Up next in 10
‘Maybe you lot have been useless’: Lewis Goodall challenges Labour minister on shock mega poll | LBC
Sep 30, 2025
A new seat-by-seat poll shared exclusively with LBC suggests Nigel Farage is on course to become the next Prime Minister, defeating Keir Starmer. If there were to be a general election today, the poll would give Reform 293 seats with Labour on 191. From Labour conference, Lewis Goodall questions Housing Secretary Steve Reed on the poll's findings and the government's record so far. They discuss Keir Starmer's comments that Reform's immigration policies were 'racist and immoral'. It comes after the party announced plans to make legal migrants reapply for visas. The Housing Secretary also explains his pledge to build three new towns, in an effort to expand home ownership. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #lewisgoodall #uknews #ukpolitics #starmer #farage #labour #reform #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
View Video Transcript
0:00
We're joined now by the new-ish Housing Secretary, Steve Reid
0:03
Steve Reid, thanks so much for joining us this morning. New major MRP poll for LBC, exclusive polling
0:10
suggests that if there were a general election today, Labour would win only 191 seats and reform 293 seats
0:16
A separate poll shows Keir Starmer as the least popular Prime Minister in history
0:22
Why does the British public dislike you so much? Well, we know from what we saw at the last..
0:28
Politics is very volatile at the moment. Trust in politics is probably at the lowest ebb in my lifetime
0:34
You're a new government. You're a new government. You're fresh. You're new
0:37
You're supposed to at least have a bit of a honeymoon. I mean, on a honeymoon like that, who'd get married? I'd have been happier with a longer honeymoon. But the truth is, trust in politics is at a really, really low ebb
0:45
The previous government made big promise after big promise. Austerity, their version of Brexit, the changes that leads to levelling up never quite happened
0:54
So people have got very used to big promises that don't turn into anything. and that has affected all of politics and all of politicians, including the very most
1:02
senior politician in the country, the Prime Minister. So that has transferred to this government
1:09
Why would the last government's failure to deliver its promises make the British public
1:12
hate you so much? Because they've lost trust in all politics and all politicians. But they elected you
1:17
They've still lost trust in all politics and all politicians and that trust won't come
1:21
back until they get change they can feel. And in one year, you cannot do that
1:27
So we've started to make a difference on many of the issues that matter to people at the general election
1:31
People worried about the cost of living. Maybe you lot have just been a bit useless. They haven't had a pay rise for 10 years
1:37
People's wages have gone up more in 10 months with this government than in 10 years with the previous government
1:42
But it takes time for that kind of thing to feel through. NHS waiting lists were another big issue
1:47
Five million more extra NHS appointments we've delivered. That is cutting waiting lists
1:52
But it takes time for people to really feel that change. but change is coming
1:56
We've turned the corner, we've started to make these things happen and people will increasingly feel it over years
2:01
The important thing now is not to duck and dive every time you get a negative poll
2:06
and I recognise they're going to come because people are angry it's that we have to stay the course
2:10
and we have to keep delivering the change people voted for. You have to keep doing the same thing that you've been doing up to now
2:13
which has made you the least popular government in British history. Which is putting more money in people pockets cutting NHS waiting lists removing more people from the country than have the right to be here investing in our poorest and most held back towns building more homes than ever before to help people meet the dream of her ownership
2:30
So your message to Labour Party members who are coming to this conference today is steady
2:35
as she goes lads, everything's all right. My message to everybody is we knew things were going to be tough because we've inherited
2:42
that it's the worst economic inheritance that any government's had since the Second World War
2:46
It was always going to be tough. You cannot turn around a broken economy and broken public services in one year
2:51
Yet we have started to make that happen. I won't repeat that little list of things I just said to you, Lewis, again
2:57
But we've started to make those changes and will drive it harder and faster. I'm going to be on the platform in a couple of hours talking about how we're going to get one and a half million new homes built
3:06
and progress work on 12 new towns, the first time that's been done in a generation
3:11
That will open up the door to a decent home to people in this country who are locked out of it
3:16
after homelessness and temporary accommodation doubled under the previous government. We are turning things around
3:21
The Prime Minister this morning has said that reforms plans to leave some people, legal migrants
3:27
who have indefinitely to remain, reapply for their visas, racist. Does that mean that those people who vote for them for reform are racist
3:35
Absolutely not. He's talking about the people that lead that party, not the people who are voting for them
3:41
that has racist policies by definition that must mean you support racism
3:45
No it doesn't mean that at all. It means that what I mean a lot of those people who are currently thinking about voting reform probably wouldn't like the fact
3:53
that Nigel Farage wants to privatize the NHS and makes to see make you pay to see your GP
3:57
That's a separate thing I'm asking about. They probably but these are the other things they probably wouldn't really want
4:00
They probably wouldn't like the fact Nigel Farage went to the US Congress and
4:04
begged the United States to put sanctions on British workers to make them lose
4:08
their jobs, they probably wouldn't think that was very patriotic. If I vote for the Labour Party..
