Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

The King’s health has dominated the news this week, but the prime minister has been making controversial headlines with his televised bet with Piers Morgan and a major PMQs bust-up with Keir Starmer. It hasn't been an easy couple of days for the Labour leader either, with Starmer dropping his £28bn green pledge – but will voters notice? Plus: How can we fix the NHS? This week sees the publication...

Whoever forms the next government will need to be prepared. The job begins almost as soon as the votes have been counted.  So what is it like to go from opposition to government overnight? How do civil servants get ready for the possibility of a transition of power or a hung parliament? And what is it like for a governing party to continue in power after a bruising campaign? In this six-part serie...

A deal to restore government in Northern Ireland has finally been struck and Stormont is set to return. So what was the decisive factor? Who are the big winners? And what are the chances of this deal actually holding? Peter Foster of the Financial Times joins the IfG team to reflect on a historic week. It is four years since the UK left the EU – so how has life outside the Single Market and the Cu...

Simon Clarke has called for Rishi Sunak to go. A former No10 special adviser has said the Conservatives won’t win the election with Sunak at the helm. And an endless supply of new polling keeps painting an awkward picture for the PM’s prospects. So just how much trouble is Sunak in? The Times’ Geri Scott joins the podcast team to make sense of the latest chapter in the Conservative party psychodra...

Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda legislation has made its way through the House of Commons, but at what cost to his authority? Peter Ricketts, the UK’s first national security adviser, joins the podcast team to discuss Sunak’s battles with his MPs, his looming battles with the House of Lords, and his ongoing battles to get any flights off the ground. Plus, Sunak has authorised his first military...

The Post Office scandal has been described by Rishi Sunak as one of greatest miscarriages of justice in UK history – so who is responsible, and is the government’s response the right one? Adam Boulton, former political editor of Sky News, joins the podcast to discuss how the faulty Horizon software led to hundreds of postmasters wrongly prosecuted for theft.   Plus, the prime minister is urging vo...

2024 is going to be quite some year for politics. A general election is no more than a year away. The Conservatives are still a long way behind in the polls, but has Keir Starmer done enough to convince people to vote for Labour? What are they key dates to look out for over the next 12 months? What happens next at the Covid Inquiry? Where are local elections happening? And what are the events over...

Have you opened all your presents and need something to lift your flagging festive spirits? Perhaps those in-laws are staying a little longer than you’d like and you’re looking for a little audio escape? Or maybe you need a political fix to get you through the holidays... but you’re not quite ready to reengage with the latest Westminster machinations? Then this is the podcast for you. For one Chri...

So that was the year that was. Just the one prime minister this time, but plenty of political drama and intrigue, twists and turns, and high and lows. David Runciman, the former host of the Talking Politics podcast, joins the IfG team to look back on the last 12 months. How did Rishi Sunak’s five pledges work out? Does anyone remember what Keir Starmer’s five missions are? What did all those by-el...

While five groups of right wing Conservative MPs – the so-called “Five Families” – have not been making life easy for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak’s controversial immigration bill made its way through the Commons without one Tory rebelling. But is the real fight still to come? Politico’s Esther Webber joins the podcast team to take stock of a dramatic few days in parliament. Luckily for the pri...

Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister, former home secretary Suella Braverman says the Rwanda Bill will lose the Conservatives the next election, and the prime minister has been forced hold an emergency – and rather tetchy – press conference to defend his plan. So how big a crisis is this row over immigration for the government? Paul Waugh, the i paper’s chief political commentator,...

Nobody predicted a massive diplomatic bust-up with Greece, so is Rishi Sunak losing his marbles? PoliticsHome editor Laura Silver joins the podcast team to catch up on the extraordinary row over the Elgin Marbles. Access talks – the moment that opposition parties begin meeting the civil service ahead of a general election – haven’t started yet, but the pressure is building. So what happens next an...

Jeremy Hunt has framed the autumn statement as the biggest tax cut in British history, but do the chancellor's sums add up? The podcast team crunch the numbers and discuss what Hunt's big day in Parliament told us about the state of the economy, what the government is trying to do, and when the next general election might take place.   Giles Winn, a former Treasury special adviser, joins the podca...

