Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

The podcast team dissect Rishi Sunak's appearance at the G20 summit in India - and Daily Mirror political editor John Stevens reveals what it's really like to join the prime minister on the plane for a foreign trip. Westminster has been rocked by a spy scandal - but should MPs really be that surprised? Plus: Is central government set up to deliver the government's 'levelling up' pledge - or Labour...

Keir Starmer has reshuffled his team of shadow ministers. So who’s up? Who’s down? Is this the march of the Blairites? And what does the reshuffle reveal about Starmer’s plans for the general election campaign – or for government should Labour win? The Guardian’s Aletha Adu joins the IfG podcast team to run the rule over the new shadow cabinet.   The concrete crisis in schools has placed education...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can mini...

Summer is nearly over. Parliament is set to return. And the Inside Briefing team is back to take stock of the last few months – and look ahead to what a lively couple of months might bring.   Ben Wallace is out, Grant Shapps is the new defence secretary, and Claire Coutinho has become the youngest member of the cabinet. But what does Rishi Sunak’s mini-reshuffle tell us about his priorities for go...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can mini...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can mini...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can mini...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? W hat is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can min...

There is no job quite like that of a government minister – and no training manual for how to do it. So what happens on the first day in the job? How can ministers manager the demands on their time? Are particular skills needed to get the best out of civil servants? Is there a trick to working with Number 10? What is the best way to handle a multi-billion pound departmental budget? And how can mini...

Some MPs are rarely seen in the Commons. Others can’t seem to stay away from the chamber. So what happens in those 45 days when the Palace of Westminster shuts up shop?  This week on the podcast, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and Labour peer Baroness Armstrong join Cath Haddon and Alice Lilly of the IFG to reveal just how switched off parliamentarians can be on their summer break.  Stay t...

After two years of ethical scandals, the government finally published its plans to clean up standards just before parliament went into recess. We’ll dive into the detail to find out what Sunak will be changing and how the rules around ministers, civil servants and other government employees are upheld – and what isn’t going to change after all. We’ll be joined by Fleur Anderson MP, John Penrose MP...

By-elections are rarely like buses, but this time three have arrived at once. The Conservatives lost Somerset and Frome and Selby, but held on to Boris Johnson’s old seat in Uxbridge… by a hair’s breadth.   As parliament prepares to shut up for summer, the podcast team discuss a night that produced plenty of food for thought in government and the opposition - and not forgetting the by-election exp...

Rishi Sunak pledged to lead a government of integrity after the high-profile scandals of the Boris Johnson era, but Angela Rayner says only a Labour government would restore trust in politics. The podcast team, with guest Rachel Wearmouth of the New Statesman, review the Labour deputy leader’s big speech at the IfG – and examine whether she has come up with a workable plan.   Plus:   Simon says wh...

It's Evidence Week in the House of Commons and on Inside Briefing, we’re interrogating just how effective Parliament actually is at scrutinising and testing policy. We’re joined by Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science, the independent charity that promotes the public interest in sound science and evidence. We’ll also hear from former Chancellor Sajid Javid, whose big idea for a more effec...

Thames Water struggles to stay afloat. But who is to blame, will the taps dry up, and what solutions are there? ConservativeHome’s Henry Hill joins the podcast team to discuss the latest headache for the PM. And are there any good chaps left in politics anymore? Boris Johnson’s new job as a newspaper columnist has caused controversy – so perhaps it is time to overhaul the rules for jobs after gove...

The prime minister has been trying to fend off a barrage of bad economic news - but what can he actually do about stubbornly high inflation, rising interest rates, and a predicted surge in mortgage payments? The Guardian’s City Editor Anna Isaac joins the podcast team to see what options - if any - Sunak has available. Whatever the cause might be for the UK’s economic woes, don’t mention the ‘B’ w...

The Privileges Committee has delivered its verdict on Boris Johnson, with the former PM lashing out after the committee found he had lied to Parliament. Sam Freedman joins the podcast team to ask what the damning conclusions – and a recommended 90-day suspension from Parliament which Johnson has avoided by quitting as an MP – means for the former prime minister and the Conservative Party. Plus, fr...

As the Covid inquiry gets underway, the Financial Times’ Chris Cook joins the IfG podcast to examine whether public inquiries can actually make any difference – and look ahead to the potential twists and turns – and witnesses – that await inquiry chair Baroness Hallett and her team.   Rishi Sunak’s No10 predecessors are notably vocal, and a batch of former Labour leaders still have plenty to say....

Westminster watchers are used to the long tails of public inquiries. Baroness Hallett’s investigation of the pandemic will be no different, with hers due to take evidence until 2026.  Her first big hurdle is the cache of government WhatsApps that have long been withheld by Number 10. With a legal challenge looming, what do the messages contain that has pushed their publication to the deadline?  Fo...

It has been quite some week for the home secretary. From a row over her handling of a speeding ticket to a row over the latest release of net migration stats, Suella Braverman has hardly been out of the headlines. Sunday Times deputy political editor Harry Yorke, the journalist who broke the speeding story, joins the podcast team to pass judgment on Braverman’s performance.     Why does the Home O...

How does our system of government work? Why does it sometimes fail? And what can be done to fix it? Join the IfG podcast team – and political commentator and author Ian Dunt – for a journey through the corridors of power to discover where Westminster goes wrong. Are MPs doing the job their constituents need – and good government requires? Is No10 really the right building to house the centre of UK...

Does Rishi Sunak have a strategy for restoring the Conservatives' electoral prospects after the bruising local elections? Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation, joins the podcast team to make sense of the prime minister's battles over boats and bust-ups around Brexit. Meanwhile Westminster is abuzz about the possibility of no party winning a majority a...

Big wins for Labour. Big losses for the Conservatives. But just how much should we read into this week’s local election results? The Guardian’s Rafael Behr joins the podcast team to crunch the numbers and examine what the votes mean for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.    The Labour leader is reported to have delayed plans for shadow cabinet reshuffle until the autumn – but is that the right call? A...

Dominic Raab’s exit from government hasn’t drawn a line under the simmering tensions between ministers and civil servants. So have expectations of behaviour changed or has snowflakery broken out in Whitehall? The IfG podcast team asks what this all means for the future of the civil service. The Foreign Office is trying to manage another tricky evacuation of UK nationals from an increasingly danger...

Do you remember being told to stay at home? Or becoming very familiar with the word “furlough”? How about all those assurances that the Government was following the science? And were you persuaded when ministers urged you to Eat Out to Help Out? The Treasury was at the heart of the Government’s response to the pandemic, rapidly designing and rolling our policies designed to protect jobs, support p...