but it was means tested at a too local level. I think means setting some benefits for pensioners is the right thing to do. But I think it was set too low.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Drop it and see it smash. So I'm not sure I agree. I think with VAT, I don't think that would have been possible for us to say going to an election and say we're going to put up VAT in the middle of a cost of living crisis. I think voters would have rejected that in big numbers. The second thing I think we wouldn't have been able to do is to have no tax policy. So some of the arguments of what we might have been able to do is to say not tie our hands by saying we'll tell you what taxes we'll put up later. We might have been able to say put up income tax by 1P in return for more investment in the NHS and still won the election.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So But we said we wouldn't put up those toxes. That was a promise made to people, and those were the taxes that we didn't put up. And we stuck to that manifesto commitment. We said we would put up other taxes, like VAT on public schools and dealing with non-DOMs. And those were the taxes that we...”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Trust in politics and politicians is very, very low. And so we weren't doing enough to visibly govern to show what we were doing. We were not doing enough focus on the short term. So the first budget was rightly saying we need to invest in the country's infrastructure, rail, water infrastructure.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we had plans around some of these areas, like on prisons. We had a pretty good king speech to begin with. I think the center was weaker. I think the state feels just out of shape. So it's big, but it's actually quite weak. So too weak to pick up a bin in Birmingham or to stop the boats or to get a phone answered at a GP. It's incredibly centralized. Whitehall is like the last street of an empire. It's that centralized. But at the same time, the center itself doesn't feel that strong. And we had begun the work to fix that, to start making things more strategic and strengthening the center. But it was weaker when we first began. So Kiers' focus was rightly how do we fix these problems? I think we were in a era when the communications environment had changed very, very rapidly as well.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we should have been way more optimistic when we started. So I think the challenge the country had were much more severe than we were expecting. Was not enough investment in the water infrastructure. So there was sewage in rivers. Country had run out of prison places. We'd become reliant on Russia for energy. There wasn't enough investment in the infrastructure the country needed to be civilized. And”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think for the start, I think things were much worse than we had expected. And I think a lot of the focus to begin with was on fixing longer-term problems the country had.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have to tell them what it means for them. The NHS doesn't work, then millions of people are seated at a home, unable to plan their holidays because they don't know when they'll get their treatment, unable to work, because they've got whatever illness or injury they have. Institutions have to work for people to fulfill their lives and I don't think it's a small thing. I think it's a big thing, it's an ambitious thing and I think he took it very very seriously. Yes, you have to explain it in ways that tell people the difference you're going to make for them.”
2026-07-02 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · What went wrong for Starmer: Morgan McSweeney gives his side of the story · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source