Labour has held on to Sir Keir Starmer’s old seat in Holborn and St Pancras, in a boost to Andy Burnham but a major setback for Green leader and by-election candidate Zack Polanski. Host Lucy Fisher is joined by deputy political editor Jim Pickard and columnist Stephen Bush, who weigh the impact of the Greens’ anti-Zionist position and round up the news from the Tory Party conference. Have pledges to cut taxes, boost the military and reform welfare put them back on the electoral map? Plus, we get the latest from the business community ahead of the Budget with UK chief business correspondent Ashley Armstrong.
Follow Lucy on X or Bluesky @LOS_Fisher, @lucyfisher.ft.com ; Stephen @stephenkb and @stephenkb.bsky.social; Jim @PickardJE @pickardje.bsky.social; Ashley @AArmstrong_says
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Labour holds off Greens’ Polanski to win London by-election
Six things we learnt from the Tory party conference
Healey warns banks that UK faces ‘challenging’ fiscal picture but stays tight-lipped on tax
Burnham pledges to end use of non-compete clauses
Kemi Badenoch’s pitch goes some way to assuaging British business concerns
Kemi Badenoch: ‘I refuse to play by Westminster rules’
Tory inheritance tax pledge: do the sums add up?
Kemi Badenoch’s European nightmare
What will the UK Budget mean for Britain? Join Lucy Fisher and colleagues political editor George Parker, markets columnist Katie Martin, economics editor Sam Fleming and North of England correspondent Jen Williams for an exclusive FT subscriber webinar on 29 October. To register, and send us your questions, go to ft.com/budget2026. Registration includes access to the video replay.
Our email address is politicalfix@ft.com
Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Audio mix by Sean McGarrity and original music by Breen Turner. The broadcast engineer is Petros Giuompasis. The FT’s head of audio is Flo Phillips.
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