Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

The Times' Henry Zeffman joins the podcast team to make sense of Gordon Brown's recipe for constitutional reform - and ask whether Keir Starmer can actually reform the House of Lords.   The government needs to give more power to parliament. That's the main recommendation in a new IfG report looking at parliament's scrutiny of legislation and the quality of bills being passed.   And what is the sta...

Matt Hancock has come home. Football might be coming home. But Rishi Sunak's problems on the home front are going nowhere. With the Conservative Party threatening rebellion on multiple fronts, what can the prime minister do to make progress on his legislative agenda? The IfG podcast team dissect the PM's parliamentary problems.   Sunak also has a ministerial headache to contend with, as accusation...

Liz Truss put economic growth front and centre of her premiership, but does Rishi Sunak even have a coherent growth policy? The Guardian’s City Editor Anna Isaac joins the IfG team to go in search of the prime minister’s plan.   Could Sunak take a new approach towards Brexit? What exactly is a Swiss-style deal? And is the Conservative Party in the mood for compromise?   Plus: What does the Supreme...

Jeremy Hunt has unveiled the government's economic plans, with the chancellor handing out giveaways now but setting out tax rises - and spending cuts - to come. So now what? The IfG podcast crunch the chancellor's numbers.   The Dominic Raab claims are causing problems for the justice secretary, but do multiplying leaks about ministerial behaviour point to a wider breakdown of trust inside governm...

We didn't have to wait long for the first ministerial resignation of Rishi Sunak's premiership, and it's Gavin Williamson who is out of government - again. ConservativeHome's Henry Hill joins then podcast team to weigh up what Williamson's exit means for the PM and explore how Rishi Sunak can prove his commitment to integrity is genuine. The PM decided, in the end, to attend the COP27 summit - but...

While Matt Hancock’s bushtucker trials will be making all the headlines, Westminster is wondering how Rishi Sunak will manage his ongoing Suella Braverman challenges. The IfG podcast team are joined by John Stevens, the Daily Mirror’s new political editor, to reflect on a bruising week for the restored Home Secretary. Also: the rearranged fiscal statement is looming. With the Prime Minister droppi...

Another podcast, another prime minister. Liz Truss is out after just 50 days in No.10. Rishi Sunak is in, with the former Chancellor avoiding a showdown with Conservative party membership after both Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the race. So what next for the UK’s 57th PM? The IfG podcast team, with guest Emilio Casalicchio of Politico, analyse Sunak’s first days in the job – and...

After a feverish week in Westminster and a chaotic 24 hours in government, Liz Truss has called time on her record-breakingly short stay in Number 10. The IfG podcast, with special guest Henry Newman, a former adviser to Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, assemble at the very moment Truss was preparing to announce her departure.   The podcast team pick apart Truss’s failures in No10, the economic dec...

As pressure piles up on the prime minister, the IfG podcast team assemble - with guest Aubrey Allegretti of the Guardian - to work out what Liz Truss might do to calm both the markets and Conservative MPs    The Halloween fiscal event isn't the only date in the Commons that will be spooking the PM - so join the Inside Briefing team on a walk through the government's autumn parliamentary minefield....

Academic, author and former Talking Politics host David Runciman joins the IfG podcast team to take stock of the state of British politics. As wearing Conservative politicians make their way back from Birmingham, and with Labour MP's having left Liverpool, just how health are Westminster's largest parties right now? Is growth the new dividing line in Westminster and beyond - and is there really an...

The fallout from Kwasi Kwarteng's budget continues, so what can the chancellor do to calm the nerves? Guest Soumaya Keynes of the Economist joins the IfG podcast team to discuss what has gone wrong for Kwarteng and Liz Truss, and the lessons to be learnt from a week of economic turmoil.   No drama for Starmer? We take a look back at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool and what Keir Starmer's...

With winter fast approaching, politicians across Europe have been taking dramatic steps to address the ongoing energy crisis. The IfG team are joined by Alice Hancock from the FT and Elisabetta Cornago from the Centre for European Reform to assess different countries’ responses. Is Europe ready for the winter ahead? Why is the UK’s support package so expensive? Are the public up for cutting their...

