Nick,
When you first get your licence, insurance is usually very high because of lack of driving experience as you're just starting off. So it is essential to go for a car with a small engine to begin with so that you can build up your no claims discount to get even cheaper insurance in the future.
You can try a Fiat Punto as your first car. However I'll suggest you go through the list of
cheap cars to insure for new drivers and try to get a quote for each one of them. This is because car insurance quotes depend on a lot of factors including the vehicle you'll be driving and where you'll be parking the car at night. Different insurers will quote you differently because they underwrite your application according to their own risk assessment from previous claims.