Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

This edition recorded before the emergency of Afghanistan. What is it like running the country over the Summer recess in normal times? Should certain Foreign Secretaries take account of the idea that a wise Minister never, ever goes on holiday? What happens when Foot And Mouth, floods, a sudden General Election or a pandemic blows up? What did our poor political reporters do for material? And did...

The recall of Parliament in the wake of Afghanistan’s catastrophic collapse produced one of the most passionate days the Commons has seen in many years – and a punishing experience for Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab. What will this week mean for Britain in the world and especially the Integrated Defence Review? We look at the fallout in Westminster from an historic week, with special guest Peter R...

Prime Ministerial careers tend to end abruptly and in tears. So what does an ex-PM do next? Are today’s Prime Ministers too young to fade away gracefully? Should they avoid lobbying jobs? And when it comes to backbench politics, should they stay or should they go? The IfG’s Tim Durrant discusses the mystery of the Prime Ministerial afterlife (and the lure of the comeback) with ex-Justice Secretary...

As Boris Johnson notches up two years in No.10, are we any closer to understanding what drives him? Is there such thing as an ideology in Boris’s world – a Johnsonism? Do Prime Ministers even need a guiding philosophy? To plumb the Johnson mystery, we assemble a star panel of Times columnist Matthew Parris, The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman and Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University...

As Parliament breaks up, how will the Government look back on this unique and turbulent term? As Boris Johnson tries to reset his leadership after some missteps and missed opportunities, what are the post-pandemic problems he needs to fix? Two years in, his policy platform has still to take shape, so how long has the Prime Minister got? An IfG panel gets out its red pen to give marks to Johnson: Y...

Freedom Week, a Pingdemic Party, or just a temporary holiday from restrictions that will inevitably come back in autumn? Does the Government really know what it’s doing on unlocking? Plus, who did Dominic Cummings’s latest drive-by really damage: Boris Johnson or Cummings himself? And as the rise of NEDs or Non-Executive Directors is made public by the unfortunate Gina Coladangelo, do they really...

Boris Johnson finally tells us what “levelling up” means – or does he? Is it about fixing up towns, enhancing job prospects or just more Boris boosterism? We look inside the PM’s big Levelling Up launch with special guest Ben Chu, Economics Editor of BBC Newsnight. Plus the Government narrowly wins its widely-denounced bid to cut the International Aid Budget. Will voters care that Johnson has brok...

The Government’s rationale for unlocking aggressively is that the vaccine has broken the link between COVID infections and deaths. Is it a gamble, a sensible move or just a victory for the Cabinet’s Economic hawks? We ask special guest John Rentoul, chief political commentator of the Independent. Plus, how much substance is there to the Government’s ‘Green Recovery’ programme? And with England in...

What have we learned from the Hancock Affair and the messy defenestration of the former Health Secretary? In a murky world of ‘non-executive directors like Gina Coladangelo, what on earth is “NED-washing”? And the much-battered Ministerial Code is back in focus. We hear from special guest Paul Harrison, former No.10 spokesman and former Health Dept advisor. Plus, what’s in new Health Sec Sajid Jav...

Britain signs its first entirely new post-Brexit trade deal, with Australia. What does it mean for British farmers? Will shoppers notice the savings of 70p per person per year? And will Brits really want to p-p-pick up a Tim-Tam? Will Grant Shapps’ new “Great British Railways” fix the mess of Britain’s trains? Plus, how does Michael Gove plan to transform government – and what is “accountability f...

As the G7 in Cornwall marks the first major summit of the post-COVID era, can Boris Johnson steer conversation away from the worsening Northern Ireland Protocol situation towards his preferred theme of Global Britain? We hear from Tom Newton Dunn, chief political commentator at Times Radio and political columnist at the Evening Standard. Plus, inside UK Government’s woeful record on ethics. ‘Freed...

Covid-19 will top the agenda at this month's G7 summit in Cornwall. As some countries lift restrictions and near the completion of vaccine rollouts, others face severe outbreaks or progress being derailed by new variants. No country will escape from the Covid crisis alone – a coordinated global plan which covers vaccination, surveillance and health infrastructure is essential. To discuss how world...

