Crony War

Rachel Reeves, the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has made an intervention calling for an end to the government’s “outsourcing obsession”. She’s accused the government of handing £2bn of coronavirus contracts to Conservative friends and donors and wasting hundreds of millions of pounds on faulty equipment that can’t be used. Ailbhe has interviewed Ms. Reeves exclusively for the New Statesman, and on this episode of the podcast Ailbhe joins Stephen and Anoosh to discuss the cronyism controversy, and the former shadow work and pensions secretary's return to the front benches. Then, in You Ask Us, they clear up some of the confusion surrounding factionalism and in-fighting within the Scottish National Party.

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Read more on the New Statesman:

Ailbhe's interview with Rachel Reeves MP

Stephen argues that the apparent polling surge for the Green party matters more for the Liberal Democrats than the Labour party.

James Meadway writes that long-term Covid could mean long-term Conservative rule.

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Send us your You Ask Us questions at youaskus.co.uk.

You can follow Stephen Bush on twitter @stephenkb. Anoosh Chakelian is @Anoosh_C and Ailbhe Rea is @PronouncedAlva.

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Topics in this episode:

coronavirus

covid-19

government spending

outsourcing

government contracts

the labour party

the conservative party

Scotland

the SNP

People mentioned in this episode:

Rachel Reeves

Boris Johnson

Keir Starmer

Michael Gove

Ed Miliband

David Cameron

Nicola Sturgeon

Alex Salmond

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