Four things we learned from Sir Mel Stride’s Electoral Dysfunction interview

Published

3 months ago

August 18, 2025

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Since last year’s general election, Sir Mel Stride has become a familiar face for those of us who like our politics.

During the campaign, he regularly found himself on breakfast TV and radio. So much so, Sir Mel was referred to as the “minister for the morning round” by some of our industry colleagues.

By our count, he was on Sky News Breakfast at least 10 times during the campaign’s 43 days.

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Following the election, and losing the Conservative leadership race to Kemi Badenoch, Sir Mel now puts questions to Rachel Reeves as shadow chancellor.

Still seen as a safe pair of hands, Sir Mel’s penchant for doing the “morning round” hasn’t slowed down either, making regular appearances on breakfast TV and radio.

Luckily, he found some time between all that to sit down for an interview with Sky’s Beth Rigby for the Electoral Dysfunction podcast. He spoke about his transition to Opposition, taking on Reform, and the most controversial topic in Westminster – lunch.

Here’s what we learned:

1. Opposition isn’t ‘awful’ – but it is like ‘warfare’

Before the election, Sir Mel served as work and pensions secretary. Shifting to the Opposition was not “awful”, despite losing the muscle of the civil service.

“But it is like guerrilla warfare,” he said.

“You suddenly lose all the trappings of government. Somebody once said to me, ‘when you get in the back of a car and you sit down and it doesn’t go anywhere, that’s when you realise you’re no longer a minister’.

“So it is that sort of sense of being looked after that disappears.”

There’s also a smaller team of Conservatives in the Commons. Before the election, Rishi Sunak had 343 MPs behind him.

Ms Badenoch currently only has 119.

“When you’re down to 120 MPs – and some set piece events, there might be only a fraction of those people there – it’s much quieter.

“What I actually often do is I can be quite provocative of the Opposition to get them going, because then at least you get something to feed off. Sometimes I do that to, just get the energy in the chamber.”

2. Being at the despatch box on big days can be ‘tricky’ – but he has a ‘secret’

You may remember Sir Mel’s lively response to Rachel Reeves’s spring statement in March. He revealed that, on those big political days, he isn’t told what the chancellor will say until about half an hour before it’s said in the Commons.

“It does give you and your team literally 10 or 15 minutes to… work out what the main things are,” he said.

However, he tells Electoral Dysfunction that you do have to be able to think on your feet in that scenario.

He said: “You are thinking about ‘what are the attack lines I’m going to use?’… and amend what you’re going to do.”

He added that he doesn’t get nervous. That might have to do with Sir Mel having been president of the Oxford Union debating society “many, many years ago”.

“Now the secret’s out. The secret is out Beth, and you’re the first to have gleaned that secret from me,” he said.

To be fair, it is on his website.

3. He’s not a huge fan of Reform

As the Conservatives battle with Reform for the right, Sir Mel didn’t have many positive words for Nigel Farage’s party.

“With Reform… these are populists, who peddle fantasy economics,” he said.

“‘Take everybody out of income tax up to £20,000 costs about £80bn according to the IFS [Institute For Fiscal Studies].”

The IFS has said it needed “more detail” to exactly cost Reform’s proposal, but “it could easily be in the range of £50 to £80bn a year”.

“I think ultimately,” Sir Mel says, “people will see through a lot of the populism that Reform stands for.”

He added that he believed that Reform’s 2024 manifesto, was, economically, “a work of fiction”.

“I mean, it’s quite dangerous, actually. I think if they’d been elected… the economy would have gone into a very bad place,” he said.

4. His ideal lunch? A cheese and ham toastie

Sir Mel also addressed the most pressing issue of all – lunch.

If you’re unaware, this has proven a controversial subject in Westminster. Ms Badenoch told The Spectator in December she was “not a sandwich person… lunch is for wimps”.

Ms Reeves then told Electoral Dysfunction in March that she whips up a cheddar sandwich in 11 Downing Street when she can.

Sir Mel falls more in line with his opposite number than his leader.

“I’ve always liked a sandwich, particularly a toasted sandwich,” he said.

“I’d go with the Cadillac, the Rolls Royce of sandwiches, a ham and cheese.”

Sir Mel has previously, however, been partial to some more peculiar fillings.

“Do you remember those Breville toastie makers? When I went to university, I had one of those, or whatever the equivalent was,” he said.

“You could put baked beans in, eggs in, and all sorts of things.

“It was fantastic.”

To each, their own.

Electoral Dysfunction unites political powerhouses Beth Rigby, Ruth Davidson, and Harriet Harman to cut through the spin, and explain to you what’s really going on in Westminster and beyond.

Want to leave a question for Beth, Ruth, and Harriet?

Email: electoraldysfunction@sky.uk

WhatsApp: 07934 200444

Politics

Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana at centre of new party row over £800k in donations

Published

15 mins ago

November 10, 2025

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Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana at centre of new party row over £800k in donations

Donations being held by Zarah Sultana will be transferred over to Your Party in tranches from this week, Sky News has been told, but the party stand-off remains.

Ms Sultana has sole control of over £800,000 of Your Party donations following an internal fallout.

Her spokesperson told Sky News £600k would be transferred over in three tranches starting with £200k from Wednesday, and the rest “once the company’s costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full”.

But a Your Party source told Sky News she should transfer the full £800k worth of donations now.

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It follows a major row over finances behind the scenes of the new left-wing party, which Ms Sultana co-launched with Jeremy Corbyn in July.