What divides the great Prime Ministers from the mediocre and the just plain bad? And how does Boris Johnson measure up in those stakes? Author of The Impossible Office: The History of the British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Seldon and former Government advisor Salma Shah take us on a deep dive into the harsh realities of the country’s most powerful office. Is Boris Johnson really as bad a PM as Dom...

What should we take from Dominic Cummings’ volcanic testimony before the Commons Heath, and Science and Technology committees, and his excoriation of Matt Hancock? Is Boris Johnson’s No.10 really so chaotic? And if the PM is “unfit for office”, how could Cummings work with him for so long? Special guest Sam Freedman, a former adviser at the Department for Education who has worked with Cummings, he...

Will the Indian Variant push back the Great Unlocking of June 21 that Boris Johnson has pinned so many hopes on? Are we looking at the return to tiers or even national lockdowns, and will Conservative COVID hawks wear it? Meanwhile the Government’s advice on international travel continues to baffle. Is “go but don’t go” really good enough? And what can we expect from the COVID Inquiry, just confir...

What do the thirty bills in that very brief Queen’s Speech tell us about No.10’s true priorities, and whatever happened to social care? How is this delivery-obsessed Government doing against its 2019 manifesto commitments? Plus LATIKA BOURKE, a London-based journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, joins us to look at Australia’s draconian but hugely popular COVID response – and its st...

Was the seismic shock of the Conservative victory in Hartlepool down to Brexit, vaccines, pork barrel politics or something more fundamental? What does this shock by-election mean for the endless battle between Starmer and the Corbynites? In the local elections, are the so-called Green and Lib Dem surges real? And what we know so far about the Scottish and Welsh national elections – all in a Frida...

The bill for renovating Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, what he might have said about “bodies piling high” and Dominic Cummings’ blog revelations have added up to a nightmare week for the Prime Minister. Special guest Stephen Daisley of The Spectator and Scottish Daily Mail joins us to ask if Johnson can weather it and if new ministerial standards advisor Christopher Geidt has the powers he n...

This week’s revelations about James Dyson’s text messages to Boris Johnson have worsened the fog of sleaze and added to accusations that this Government is an opaque chumocracy. Is it possible to keep government “permeable” to valuable outside talent without opening it to backroom favours? Special guest Adrian Masters, Political Editor of ITV Cymru Wales, joins us to explain what could be Wales's...

The relationship between a failing business and a former prime minister, lobbying in British politics, the rules that guide both ministers and civil servants, and the wider state of standards in public life. Along with former prime minister David Cameron, the Greensill saga has now dragged a growing list of former and current government ministers and officials into its orbit. And it shows no sign...

From runways at Heathrow to leaving the EU, the Government dislikes its decisions being challenged in court. Now it’s putting Judicial Review itself under the spotlight. A new IfG report asks if that’s a wise course of action. Plus, are COVID passports really our Get Out Of Corona Jail card? Will they even work? And will they be using them in Parliament? This week’s special guest is Sir Jonathan J...

As street violence convulses Northern Ireland, is the border in the Irish Sea producing exactly the crisis the Government were warned of? And will the expiry of the Grace Period make things worse? Special guest Ailbhe Rea, the New Statesman’s political correspondent and host of its podcast, explains what’s behind the tensions. Plus, will elections in Scotland and Wales push the UK closer to break-...

As new details emerge about Boris Johnson’s alleged affair with Jennifer Arcuri, the country seems strangely unmoved. Does personal morality really matter in leaders? And should we be thinking about the money not the sex? Plus, what does the unravelling Greensill saga tell us about backdoor access to government? Has David Cameron actually broken any rules? And we look at the trade realities that a...

A year on from Lockdown One, what have we learned – if anything – from the response to the once-in-a-century crisis of COVID? A new IfG paper identifies ten urgent lessons that government needs to learn. And if there is to be a Public Inquiry, what should it seek to discover? Plus, as the post-EU Transition Period ends, does the real Brexit start here? And what problems has the Government’s approa...

What’s in the mammoth 114-page Integrated Review of Britain’s defence and foreign policy? Should we really be putting aircraft carriers in the South China Sea and lifting the caps on nuclear warheads? And can the Government really re-tilt Britain from Europe to the “Indo-Pacific”? Plus, what will be the fallout from the murder of Sarah Everard and the Met’s disastrous mishandling of a subsequent v...