4:13
What we're seeing in the polls is people's anger with politics as it is. The election is four years away in all likelihood
4:19
People will take a decision based on what this government has done against the promises that we made and we've already started to deliver
4:25
Just explain to me the logic of it. If a party, as the Prime Minister said this morning, we didn't need to say it, the Prime
4:31
Minister said that one of reform's signature policies is racist. Therefore if I as a voter vote for that party knowing that the Prime Minister has said that it a racist In the Prime Minister view those voters must be racist or at the very least support a racist policy surely
4:49
Just to save you some breath, at no point am I going to say that reform voters are racist
4:53
But you're just willing to say that their main policy is racist. Well, you're not going to tempt me however many different angles you take to it
4:59
I don't think they are. I think there are people that are very upset at the way that they haven't had a pay rise for 14 years
5:05
years, the economy was broken, their town centres are run down, their kids can't get
5:10
a place to live. They're angry and they're looking at reform because they want to send
5:13
a signal to the likes of me to get a move on and bring about the change they want to
5:18
see. We're doing that. Well what about the people who really like that policy? They must be racist
5:22
Well those people can describe for themselves, well I'm not going to sit here and call voters racist
5:29
The Prime Minister has called the Leave, basically said that Nigel Farage is a racist, for having
5:33
a policy which is racist, therefore it's the Prime Minister who has opened up this logical
5:37
implication. It's not me who's done it, he's done it. So I'm just wondering whether you
5:41
think, given, I'm sort of wondering why it is you think that a party which has a racist
5:46
policy at its core, according to the Prime Minister, is doing so well? That must indicate
5:50
a good proportion of the British Republic are racist too. Because your starting point is anybody that's telling a pollster that they would vote for
5:55
reform agrees that everything reform is doing, yet I suspect the majority of them don't want
5:59
to pay to go and see their doctor and don't think that they should have sanctions put on their job by the United States because Nigel Farage goes and asks for it. And nor
6:06
are they therefore racists for backing a party which is espousing racist policies
6:10
I just spoke to Lucy Powell, of course, one of the candidates for the deputy leadership
6:16
She thinks it's a good idea to have a deputy leader outside the cabinet who can speak truth
6:19
to power. Do you think that's a good idea? Well, we're either going to have a deputy leader in the cabinet or a deputy leader outside
6:24
the cabinet, and it will be Labour Party members that will choose the one they want. But do you think it would be a problem having one outside the cabinet
6:29
I don't think it would be a problem having one in or out, to be honest. It doesn't matter
6:33
We've got two good people standing for deputy leader. I know them both very, very well. I'm friends with them both
6:38
I think either would do a pretty good job. When the Prime Minister says, and he announced the digital ID policy the other day
6:43
and said it would deter illegal immigration, given that anybody who is not a British citizen already needs a form of identification for a work visa
6:52
what difference does a digital ID make? One of the differences it would make is if it's digitised, you can collect your data digitally
6:57
So if you got a business that is recruiting a lot of people who shouldn be working in this country it easier to see that when the data is held digitally than when you just got to go and show a bit of paper that is very very easy to afford
7:12
But a lot of these people... So we can therefore stop the businesses that are recruiting and employing people who are working illegally
7:20
You know, if you look at, you know, the kind of people that get jobs driving delivery drivers
7:25
or, you know, the people that ride on bikes and take food to our front door, quite often the picture on the card they show you is not the same as the person who is delivering the
7:33
food to you it's far too easy to get false id at the moment and work illegally in this country
7:40
if we want to deter illegal immigration we have to make that harder and digital a lot of these
7:44
people go and work in the black economy where they don't need any form of id so it's easier it's easier when the data is held digitally to see which businesses are employing but they're
7:52
not interested in asking for it well then if there are there are some problems which even
7:58
digital ID won't fix. But if you've got one of those garages where, you know, the
8:02
Prime Minister said it would help. So I'm just trying to understand why it would deter
8:06
anything in the black economy. It will help, Lewis. It just won't deal with 100% of every single problem ever in the employment market. What it will do is help to identify those
8:13
businesses that are not employing anything like enough people for the level of activity
8:18
that they are reporting they're carrying out. And therefore, you can get more enforcement
8:22
against those businesses to stop them employing people illegally. That deters illegal immigration
8:26
Steve Rotherham has told me, the mayor of the Liverpool city region
8:31
has said that Keir Starmer might not be the right person to take Labour into the next election
8:36
what do you say to that? Well after the Hartlepool by-election I came out and I did the morning media round
8:40
and people said Keir Starmer might not be the right person to take us into the general election
8:44
he then picked this party up off the floor and he won us a landslide victory so you're just going to get people saying that
8:50
particularly at a Labour Party conference particularly at a time when... I've seen your voice Of course he's a senior voice
8:55
but senior voices were saying the same thing after Hartlepool. We went on and we got a landslide
8:59
and that landslide, that majority in Parliament, gives us an obligation now to make real the change that people voted for
9:05
and that's what we're doing, with money in people's pockets, reforming our broken public services
9:10
securing our borders and bringing some more security to the streets of this country. Would you like to see Andy Burnham back in Parliament
9:15
Well, I have been in Parliament with Andy Burnham previously. He's currently doing a fantastic job as the Mayor of Manchester
9:21
and he's told the public he's going to stay put there until 2028
9:25
and I believe him
#Campaigns & Elections
#news
#Political Polls & Surveys
#Politics