# New Labour Leaders Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/walescast-2430083/new-labour-leaders Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/walescast-2430083/new-labour-leaders.md Podcast: [Walescast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/walescast-2430083) Published: 2026-07-16T11:58:00+00:00 Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nz5mvs Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0nz4b31.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/walescast-2430083/episodes/new-labour-leaders Duration seconds: 1787 ## Resource Ken Skates has been confirmed as the new permanent leader of Welsh Labour, inheriting a party facing significant challenges after its disappointing Senedd election performance. As he steps into the role, he'll become the public face of one of Wales's opposition parties, with the task of rebuilding support and restoring confidence in Welsh Labour. Former journalist and ex-Chief of Staff to the Welsh Government, Jo Kiernan, joins us to assess the scale of the challenge ahead and what Skates must do to turn the party's fortunes around. We also hear from our Political Editor Gareth Lewis, who looks ahead to Andy Burnham taking the reins after Keir Starmer's final week as Prime Minister. Can Burnham reset relations between Wales and Westminster, and what might his leadership mean for the future of Welsh politics and for the Labour party here? ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/walescast-2430083/episodes/new-labour-leaders/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/walescast-2430083/new-labour-leaders.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.