The Chaser Report - The Labor Spill Is On

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Charles' keen political senses are tingling, and he can feel the winds of change are coming for the timid and disappointing leader of a Labor party. Meanwhile Dom recounts the many marvellous misadventures of Mandelson. Plus, the ins and outs of the ---The Chaser Report: EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/chaserreport Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee 🌍 Buy the Wankernomics book: https://wankernomics.com/bookListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Charles, strange times in politics. Unbelievable portents. What are you smelling in the breeze? Dom, the spill is on. The spill?

The spill is on. Really? Yes. Have you not seen news poll? Have you not seen the latest polls? I don't think so. No, no, Labor's in real trouble. Like, I can't see the Labour leader lasting.

I can't see the Labour leader lasting. That is quite the tungsten. Really? I mean, I argue it maybe a month, maybe two. That's not my read at all. I think I couldn't be happier. What I would have thought the Labour Party just a moment. What are you talking about?

Have you not seen the polls? They're under terrible stress. They're under terrible trouble. There's just protests everywhere, you know, huge anti-immigration marches everywhere. There's no way he's going to survive. But Charles. He's not doing anything. Like, his own party is turning against him.

He won't survive the week. Have you got intel from inside the lab party? Yes. No, and people are publicly talking about it. It's on. It's literally on. I'm clearly very out of the loop. Normally, I know when a spill is a foot.

Yes. Let's take some ads and then you can explain why Labor's about to have a leadership spill. Yeah, so the Labor Party's in real trouble. I mean, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I mean, where do we start? You can start by justifying the notion that a man who in the past week had an incredible

victory in the polls. I think the largest two-party preferred vote since the 80s is about to get dumped. Who are you doing about? Anthony Albanesey. He's in unprecedented. No, no, no, no, I'm talking about Keir Stama. Oh, Kirstama. The other Labour leader.

I'm talking about the Labour leader of the UK. Oh, you know, he's in real trouble. Yeah. Yeah, no. And unusually, is it not possible that they might just save themselves a whole bunch of trouble and just as strange as it might seem, install Nigel Farage as Labour leader? I mean, in many ways. Well, you're setting the agenda.

Some of the policies are not dissimilar. I have a feeling that one of the reasons why Keir Stammer might not agree with that is simply because Nigel Farage is to the left of Kirstam on many of the most important issues. Like, certainly on immigration. Let's just, let's just zoom out a little bit and you can explain what this is all about. So, you wouldn't really understand, Dom, but over in the UK. Oh, where you've been. Yeah, you were just there, weren't you?

There's this leadership where there's a sense that the government just isn't doing enough. Right. Right. I know it's very hard to imagine, but. a real disappointment in the Labor Party. Yeah, a timid Labor Party that just, you know, faces huge problems, you know, like, you know, climate change, economic stagnation, dropping productivity. Is it kind of being a bit reactive and not really setting the agenda? Yeah, and then, and then, you know, it's facing these sorts of, you know, anti-immigration rallies. They get bigger and bigger and

bigger and not really staring them down, just sort of like brushing them under the thing. Their response to Gaza has been slow-footed and, you know, one step behind the rest of the world. And, you know, even dealing with Trump, you're like, I know, you wouldn't understand any of that. I haven't just been to the UK. It's a very different environment. Very different. Yeah, yeah.

I saw what you're getting out. But as a result, what's happened is the UK Labor Party, despite only having been in for a couple of years. Oh, just over a year. It's just polling absolutely disastrously. The funny thing is the first policy that they did when they came to power, they came to bear, and they're actually quite popular for like a day or two. And then the first policy they announced was that they were going to cut off the heating to elderly pensioners. Well, I mean, that's just a bread and butter issue for Labor government. Yeah, that's sort of left-wing anti-pensioner policies. Yes. And I I've read lots of analysis about why possibly they thought that this was a good idea.

And I think the one that sort of rings truest to me is this whole idea that actually, in the abstract, the idea of austerity, which is what this was, you know, this was sort of going, we need to tighten our belts. It polls so well in the UK. Does it? And this pollster wrote this article while I was over there, and he said his assumption for, white poles so well. Like literally, you know, you're talking 70, 80% of the population constantly say, oh yes, we need to austerity. We need to cut the budget. We need to stop giving pensioners the sort of, you know, the heating or whatever. Does everyone think that everyone else is living off welfare? Is that what it is? Is, no, it's because they assume that

the cuts won't affect them. Right. And, and, and then there's this long running idea that, Well, we did that during the Second World War, and they're still reliving the glory. The last time they were relevant to anything. Back to the boiled cabbage, chaps. And so those two things combined, make it almost like a sort of national statement of patriotism. So, you know, like, it's like asking an Australian, are you against Australia, are you against the diggers, right? Right. That actually does make sense.

