Ed Miliband: Taking the Fight to Reform + Kamala's Immigration Tsar on Starmer's Digital ID Gamble

Will Ed Miliband take on Richard Tice in a Misfits Boxing Match for the future of Net-Zero? We’ve got the exclusive 🤣

It’s been an exhilarating 10 days of b2b conferences and a huge milestone for What’s Left as we interviewed ex-Labour leader, Energy Secretary of State Ed Miliband and Kamala Harris’ immigration tsar Frank Sharry!

In this episode we’ve got something a bit different for you – a buy one get one free. The first half is an interview with Miliband, where we discuss the challenges of urgently lowering bills and industrial energy costs, while delivering new jobs.

We all know Reform is on the offensive, but Miliband is up for the fight against Tice and his legion of chronically online climate change deniers. LPC was a curious bubble, with attendees drifting from ‘complacency to cynicism’. The vibe, as Ed pointed out, was “anxious”. We felt the PM delivered a punchy speech against Farage, framing the next election as Labour vs Reform - but will it be enough to pull together a fractured and divided left?

Deindustrialisation, how the PM has handled Trump, and ofc my Issey Miyake trousers also feature in our convo w Ed… Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen a Labour politician look more natural and relatable in an interview for quite some time. But then again, we didn’t have enough time to truly get into the weeds of policy. Ed you’ll have to come back for some more scrutiny!


The 2nd half of the ep joins us at the Global Progress Action Summit (think centre-left CPAC!) which saw the PM announce digital ID cards in a bid to tackle illegal immigration. Once polling at +35%, support has cratered to -19, demonstrating a govt severely lacking in trust to deliver the change the country needs.

Now even Palantir has come out against the policy, which may be surprising to some, but consider their current PR troubles and the type of access they could acquire under a Reform govt. Maybe twisting the knife is in their interest?

Frank Sharry, the Biden-Harris border security policy tsar was kind enough to give us an interview on how the centre-left responds to the challenge of illegal immigration. He makes a compelling argument for Labour to change tack and become the party of both immigration and controlled borders.

We also discuss the government’s £5bn high-street regeneration plan - the exact sort of policy that could go some distance in galvanising community spirit in the places hit worst by the cost of living crisis. It’s a brilliant policy. So why do we hear so little about it?

Ofc, we were delighted to be invited to GPAS and to discuss with leading experts of the Left how we unite against populism. But, I can’t help feeling that we’re still lacking the radicalism we need at such a crisis point in our politics. It’s not looking good brev but we’re still holding out hope.

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Chapters

00:00 Intro 01:08 Cold Water Swimming, Chappell Roan + Mental Health 05:50 Fears of Reform + Radical Right 12:20 Taking the Fight to Richard Tice 18:30 Challenges for Net-Zero 24:26 Cutting Edge Communication 27:47 Our Verdict on Ed 32:57 Global Progress Action Summit 38:45 Starmer’s Digital ID Gamble 45:40 AI + Growth Agenda 50:10 Best Policy for Fighting Populism 53:00 Interview with Frank Sharry - Biden/Harris Immigration Tsar 58:35 Farage Copying Trump’s Playbook 1:07:08 American Authoritarianism Backsliding