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The State of UK Politics - Can Kier Survive the Local Elections? Meet the Leaders with Prof. Tony Travers
Webinar date: Thursday 9th October, 1:00pm
With the end of this year’s party conference season, Radix Big Tent surveys the political landscape with one of the UK’s leading psephologists and political commentators. Join Prof. Tony Travers and Vicky Pryce for a lunchtime chat as they ask where each of the parties now stand and look forward to the next big political test, the 2026 local elections.
Register below and meet Britain’s foremost commentator on local government and elections, Prof. Tony Travers who will be chatting to Vicky Pryce, Chair of Fellows at Radix Big Tent at 1:00pm on Thursday 9th October and answering your questions at an interactive Radix Big Tent Meet the Leaders’ webinar.
Earlier this year, a local council seat was won with less than 20% of the vote. Is Britain’s “two-party” system moving towards a three, four, five of even six party system – or seven in Scotland and Wales? Can Keir Starmer survive Burnham’s “noises off”, especially if the next set of local elections go badly for Labour? Is Reform UK’s rise a chimera or is it something more permanent? Will the Lib Dems redefine themselves as Farage’s political counterweights? Are the Conservatives finished as a political force, and might a new force on the left - be it Your Party or Polanski’s Greens - splinter things still further? And come the next general election, will Britain’s first past the post electoral system prove to be a bulwark against, or a gateway for, extremism?
There is so much to assess barely a year on from Labour’s landslide, but shallow, victory. Join this discussion with one of the UK’s leading experts.
Professor Tony Travers
Tony Travers is Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics. He is also a professor in the LSE’s Government Department. His key research interests include public finance, local/regional government and devolution.
In 2012-13 and again in 2016-17, he chaired the London Finance Commission and was a member of the City Growth Commission and also the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance in Wales. He co-chaired the King’s Commission on London. He was an advisor to the House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee until June 2024. He is a member of the London Partnership Board.
He is an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy and also of the Institute of Revenues, Rating & Valuation. He has published books and book chapters on local government, devolution, cities, and London.
Vicky Pryce
Vicky is the Chair of the Fellows at Radix Big Tent and a leading economist whose career includes being Director General for Economics at the Department for BIS, Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service and Chief Economist and Partner at KPMG. She is currently Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. She is also Chair of the Economic Advisory Council for the British Chambers of Commerce and a visiting Professor at KCL and BCU. She is co-founder of GoodCorporation, a company set up to advise on Corporate Social Responsibility.