I mean, I haven't been to the UK recently, but having lived there in the 80s, the notion that being British. is to subscribe to a sort of sense of national misery. Yes, yes. And that nothing can ever possibly be good because you're British. And just make another cup of tea and just suck it up. Yes. In your, I think it's the climate. I think if you live in a place that's grey every day and cold most of the time,

life can't actually be good. And so the thing is that having successive governments over the past, literally 15 years, all subscribed to the idea that they look, check the polls, they go, oh, right, 70, 80 percent, support austerity. And, you know, they support it because they assume that it's only cutting other people, not themselves, right? The actual sum, aggregate total of that is that the entire economy starts to fall over. Well, that's what happened. Because there's nothing growing the economy.

You're just constantly bleeding it. Is that we know. I mean, look, if that only listened to Matt Bevins, who broke Britain podcast series, look back at austerity and how austerity really just shrank the economy massively. And then, of course, the biggest version of this naturally was the massive moment of self-harm that was Brexit in terms of, I mean, whether or not you think that being part of a United Europe matters or not, it's hard to argue against the proposition that the economic impact of Brexit, which is absolutely catastrophic, both in terms of what it did to the previously integrated economy, but also the massive subsidies for the most economically depressed parts of the country. I mean, you know, rural Wales or the north of England, who were getting massive amounts of money from the East. you, that all dried up. The economy went backwards.

And all that they were able to do was say, oh, we've got our passports to be, whatever it was again, red or blue. So we're happy with the outcome. And the Brexit thing is just hilarious to have to deal with when you go over there. Yeah, because it used to be a seamless border, right? Yeah. So I'll give you one example. And there are dozens, like hundreds like this.

But James and I, for Wankanomics, have been trying to. to set up just a little online shop, because I've got this idea that we could maybe offload some blow-up avocado pool toys. Oh, you still got so in the way out? Fantastic. No, but, like, to do some merch you know, around my economics in the

UK. I don't want to, I don't want to start for your creativity. Yeah. You just need to understand that in the UK, nobody has their own pool. Like, there's like five people. You could have told me that a few months ago. I think Ed Shearing made a pool in this country farm, yeah. You mean my beach town?

A collection one. That's not going to work either. Anyway. An umbrella. An umbrella. Yeah. An umbrella is good. Well, I don't think we're going to sell anything this year, Don't.

A scarf? Because, okay, so one of the issues is, so where do we send all the stuff? We'll get it printed cheaply in China, of course. Yeah. And then where do you send the stuff to you need a warehouse, right? So we've been talking to warehouses. And all these German warehouses go, oh, yeah, yeah, we can help you. We've got a highly efficient industrial base.

Yeah, we've got a warehouse in the Roar or something. You know, we've got a warehouse in, you know, I don't know, Stratford-upon-Avon. Oh, German companies, too, still. Or Nottingham or, you know, we can, you know, we've got a chain of warehouses. Sheffield. Somewhere you'd never go. But then all the British firms that I contacted would go, oh, sorry, can't help you.

Oh, no, no, you don't fit out. We wouldn't want to do that. We wouldn't want to do that. You know, and it was like, this is very weird. Like, why are we just being refused service for everyone? Like, is it a class thing? Is it a, like, are we foreigners or something? I don't like Australians.

And no, no, and it's not that. Because I then asked about it. And they said, no, no, the reason is because ever since Brexit, the government has brought in a range of bureaucratic measures to deal with the fact that they're no longer part of Europe. And one of them is called the UK fulfilment warehouse scheme. Oh, right. And so you have to register, if you're a warehouse, what they don't want foreigners doing is importing their stuff and selling it to people.

Oh, they wouldn't want that. Yeah. And so they've set up this elaborate bureaucratic scheme, which it must be to do with, so the tax avoiders don't put stuff in the warehouse. I can see here there's a fulfillment house due diligence scheme. Yeah, due diligence scheme. That's fantastic. The UK fulfillment warehouse due diligence scheme, right? And the whole one is all the well-run German companies, which are capitalized with,

hundreds of millions of euros, can sign up for the scheme. All the British-based warehouses go, oh, fuck, that's huge amounts of paperwork. We can't possibly afford to sign up for the due diligence scheme. Wow. So we can't afford to get any new customers from around the world. So all it's doing is forcing you to go with foreign firms who, by definition, are going to have to sign up for the due diligence scheme. Oh, so they've already scanned up.

Yeah, yeah. They've had to sign up. They've had to sign up as a method for operating, and all the UK firms miss out on their business. This is so complicated. I was going to get this whole thing. And they send you secure messages about whether you're allowed to do it or not. Yes. And it is so...

