Mayoral route to top: Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande
Chirac, Sarkozy, and Hollande were all mayors before becoming French presidents, a pattern Alastair Campbell says Burnham echoes.
Snapshot · The Rest Is Politics
545. Burnham Beats Reform: Britain’s Next Prime Minister?
Explore episode
Jun 19, 2026
Where this was said
SNP, Money Scandals and the Tactical Voting Wave
At 33:18 · chapter starts 31:10
Rory Stewart asks whether the SNP's performance was dented by the lingering fallout from the Peter Murrell scandal — the former SNP chief executive and husband of Nicola Sturgeon convicted of stealing party funds to spend on personal luxuries. The SNP leadership is dismissive, pointing to their comprehensive Holyrood election win despite the scandal. Campbell makes a broader observation about five or six-party politics in Britain: voters are increasingly motivated by who they want to stop rather than who they want to elect. The large body of voters who find the prospect of Farage as Prime Minister 'truly horrific' represents a powerful force, and tactical voting against Reform is becoming a structural feature of the political landscape rather than an isolated phenomenon.
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