It’s a Monday lunchtime in July, and barely 72 hours have passed since the general election results rolled in. On TV screens and live-feeds, the political press pack is exhausted. Not Lewis Goodall. He’s fresh-faced, talking fast, buzzing. “It’s been a slog,” he says, “but this is my Christmas. I hate this journalist tendency to moan about how tired we are. The pace of news is relentless, but only up to a point. It’s not like working down a bloody mine or even being an actual politician.”
We’re meeting at a pub behind Oxford Circus. He’s dressed down: tricolour cord shirt, stone-washed jeans and trainers. Goodall is 35. His wife, Tone Langengen, a net-zero specialist at Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change, recently turned 30. “We were due to go on holiday to celebrate,” Goodall says, “but then Rishi called the election and it was deferred.” On the floor, a small suitcase is nestled next to him. “We managed to get to Margate for a night yesterday. But otherwise it’s been nonstop.”