And then we had to apply for a VAT number, which is fair enough. That's like the GST number in the UK. In Australia, when you apply for a GST number, you get it immediately. It's an ABN. Straight away, yeah, yeah. And then you can start doing business and, you know, if there's a problem with your ID, they sort it out as you go, right? Because it's just a number, right?

Like, it just allows you to, you know, sign contracts with warehouses and things like that. In the UK, the minimum wait time for that is 40 business days. Really? So I stupidly thought that it was going to be like Australia. And then I talked to this VAT person who went, oh, no, no, no, no. Like, there's no way you'll, like, it'll be months before you can stay. And you're not allowed to start operate. You're not allowed to even think.

about, you know, talking to a warehouse until you got your vet number. So it's just, it's just so, like, you just go, oh, why is the UK economy ground or hold? Well, the perspective on it is, it's just they don't want to do anything. The Chaser Report, news you can't trust. This makes me think that you're wrong, though, because presumably in order to change prime ministers, there's an extensive regime of forms and waiting times. So, no, so this is why. This is why you're wrong, because actually, unlike in Australia where it would be basically impossible to spill the Labour Prime Minister, like, I think you need 75% of MPs.

It's very hard now, yeah, this is the Kevin Rudd. Guess what it is in the UK. It's, it is 20% of MPs. You want, all they'd need is 20% of their caucus. Really, to spill the position. To spill the, of Labour MPs, to spill the position. So essentially, if 80 Labour MPs turn around and go, actually, we're all going to lose our seats. if we don't stop grinding the economy into the ground and running a far-right agenda on immigration, which is what Keir-Stama is doing at the moment, then the spill is on.

And if Keir-Stama wants to, he can automatically be put on the ballot to run again, so that may be happened. But there's two scenarios. I've got two predictions for what's actually going to happen. Because it's on. It's definitely happening. The rest is politics did their episode,

just on Thursday about this exact issue and it's all over, you know, like political operators who I bummed into in the streets are talking about his polling is extraordinarily low. It's about something like 20%. Yes, yes. And you go over there

and the one thing everyone says is, oh, well, Nigel Farage is going to be the next Prime Minister. And who's the next? Because the Tories are on 17%. And who, yeah, I mean, Kemi Badenox, and Farage is on 25. So who's, a 22% of British people have a favourable opinion of Keir Stama. It's entirely possible that the 22% of British people answered, and I say this having been educated there,

it's entirely possible that the 22% did not understand the question at all. And so, yes, well, probably, because the latest scandal that he's found himself in this week is, so what he did was, they did, Trump was about to come over. Yes. They had lined up a whole lot of announcements like, oh wow, we can do some more trade with the US.

Look, we don't have to... As long as it doesn't need warehouses, because that could be tricky. That's right. But, you know, like in theory, here's a whole lot of ways that we're now living a post-Brexit utopia type of thing. No more red tape.

And the person... Our tape is a different colour. Running the sort of operation to get Trump over there was a guy called Peter Mandelson. Peter Madison, yeah, yeah. Who very prolific email writer and letter writer, wasn't he? because he's all over the Epstein fire.

He is, yes. Lord Mandelson, who was sacked twice from the UK cabinet for various things during the days when Labour was in government, by the way. And on I see now, was appointed to the position of US ambassador without vetting by security services. Against the advice of the security service. Like there was warnings in the press at the time saying, this guy's linked to Epstein.

And Kirstehmel, went, that's all in. the past. Well, maybe he thought it was... This is a captain's call. This is my judgment. Maybe he thought it was good. Someone who in Ep was in Epstein. Yeah, he could talk to Donald Trump.

Isn't it terrible when you link to Jeffrey Epstein? And then earlier in the week, he got warned again that actually more stuff was about to come out linking Mendelsohn to Epstein. And he then went into Parliament and they have, they don't have question time there. It's called Prime Minister's Questions. And he backed in Peter Mandelson, even though he'd already been informed. His office had already been informed. No, no, this is like plutonium-level radioactivity here.

Yeah, but this all came out in 2019. I'm just reading this now. Like, Channel 4 reporter on this a very long time ago. He was, Manelson was in the newspaper this year in February saying he regretted and meeting him and meeting Galane and so on. But also there's, and there's more emails going to come out. That's what Mandelson has said. And it was after he was convicted, this is the smoking gun, I remember from the same episode.

But after he was convicted, Manelson wrote to Epstein saying, oh, so sorry, mate, we'll hope you get out. We'll hope you through this. Like, Epstein was literally red flag. This man is guilty. Yeah. He's a convicted paedophile. And Pete just goes, no, mate, mate.

We'll help you. We'll help you. Don't we all have that friend who's a convicted pedophile who we help out on occasion? Okay, according to Wikipedia, Stama asked Mandelson three specific questions before starting to appoint him. him. Why has he continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted? Oh, yeah. Surely.

