A year in politics: The most memorable moments of 2024
Lewis Goodall, Natasha Clark and Aggie Chambre take a lighthearted look back at the highlights of the past 12 months, and ahead to 2025.
Read time: 3 mins
In brief...
- Lewis Goodall hosts a festive look back on the year, joined by colleagues from the LBC newsroom.
- They name Nigel Farage as the outstanding politician of the year, and Rishi Sunak as the worst.
- Looking ahead to 2025, they predict Suella Braverman will defect to Reform UK.
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This week has seen the last Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons of the year, and the UK’s politicians – and political journalists – are winding down for the holiday season.
To round off the 2024, Lewis Goodall was joined in The News Agents studio by LBC political editor Natasha Clark and political correspondent Aggie Chambre for an in-no-way serious look back on the highlights of the year.
Who is the politician of the year?
Lewis says Nigel Farage's return to politics could be the defining moment of British politics in 2024, despite more visually memorable moments, such as Rishi Sunak announcing the year's snap election in the pouring rain outside Downing Street.
LBC's political correspondent, Aggie Chambre says Sunak's sudden, and unexpected announcement, may have prevented even further Reform UK gains, suggesting of all the politicians in the UK, Farage was "not ready" to run a full campaign.
Clark describes him as "one of the most influential people in British politics for the past decade," and adds that no one in Westminster expected his narrative, and political success, in 2024 to unfold as it did.
"There are some politicians that have that magic," adds Chambre.
"Boris Johnson was one. Nigel Farage is another. They can capture the public, they can deliver a speech, they are good campaigners, they're good speakers, and they just have something that other politicians just don't have.
"It's just something that makes them a little bit magic, a little bit likable."
They also admit that journalists speaking about Farage so much may elevate him "to a certain extent".
Goodall says Farage, unlike other leaders of smaller parties, knows how to get himself in the news, and make it about himself.
He says if the Green Party wants to be seen as insurgent politicians, it needs to be "better at playing insurgency politics."
Clark says Ed Davey's election campaign for the Liberal Democrats – focused on stunts and photo opportunities as much as policy – was a good example of this.
The three are united in agreeing Rishi Sunak was the worst politician of the year, with Lewis saying he can't even remember his time in power.
They also name Rachel Reeves as having had a poor year for "misjudging a lot of things", and Joe Biden as someone who "gave in to vanity" in the final moments of his presidency.
What was the political moment of the year?
Another one in the bag for Sunak, with Chambre saying his sodden election announcement was her most memorable moment of 2024.
"That moment of him coming out, standing there with the raindrops flicking off his suit jacket, and I just couldn't believe what I was seeing," she says.
Natasha, focusing on his announcement rather than his damp suit, describes the snap election as the "best kept secret in Westminster".
For Lewis, it's all about Donald Trump, saying his lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets during the televised debate with Kamala Harris, and seeing Hulk Hogan tear his shirt off at the Republican conference stood out to him.
But it was the photos of the MAGA Republican, after being shot in the ear at a rally, he describes as the defining image of the year.
Who to watch in 2025?
Natasha Clark names Suella Braverman in an instant.
"She has the potential to defect to Reform at a moment of maximum danger and could really destabilize Kemi Badenoch, should she choose to," Clark says.
"I don't think she's got a lot of support around her, but I think she could ruffle some feathers."
Aggie Chambre says her politician to watch will be Kemi Badenoch, saying she does not believe the UK has seen "the best" of the new Tory leader yet.
However, she adds that should Badenoch not be able to up her game in 2025, she has doubts over whether she will remain in that position.
Lewis Goodall names Lee Anderson as his one to watch in 2025, simply because he's expecting him to "say some weird shit".