The Expert Factor

Back by popular demand, Hannah White, Paul Johnson and Anand Menon reunited on stage to record a special live episode of The Expert Factor – the podcast for people who haven’t had enough of experts.     Nine years to the day since the UK voted to leave the EU, as the directors of three of the UK’s leading think tanks – the Institute for Government, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and UK in a Chan...

A week is a long time in politics, but it is even longer in international relations. Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House, joins Paul and Anand to work out what the complex combination of Trump, tariffs and trade negotiations means for Keir Starmer and the UK.   What will Donald Trump’s tariffs mean for the US’s closest trading partners – and the EU and the...

To mark the fifth anniversary of the UK’s departure from the EU, Anand, Paul and Hannah took a trip to Oxford of the Expert Factor. So how has the Brexit worked out for the UK? What questions are still being asked – and unanswered? And how might Keir Starmer and the Labour government approach the UK’s ever-evolving relationship with the EU? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

The robots are taking our jobs, we’re going to be a nation run by chatbots, and an all-seeing, all-powerful computer is set to know everything about all of us. Well, not really.   But Keir Starmer says AI is poised to generate “incredible change in our country” So what exactly is he talking about?  Helen Margetts, professor of Society and the Internet at the University of Oxford and director of th...

Why is the social care challenge so complicated? Why can’t the nation’s politicians find a way forward? What is a possible solution? And what could Baroness Casey do to succeed when nobody else has managed to do so?   This week’s Expert Factor sees Hannah and Paul joined by Andrew Dilnot, who chaired the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, to explore three decades of disagreement and delay,...

We’ve had missions. We’ve got foundations. We had some first steps. And now we have milestones.   So what are they? Are targets a sensible way to go about governing? How do they change the way civil servants work? Whose heads roll if targets aren’t met? And has Keir Starmer even chosen the type of targets that the voters care about.   Anand, Paul and Hannah have read every word (probably) in Keir...

With the assisted dying bill dominating discussions and debates in Westminster, former House of Commons clerk David Natzler joins Hannah and Paul to explain how private members’ bills work – and why they sometimes don’t.   The bill to legislate for assisted dying isn’t a government bill. It hasn’t emerged from a Whitehall department. And it isn’t being steered through parliament by a minister. It...

What does Donald Trump’s plan to make America great again mean for everyone else? What do tariffs actually achieve and who feels the pain or reaps the benefits? Will Trump’s America First vision push the UK towards the EU? Could the UK’s defence spending rise - and what might that mean for public services? Is there any chance of a US/UK trade deal happening? And does the US result tell us what vot...

It is nearly a week since Rachel Reeves set out her Halloween Budget – the first from a Labour government in 14 years. So who are the winners? Who are the losers? Do the numbers add up? How big are the numbers? And have manifesto promises been broken along the way?   Former Treasury special adviser Sonia Khan joins Paul and Anand to crunch the budget sums, dig into the chancellor’s plans and strat...

Remember the days when Keir Starmer used to campaign for a second Brexit referendum? Since the general election we hear rather more about the Labour government wanting to reset the UK’s relations with the EU.   So have there been any substantial changes in the relationship so far? How likely is it that the government will be able to successfully negotiate on any trade barriers? What about Labour's...

Nobody wants to be in debt? To find themselves owing money? Or to end up paying back high levels of interest? But it has been reported that Rachel Reeves is looking to adjust the government’s rules to allow her to borrow more. So what’s the chancellor thinking? How can the government borrow more? What can it spend money on if it borrows more? If the rules are so quick to change then why doesn’t ev...

How does power work in government? Where does power really sit in government? And how can power best be given away from government?   The Expert Factor team aren’t exactly known for being 24-hour festival people – but when it comes to a festival about policy they are properly in the mood.   And in this special recording for this year’s Policy Festival, Hannah, Anand and Paul explore how policy is...