Because Keistam is a barrister, right? This would be like heavy grilling. So surely he didn't realize that the fact that you did continue contact was bad enough. It was bad enough, yeah. Why was he reported to have stayed in one of Xen's? Yeah, maybe there was a good excuse. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it wasn't to do with the pedophilia at all.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, maybe he hadn't paid like for, I don't know, dinner or something. Yeah. Why did Mandelson stay in one of Epstein's homes while Epstein's, while Epstein was in prison. Was in prison. Yes.

And he was on official UK government business at the time. So presumably he could have had a hotel paid for. He was like, no, my friend's got a house. It's not a use at the moment. Because of his pedophilia conviction. And why was he associated with a charity founded by Epstein, associate, Glenn Maxwell, that the financier had backed? I mean, but it was for charity.

Oh, my God. Yeah. So the answers to those questions. It wasn't the Jimmy Saville charity, was it? Jim will fix it. So, I mean, he asked those questions. So the point being, Starma was aware of the very issues that have now come to light. And clearly, his answers were satisfactory.

But there comes a point at which even asking the question is the problem. Like, what answer can you give to, I stayed in my friend's house when he was in prison for pedophilia? What answer is satisfactory? But in some ways, like, because I think this will be the thing that brings him down, right? But in some ways, it's sort of a bit unfair because there's lots of other issues which Kirstama has also done terribly at, including the whole, I don't know whether it's called March for Australia, but it's the same sort of movement over there. They had a march on the weekend. There's a million. There's a million people march.

Maybe it was called March for Britain. Probably. Yeah. Because it would have been a bit embarrassing if it had actually been called March for Australia. It would have been very confusing. I mean, it was still a white nationalist march. All right. So the point is, he's going to be out.

And look, I've just got some predictions. We'll just end with my predictions, which is scenario one is he stands aside. And I know that that doesn't sound like politicians, but actually the Labor Party has a track record of being a bit more gentlemanly than other parties around that sort of stuff. So in that scenario, Ed Miliband, is I reckon. Really? Ed Miliband.

He'll make a comeback. Is he still an MP? He's still an MP? Goodness me. That's a long game, isn't it? And he's still sort of, I think, hopeful. I think he's always, because he's a very charismatic leader. Sure.

He didn't sort of win or anything. But, you know, like he, that could well be a scenario. But I think the more likely scenario is Keir Stama gets punted, kicking and screaming, out of number 10. Do they direct a point forage at that point? At which point, and this is what I've heard is that there's this very popular mayor of Manchester. He's a Labor. mayor in Manchester, and the local UK elections are coming up, the council elections are coming up in May next year.

They need a Labour leader who will sort of save them during those elections, and the perfect person would be a former mayor of a popular Labor Council, ideally in the Northern England, right? And that is the mayor of Manchester, right? Yeah, when Sidic Khan could mention it too. Or... And, and, but the whole problem with that guy is he is not an MP at the moment. But there's a solution to that, which is there is another MP up in Manchester who's about to die

or at least he's very sick and could either resign or maybe just, you know, and then problem solved. I mean, those are some interesting options, Charles. Yeah. But there's another option, which is very obvious, thanks, Prime Minister of the UK, because you want someone with experience, like with connections around the world. Like, you can't just walt tend to be a prime minister. Yes. I believe Peter Madison's about it.

And I'll tell you what. He knows a lot of people. I thought you were going to seduce Prince Andrew for a moment. I'm sure he'd be up for it. Can I just tell you one more little fact about Peter Manassol, which is uprope of nothing, but it just is extraordinary. So in 2008, Peter Manus was hospitalized suffering from a kidney stone. Horrible, horrible situation.

At that time, melamine to literally white plastic stuff, was being added to milk in China. Yeah. It was causing kidney stones in thousands of Chinese children. Oh, no. It was an awful situation. During the previous week, Manlinson had drunk a glass of Chinese yogurt in front of reporters in order to show his confidence in Chinese dairy products.

That is fucking hilarious. So I'm not sure. His judgment is... Judgment is sort of... But look, if Kirstama does lose the prime minister's ship, but we are very hard thing to do. Do you remember what Malcolm Turnbull did, actually, after he had to step down for Scott Morrison.

What did he do? Oh, he did, of course, what you would do. He went to New York. He just got away from his country. He just, he's got a plane, Malcolm Turnbull, went to NYC. He's got a place there, of course. Yeah. So he wouldn't say it in his own apartment.

But I don't think he's Starmo. No, he won't have a New York apartment, but you know where he could stay. There's a man who's a state. Yeah. There's an apartment. Yes. I believe it's not far away. I know what you're thinking.

Yeah. It's probably available. We're part of the iconoclast network. Catch you tomorrow.