Sam Coates: Starmer’s Tightrope—Trump, Welfare, and the Trouble Inside Labour

With Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor, Sky News This week, we’re joined by Sam Coates, co-host of Politics at Sam and Anne and one of the UK’s sharpest political analysts, to make sense of a government struggling to hold the line—on foreign policy, economic discipline, and party unity. In this episode: 🇮🇷 Why the UK backed the ends but not the means of Trump’s strike on Iran ⚖️ How Starmer’s deference to legal advice is reshaping UK foreign policy—and what it reveals about his break from Blairism 🇺🇸 What it means when the UK is the only country warned in advance of a US strike 📉 And why the transatlantic relationship may be less stable than it seems Then we go domestic: 💷 Labour’s looming rebellion on welfare reform: • Over 100 Labour MPs openly defying the PM • A government with a 165-seat majority on the verge of losing a key vote • And no clear plan for what comes next 🧨 Starmer’s political gamble: alienating his base to keep markets calm—and failing to please either 🗳 Could this trigger a leadership challenge? And don’t miss: 📈 Reform UK’s surge: is Prime Minister Farage still far-fetched—or suddenly plausible? 🗺 The open question: what is the relationship between Reform and the Conservatives heading into 2028? Also on the radar: ⚖️ Assisted dying and abortion: the social policies no one campaigned on—but that may define this Parliament