Half a year ago, the Labour Party swept into power with a huge parliamentary majority and Kier Starmer celebrated by saying that the country could “get its future back”. 

Today, Labour are dogged by low approval ratings, having upset everyone from environmentalists to pensioners, farmers to small-business owners. 

And just last week Reform overtook both the Conservatives and Labour in a poll of voting intentions - suggesting the public are already looking for an alternative.

So, why has the public seemingly turned on the Labour Party? Should they be threatened by the rise of Reform? And how can the progressive movement push this government to create the world we want? 

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Grace Blakeley, economics commentator and author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom, and David Edgerton, historian and author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: a Twentieth Century History.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Corps_Of_Discovery/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254