Labour have agreed pay deals with NHS staff, public service workers and now train drivers - but they've handed the conservatives an effective attack line.

Are Labour really beholden to "union paymasters"? And can they sustain pay rises while cutting the winter fuel allowance?

Hannah Barnes and George Eaton discuss on the New Statesman podcast.

Also in this episode, Hannah and George look at the crisis in prisons, and Labour's plan to house inmates in police cells. Can Keir Starmer and new prisons minister James Timpson hold Britain's overflowing prison estate together?

Read Hannah Barnes interview with Charlie Taylor, Prisons Inspector, here: https://www.newstatesman.com/ns-interview/2024/07/the-prison-system-is-broken

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