The Supreme Court's verdict has left the government's Rwanda asylum policy in tatters - but Rishi Sunak says he has a plan to get planes taking off by the spring. So what is the prime minister proposing, and is there any chance it will work?  That won't be a job for Suella Braverman, with the controversial now ex-home secretary the biggest loser in this week's reshuffle. The biggest winner was Dav...

The reshuffle rumour mill went into overdrive over the weekend, and on Monday morning Rishi Sunak kicked off a day of sackings - and surprise appointments. So the IfG team wolfed down their breakfasts, raced to the office, and assembled in the podcast studio for an emergency recording of Inside Briefing. Who is in and who is out? What does this reshuffle tell us about how Rishi Sunak wants to gove...

The King’s Speech on Tuesday meant a day of dashing uniforms and galloping horses, but was there anything of substance behind the pomp and ceremony? The Sun’s Noa Hoffman is this week’s podcast guest as the Inside Briefing team weigh up the legislative agenda on offer from Rishi Sunak. The home secretary is in the news. When isn’t she? We unpick Suella Braverman’s rows with the country’s most seni...

Astonishing revelations and appalling language made for a gripping week at the Covid inquiry, with Dominic Cummings dominating headlines once again with his account of Boris Johnson’s chaotic No10. The BBC’s health reporter Jim Reed joins the podcast team to work out what we’ve learnt from the evidence sessions, Whatsapp messages, witness statements and diary entries.   The autumn statement is loo...

What progress has the government made in devolving power across England? Has it been a success? And what would a Labour government do differently?   In this special episode of Inside Briefing, Akash Paun, the Institute for Government’s devolution watcher-in-chief, travels across England to find out whether a devolution revolution – promised by George Osborne back in 2015 – is really taking place....

Rishi Sunak has clocked up 365 days as Prime Minister – but is the anniversary a cause for celebration or just a moment of relief? Politico’s Dan Bloom joins the podcast team to weigh up Sunak’s first year in the job, assess his achievements and failures and how he has surprised us, and explore what might come next. From the man in Number 10 to a woman who might fancy a tilt at the top job… Rachel...

Labour's double by-election win has sent shockwaves through Westminster. So what does it mean for Keir Starmer? What does Rishi Sunak do now? And what might it tell us about the battleground on which the general election might be fought? The FT's Lucy Fisher joins the pod team to react to the results. Talking of the general election… everyone is guessing when it might be held. Could it be next May...

Will it be May? Maybe October? Perhaps November? Surely not January 2025? Yes, everyone is talking about when the next general election is going to be held – and speculating when Rishi Sunak will decide to go to the country.   So is it right for the prime minister to have the power to choose the date of a general election? What are the key considerations to make when looking at the polls – or the...

Party conference season is nearly over and the IfG podcast crew have made their way back to London after their trips to Manchester and Liverpool. But which politicians will be returning to parliament battling new headaches? Has Rishi Sunak done enough to shake off the Conservatives’ post-Truss era hangover? And did Keir Starmer give Labour reason to believe that a new dawn might be about to break?...

How will Keir Starmer respond to Rishi Sunak’s ambitious pitch to be the “change” candidate at the next general election? The New Statesman’s Anoosh Chakelian and Josh Simons, director of Labour Together, are the guests on this week’s Inside Briefing as the podcast crew preview Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.  Will the Labour leader add detailed policies to his big five missions? Will the...

When you put a load of ministers and MPs in a conference centre for four days, without enough sleep, and very little natural light, something unexpected – at least for the government – always happens. So what – and who – should we be keeping an eye on as the Conservatives decamp to Manchester for their annual conference? Will Suella Braverman – or maybe Liz Truss – create a storm on the fringe? Wh...

Rishi Sunak has ripped up the UK's net zero plan - but did the prime minister's emissions statement make sense and will it win him votes? Daily Telegraph political editor Ben Riley-Smith, the author of a new book on the last 13 years of Conservative government, is this week's podcast guest.  Liz Truss returned to the political fray with a big speech at the IfG on Monday - with the former PM mounti...