it's time now for the big story. it's time now for the big story. and today, labour celebrate 100 and today, labour celebrate 100 days in power. but after a days in power. but after a tumultuous start in office tumultuous start in office following the freebee scandal, following the freebee scandal, the winter fuel payment cut for the winter fuel payment cut for the winter fuel payment cut for the winter fuel payment cut for the elderly and the relinquishing of british the elderly and the relinquishing of british sovereign territory overseas, is it really a cause for celebration? let's get the views of former senior labour adviser , sovereign of former senior labour adviser, a man who was dragged himself

away from

think it's a very broad coalition that may well not last, but ultimately you've got five years to try and change something. >> well, i'm a bit worried about gb energy because this involves the government investing in projects that the private sector have turned their backs on, and the only time the private sector have actually engaged is with massive subsidies. isn't that a good use of taxpayers money, particularly with this technology, which is still gamble. >> the proof will be in the pudding. i'm no expert on this sort of stuff. i still get on very well with people in ed miliband's office who are some of the more cleverer people i know in westminster, so i trust them. i don't know ed that well, but it's my viewers and listeners money, isn't it? >> we are betting the house on flaky renewables. does that not worry you? >> no. i think there's a what i would always favour is a sort of a base that covers all sorts. we can invest in nuclear. that probably is a place for coal somewhere. you know, admittedly oil and gas where needed. yeah, exactly. and i think we don't want to this is not what ed miliband is saying or doing. no, i don't work for ed miliband or the labour party anymore. so i'm, you know, but these were my

views anyway. i'm always i am not. >> so do you think therefore i know you're of labour supporter and you're happy to have a labour government, but do you think they're going too far with the net zero project? are you concerned about how far ed miliband is going with this, including that stay of execution of five years for new petrol and diesel cars, which the eu are going to continue to make? >> well, i think the interesting thing will be ever since rachel reeves, the 2021 party conference, made the announcement over the was it 15 or £20 billion? and there was really bad comms because they kept talking. the black hole. yeah. well, no. before all this there was this idea we were going to borrow money to invest and they ended up scrapping it because they kept mentioning that it was 15 to 20 billion or 30 billion, whatever it was. yeah. and i thought, why are you doing that? you're just letting people know there's a load of money going somewhere where they don't know where it is. ever since that was announced, it was briefed against almost immediately. now i have i have anidea immediately. now i have i have an idea of who probably is. and they have quite a big role now in number 10. and now sue gray has vacated . so it will be has vacated. so it will be interesting to me to see whether it actually comes to fruition

after all, or whether things do get slightly watered down or not. >> aren't a lot of labour's policies and example of policies which sound good and come from the right place, but which don't work, such as the non—doms tax private school vat tax rate and the workers rights legislation. all very laudable. but in reality bad news for those involved. >> i think i've always been someone that's believed in evidence based policy. if you look at the more recent rumours that capital gains tax may be getting a hike, maybe not to the point of income tax, but there or thereabouts, the treasury's own figures show that you would actually lose maybe £2 billion because of the people leaving all of a sudden. and correct. if that's the case, you need to look elsewhere. i think the problem rachel reeves probably has and has caused for herself in the fact that she wanted to be so keen to stress that we can be so keen to stress that we can be trusted on the economy. and my cast iron fiscal rules. she's tied herself in knots a little bit because now she can't raise income tax, which is always a useful way of raising money quickly. >> i completely agree, vat,

income tax and national insurance, they ruled all of that out. why would a chancellor do that for five years? i think that was a mistake because if the country needs the money, it needs the money. instead, you look at the non—doms and i mean, admittedly, the tories began that policy, which i think was a political move to embarrass labour and to steal their clothes, but that could cost the country money. the unions are worried about the vat hike on private schools, with teachers potentially losing their jobs, and 10,000 kids already having left the private sector. where are they going to go? the local state school . so these these state school. so these these policies, you know, what about the workers rights from from angela rayner? france has superior workers rights, but higher unemployment, which is the lesser of two evils. >> i think again, it comes with a balance. that's like most things in life. i think i was proud to lead a campaign with barry gardiner to try and stop, fire and rehire. i think there there is a imbalance between employer and employee in many cases that needs rebalancing and dressing out. i think with

certain things, though you do, you do appear to have people that favour things like zero hours contracts that are students and that may wish to use those to their benefit. >> a million people were on zero hours last year, many enjoying the benefits. if you want a more secure job, there are a million job vacancies currently available. >> i think you you should probably have some minimum level of working , but you should have of working, but you should have the right to maybe ask for those zero hours. if so, i've worked on zero hours contracts in hospitality before, and it used to terrify me that my hours could go up or down, depending on how well the business was doing the problem. >> we've got with this conversation is that i agree with everything you've said, but that's because you're off message. we're not getting the evidence based policy making from labour. we're getting ideology, aren't we? >> yes, possibly. i think there's some of it will be politicking. >> some of it will be they will see it as red meat for the base. i don't know, because i actually think back to what the sort of only sort of new thing that seems to come out of labour labour conference was keir starmer. i thought, showing a little bit of leg and red meat

to reform type voters in saying, well, we're going to prioritise veterans with regards to homelessness and housing. same with people that have fled domestic domestic violence. and i think that sort of stuff is going, no, no, there's a home for you as well. if you want to drift back from reform, we can do that. i think the labour party doesn't really know where it stands on stuff anymore. i think it's not the labour party of old that most people would see ideologically as socialists or left wing pragmatists or anything. i think we have a chancellor who wants to cut her way to growth, which i'm no economist, but i don't see that working. and we have a prime minister who isn't really a politician. it isn't in his blood . therefore, the team blood. therefore, the team around him seem to be letting him down. because if you were any good at politics right this summer, you'd have had a mini—budget because you would have filled the vacuum that has been vacated for stories to be plunged into that are you normally get during silly season, but you've not seen how all the negative headlines which are killing investment in the country. >> yeah. well, no. >> yeah. well, no. >> so i think, you know, i thought it was interesting the way that lou hagen, the deputy

prime minister, angela rayner, was sort of thrown under the bus a little bit, but well, indeed transport minister, transport secretary criticised p&o, said they're a rogue operator, urged people to boycott them. >> the only problem is the prime minister wants the head of p&o and the parent company to be at this investment conference. this coming week, a right royal dust up. do you think keir starmer is ever going to get the hang of politics? >> well, that that will remain to be seen. he wasn't my choice for leader. i never thought he was a good leader. i said this was a go