Is Labour too close to the City – with Lionel Shriver & Robert Hardman

Britain’s banks have a hold over Rachel Reeves, declares Michael Simmons in the Spectator’s cover piece this week. Almost two decades on from the 2008 financial crash, the UK has failed to reform the system and – as ordinary people face a cost-of-living crisis – Labour is in hock to big business. Is the Chancellor too close to the City? For this week’s Edition , host Lara Prendergast is joined by economics editor Michael Simmons, columnist Lionel Shriver, and columnist from the Daily Mail Robert Hardman. As well as Labour’s relationship with the banking industry, they discuss: the hit BBC show Industry ; how the Royals have frozen out (former Prince) Andrew – and whether removing him from the line of succession is ‘performative’ or not; Lionel’s new book on immigration A Better Life ; why young Brits increasingly want to be more Australian; and finally, what’s so good about a moustache? Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Catch up with Industry S4 now on BBC iPlayer. Watch the season finale on Monday 2nd March on BBC One. Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more. For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts . Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Is Labour too close to the City – with Lionel Shriver & Robert Hardman online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Is Labour too close to the City – with Lionel Shriver & Robert Hardman is an episode from The Edition by The Spectator.

This episode is 35:04 long.

This episode was published on Feb 27, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Edition when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.