At the time, a company called MOU Operations was used to collect donations, with the idea this would be transferred over to Your Party once it was formally registered with the Electoral Commission.

The registration happened on 30 September, but no transfer of funds has been made – despite Ms Sultana stepping in to take ownership of MOU last month after its previous three directors quit.

MOU is holding around £800k of donations in total, as well as around £500k in fees collected as part of Ms Sultana’s unauthorised membership launch, Sky News understands.

Ms Sultana’s spokesperson said £600k would be transferred over in three tranches, and the rest “once the company’s costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full”.

The Your Party source told Sky News that Ms Sultana has been told Your Party can’t accept the money related to her membership launch due to legal risks and accused her of trying to “offload” it.

Ms Sultana agreed to take over MOU to break a standoff between Your Party and the company’s previous three directors – former Labour MP Beth Winter, former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll and former South African politician Andrew Feinstein.

The trio set up MOU in April to assist with a new left-wing party centred around Mr Corbyn but resigned on 29 October, claiming the role of holding donations had been “thrust upon” them and raising concerns about a “lack of appropriate governance” within Your Party.

The statement said they hadn’t transferred over the funds because they were worried about legal liabilities and wanted Your Party to take over the company instead – but five of the six founding MPs refused.

Ms Sultana said her stepping in would “bring the chapter to a close” and “these resources will now be used for Your Party, as was always intended”.

However that angered some within Your Party who say this is a mess of her own making because of the membership fiasco, which is still being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

‘Low trust environment’

While Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana have since patched things up, one Your Party source described operating in a “low trust environment”.

Senior Your Party figures have accused Ms Sultana of deliberately withholding MOU’s funds for political leverage despite privately and publicly committing to the transfer. Organisers expressed frustration at operating on a “shoestring” ahead of the founding conference at the end of this month.

However, allies close to the Coventry South MP have dismissed the “hostile briefings” and insist she has been conducting “due diligence” before sending the money over.

Sky News understands Ms Sultana has been seeking Your Party’s constitution and financial scheme as registered with the Electoral Commission, to help her understand the party’s governing structures.

A source close to her claims there has been an unwillingness to share the documents from within Your Party, so she has requested them from the elections watchdog directly.

It is not clear who wrote the documents and who is controlling access to them – or why one of the party’s founders should not be able to see them.

A spokesperson for Ms Sultana said: “Zarah did not choose to become the sole director of MOU Operations Limited, but was prepared to take on this responsibility to ensure funds are transferred as quickly as possible and preparations for the founding conference can progress.

“As sole director, she is legally responsible for ensuring the company’s costs, liabilities and expenses are settled, and this process may take some time. To ensure funds are available for the founding conference, she will transfer £600k in tranches over the next couple of weeks. The first £200k is scheduled to be sent 12 November.

“All remaining funds will be transferred once the company’s costs, expenses and liabilities are settled in full.”

A Your Party spokesperson said: “We are completely focused on putting together a successful founding conference for our members, so they can democratically decide Your Party’s structures and programme, and Britain can get the socialist alternative it so badly needs. Hundreds of volunteers are working tirelessly on a shoestring budget to make this a reality, a testament to the grassroots power of our mass movement.”

Politics

XRP rallies on US shutdown nearing end, ETF tickers landing on DTCC

Published

4 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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XRP rallies on US shutdown nearing end, ETF tickers landing on DTCC

Excitement in the crypto community is growing over the potential launch of XRP funds, as the US Senate advances a deal aimed at ending the longest-ever government shutdown.

The Senate reportedly reached a deal on a budget bill to end the government shutdown on Sunday, sending a bullish signal to numerous markets, including crypto.

The XRP (XRP) community is anticipating multiple XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to launch shortly, with several already appearing on the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) website ahead of a possible launch this month.

The price of XRP has rallied more than 12% on the bullish news over the past 24 hours, with the token trading at $2.56 at the time of publication, according to CoinGecko.

11 XRP products listed on DTCC

As of Monday, the DTCC website featured 11 XRP ETF products on its “active and pre-launch” listing, including those by 21Shares, ProShares, Bitwise, Canary Capital, Volatility Shares, REX-Osprey, CoinShares, Amplify and Franklin Templeton.

Although a DTCC listing does not equal actual launch and does not guarantee regulatory approval, it signals that the ETF infrastructure is ready to be traded on US markets.

*The list of XRP products listed on the DTCC as of Monday. Source: DTCC*

It’s worth noting that Grayscale’s XRP Trust (GXRP) has not yet appeared on the DTCC website, and the list also does not currently include an XRP fund from WisdomTree.

“Government shutdown ending = spot crypto ETF floodgates opening,” ETF expert Nate Geraci wrote in an X post on Sunday, adding: “In the meantime, could see first ‘33 Act spot xrp ETF launch this week.”

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also posted on X on Sunday, noting that the “shutdown is over” and highlighting a subsequent uptick in US equity futures.

“The SEC had open litigation against Ripple for the past five years, up until three months ago. IMO, the launch of spot XRP ETFs represents the final nail in the coffin for the previous wave of anti-crypto regulators,” he wrote in an X post on Nov. 2.

Ripple, SEC, XRP, ETF, Policy — *Source:* *Nate Geraci*

He also highlighted a post from Canary Capital, which claimed last Friday that its XRP ETF is “coming soon,” speculating that the product could go live by the end of this week.