Hannah, Paul and Anand – with some snazzy new remote podcast recording equipment – met up at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to record a special episode of the Expert Factor. So what is the mood? How does it compare to Labour’s get together in Liverpool? Has the Conservative party reflected on its historic defeat and considered how it might govern differently? And are there any ann...

How many people claim benefits in this country? Who should be allowed to claim benefits? How much money does the government spend on benefits?   Questions about benefits are back on the agenda. The row over cutting the winter fuel allowance is ongoing. Keir Starmer is insisting that most people who claim benefits should be looking for work. And the government is planning to legislate to stop benef...

How angry should people be about Keir Starmer’s free gift list? How does a confusing set of rules governing standards and ethics in public life actually work? Whatever happened to Labour's grand plans for reform? And what can the PM due to reset the narrative? The IfG’s standards expert Tim Durrant joins Hannah and Anand to get beyond the row over Keir Starmer’s new suits and Arsenal tickets and e...

What exactly is a National Wealth Fund? Lots of other countries have one - or something similar. In fact, there are 179 of them - holding up to $12.4 trillion in assets.   And now the Labour government is going to set one up too. So how do they work? Where does the money come from? Where does the money go? What are the opportunities? And what are the risks? And how might Rachel Reeves’ wealth fund...

Parliament has returned. MPs are back in Westminster. And the government is gearing up for a busy autumn, with the budget and some big legislation in parliament coming down the track. The Conservative party is battling through a leadership contest. The party conference season is almost upon us. And there’s a rather important election taking place in the US.   So what do we need to look out for? Wh...

Are the right people making the right decisions about your future? How do politicians really know what you are thinking about the big questions facing the country? And is a tick in a box once every half a decade really a good enough way to tell our politicians what you want them to do?   Polly Curtis, CEO of the think tank Demos, joins Hannah and Anand to dive into the world of citizens' juries, c...

The country is reeling from the worst civil unrest in the UK since the London riots of 2011. So why did violence break out across England in recent weeks? How well has the Government handled it? What can be done about disinformation on social media? And should we be thinking about the root causes of dissatisfaction? Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown Prosecutor and Chief Executive of the country’s Po...

One of the Labour government’s big missions is to deliver clean power by 2030 – so what is its plan for getting there? Nick Butler, a top energy consultant and economist, joins Hannah, Paul and Anand to explain what the government is trying to do, who is going to pay for it, and examine whether it will actually work. What exactly is GB Energy? How does the Crown Estate fit into the plans? Is onsho...

Rachel Reeves has accused the previous government of leaving a £22 billion shortfall in public finances. But do the chancellor’s sums add up or was this all about the politics? Anand, Hannah and Paul examine what could be a defining moment for this government, explore what Reeves is trying to do, and try to make sense of some of the decisions - like scrapping road and hospital building projects, r...

The general election was less than a month ago, but Keir Starmer has already had to deal with an assassination attempt in the United States, a NATO summit, and hosting the European Political Community at Blenheim. And there are more challenges ahead. The US election. The question of how to deal with China. And, of course, Gaza and Ukraine will continue to dominate the headlines. So how clear a pla...

Within days of winning the general election, Keir Starmer has had to respond to what is undoubtedly a crisis – perhaps even an emergency – in prisons across England and Wales.  The equation is a simple one. Too many prisoners, not enough prison places. More prisons are being planned. But even this won’t keep track of the expected rise in prisoner numbers. So how on earth was this allowed to happen...

It’s not even a week since the British electorate voted to hand power back to Labour. Keir Starmer now leads a government with a huge majority. Rishi Sunak is still – just – leading a massively reduced Conservative opposition. The Liberal Democrats have reclaimed their status as Parliament’s third largest party. The SNP had a terrible night. Reform have established a foothold in Westminster too. B...

Whoever wins the general election – and right now it looks set to be Labour – is going to inherit a particularly stacked and complicated in-tray. And most complicated of all might just be housing. It’s a problem that so many people are facing – and it’s a problem that successive governments have completely failed to solve. There aren’t enough houses. There aren’t enough houses being built. Houses...