UK in 'political turmoil: Labour MPs openly question whether Labour will survive as political force'

At a moment of profound instability in British politics, with the Labour Party engulfed by internal revolt, François Picard welcomes Owen Jones, British journalist and political commentator. He offers an unsparing diagnosis of a political movement at a crossroads. “The country is in political turmoil,” Jones declares at the outset. What follows is not merely commentary on a leadership race, but a wider analysis of institutional decay and electoral fragmentation. With striking candour, Jones argues that Labour’s crisis has moved beyond a temporary setback into something more existential: “Their support now is at historic low levels… some Labour MPs have started to openly question whether the Labour Party will survive as a political force in this country.” Yet amid this diagnosis of collapse, Jones identifies an emerging figure around whom political hopes are now being projected. “The hope Labour have with Andy Burnham,” he explains, “is that he can cast a wider net.” Whether Burnham represents renewal, or simply another vessel for a party desperate for rescue, becomes one of the interview’s central questions. Across issues ranging from Keir Starmer’s faltering leadership, Nigel Farage’s populist resilience, the rise of Reform UK, the urban advance of the Green Party of England and Wales, and Labour’s unresolved European strategy, Jones paints a portrait of a political system undergoing not adjustment, but realignment.