Liz Truss has been to New York, Keir Starmer is on his way to Liverpool, and the IfG podcast team assemble in the studio to discuss a week where politics began to return to normal – albeit against the unpleasant backdrop of Vladimir Putin’s threat of nuclear war.   Guest Ayesha Hazarika dials in to discuss the new prime minister’s first steps on the world stage, some big government policy announce...

The FT’s Stephen Bush joins the IfG team in the podcast studio, just a few hundred metres away from Buckingham Palace, to make sense of an extraordinary moment in British history. What does the death of Queen Elizabeth II, after a record-breaking 70-year reign, mean for the Royal Family? How will King Charles III approach the role of monarch? And what questions will now be asked about the role of...

The epic Conservative Party leadership contest is finally over, and Liz Truss is the new prime minister. After a flight to Balmoral to meet the Queen, and a drive through London in lashing rain, Truss stepped straight from the prime ministerial car to the podium outside No10 and set out her vision for the country   So, what happens next and what should we expect from this country’s 56th prime mini...

 The long, hot summer of endless Conservative leadership contest hustings is over, and next week the winner will be announced. The FT’s Seb Payne joins the podcast crew to discuss the battle to become Prime Minister. Will Liz Truss emerge victorious as all the polls predict? Can Rishi Sunak spring a surprise? And just how daunting is the next prime minister’s in-tray?   And as Boris Johnson’s prem...

Every autumn the UK’s political parties decamp from Westminster for the annual party conference season. From Brighton to Blackpool, Manchester to Birmingham, Liverpool to Glasgow, Britain’s cities take turns to host politicians, activists, party members, journalists, and lobbyists for long days (and nights) of keynote speeches, breakfast fringe meetings, endless schmoozing, too much warm white win...

Centuries of British political history has played out across Whitehall, with key decisions taken in the many government buildings that line the streets around the Palace of Westminster. But what secrets are contained within their walls and behind their doors? How have the buildings changed over the years? And what secret tunnels lie beneath the basements of Whitehall?   Special guest Gus O'Donnell...

From being appointed to the job to that first overwhelming day’s work, from taking key decisions to ultimately being reshuffled back to the backbenches, and with a whole load of unexpected moments along the way, the lifetime of a government minister is a whirlwind of new experiences. From a grip on the levers of power to inevitable disappointment, it is a career like no other. With special guests...

Boris Johnson’s Number 10 veered between the anarchic and the chaotic, marked by resignations, sackings, resets, cake ambushes and work events. So, what can the next prime minister do to make No10 work in a way that can deliver their priorities? What are the key decisions they must take on their first day in the job? What appointments do they need to get right? Does it matter where people sit? And...

After six years, three prime ministers and 178 episodes of Inside Briefing, outgoing Institute for Government Director Bronwen Maddox chairs her final episode looking at the big themes that have dominated U.K. government during her time at IFG.    Where have Brexit and covid left the UK's economy and where does Johnson's departure leave the prospect of levelling up the country? Why does government...

With the Conservative leadership contest now down to battle between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the podcast crew assemble to assess the pitches, pledges and promises on offer - and weigh up who might become the next prime minister.    And what about the man they will replace? As Boris Johnson clocks up there years as PM, who should we judge his premiership - and is a comeback really on the cards?  ...

The Conservative leadership contest is gathering speed, but what are the candidates offering their fellow MPs, what does the party membership think, and have the front runners caught the attention of the public? BBC Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall joins the IfG podcast team to weigh up the men and women battling to become the next prime minister.   Most of them are offering tax cuts. Smart long-term pol...

After an extraordinary day in Westminster, and a record-breaking number of resignations, the Prime Minister finally quit Downing Street. But Boris Johnson will stay on in No.10 until his successor his chosen. The IfG podcast team assemble to ask what this period of caretaker government will look like, how the next Prime Minister will be chosen, and what Boris Johnson’s record in office looks like....

Three big international summits have kept Boris Johnson thousands of miles away from by-election defeats, a Cabinet resignation and growing disquiet at home, but what did the prime minister actually achieve on his foreign adventures? The Telegraph’s Camilla Turner, who travelled with the PM to Rwanda, joins the podcast team to reflect on Johnson’s travels.   While the prime minister was away the c...