The News Agents

European leaders have met in Downing Street once again to discuss peace plans for Ukraine, following Trump's latest proposal - but once again it seems Zelenskyy has wound Trump up, leaving America and Europe at odds. And another document from the Trump administration illustrates an even deeper division. The 33 page National Security Strategy says Europe is facing "civilisational erasure" and says...

While China is an engineering state, tech analyst Dan Wang says the America and the West are "lawyerly societies", reflexively blocking everything - good and bad - and it's halting real progress. Dan joins Lewis in the studio this Friday to discuss why Europe stopped building, how lawyers contribute to a slow in progress, and what all this means for wider geopolitivs and the rise of the...

Six-time Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy joins Gabby and Mark after his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis at just 47 years old. What more does Chris think the government should be doing to help? How has his sporting background helped him? And why is he excited for the Darts World Championship? And we bring you the best bits from The Sports Agents this week from President Trump meddling in...

Reform's Deputy Leader, Richard Tice, popped up on the BBC today and appeared to dismiss the antisemitism claims of Jewish men who’d been at school with Nigel Farage as “politically motivated…made up twaddle“. Hours later, Farage exploded at a BBC reporter during a press conference, demanding an apology for what he said was "despicable" coverage of the antisemitism row by the BBC. Farage has previ...

Today's episode is an exclusive interview with David Lammy - Justice Secretary, Deputy Prime Minister and former Foreign Secretary. Is he prepared to ignore the internal Labour criticism of his jury plans? Does he admit the budget was a fiasco? And what is going on with Labour and Brexit right now. Are we about to see a change of plan? The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsb...

In the sane world of the commons, the Shadow Justice Secretary was only two minutes into his speech before he called the justice secretary a “Lammy Dodger“ and accused him of going back on his previous position on jury trial. Today’s question is this does ending most jury trials speed up a sclerotic system? Or is it the wrong solution for the right diagnosis? Later, is public sympathy with the str...

Rachel Reeves is accused of misleading the public, lying and “possible market abuse” by the opposition. They’ve called for her resignation. The Prime Minister, however, is standing by her and told us today the budget was a thing of “personal pride” for him.  Meanwhile the OBR - the body that accidentally leaked the Chancellors budget an hour before it was given - have admitted this evening it...

Salman Rushdie has spent half of his life under the threat of death, but it is only in his latest novel - The Eleventh Hour - that he has devoted a whole book to the themes of mortality. It is his first return to fiction since an attempt on his life on 2022. This Friday, Rushdie joins Lewis and Jon in the studio to discuss his new book, political violence, and the "cowardice" of the BBC. The News...

Can other sports teach football a thing or two? On today's show Gabby and Mark take your suggestions on how to fix football, using your passion for a massive range of sports. Plus, we look back at The Sports Agents this week: a huge interview with McLaren CEO Zak Brown as Lando Norris could win them the world title this weekend; and we talk about the elephant in the room at struggling Liverpool -...

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been out defending their Budget - denying that the tax-raising measures contained within it break the Labour manifesto's promises around taxes on working people. Instead they have been trying to focus on the additional money for the NHS, lifting children out of poverty, and raises to the minimum wage. Yesterday's package of measures amounts to a fundamental shif...

This time last year, Rachel Reeves pledged that her tax raising Budget “wiped the slate clean” and would mean no more need for future tax raids. Today demonstrably proved what a hostage to fortune those comments were. As a result of the Chancellor’s statement today - shambolically accidentally leaked by the OBR before she had got to her feet - the tax burden is due to reach an all time high by the...

Just a day after BBC bosses were in front of MPs to address impartiality concerns, and there's a fresh impartiality headache for the beleaguered broadcaster. Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, who'd been asked to give the prestigious Reith Lecture, today revealed that the BBC had removed a “key line” from his address. Bregman's claim that President Trump is “the most openly corrupt president in Ameri...

The leak of a 28 point peace plan over the weekend - reportedly agreed between Washington and Moscow - sent shivers down the spine of European leaders and Ukraine's soldiers. The proposals would force Ukraine to hand over swathes of territory to Vladimir Putin, limit the size of its army, and rule out any future membership of NATO. The package was seen as so favourable to the Kremlin that many que...

Ken Clarke is perhaps the archetypal political Big Beast. Elected to parliament 55 years ago, he held cabinet roles under Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron - tipped many times for No 10, and yet never quite hardline enough on Europe to convince his Tory peers that he should be their leader. Ahead of what looks certain to be an existential Budget for Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer, Le...

Only three days after launching, Sky had to take down its TikTok channel for female sports fans. Branded as the "lil-sis" of Sky Sports, it was complete with pink hearts and Barbies. But were they on to something? How do we get more young women hooked on sport? The person who figures that out has hit a goldmine. To try to strike gold, Gabby chats to Chris Paouros , Vice-Chair of the Football Suppo...

The Prime Minister has called on Nigel Farage to explain the reports of racist comments the reform leader allegedly made as a school boy. Farage has denied making the comments and called the allegations “without foundation“. The Guardian reported this week that he had picked on Jewish boys at Dulwich college when he was there at school and had sung offensive racist songs. Much of their reporting h...

Backbench Labour MP Clive Lewis took to a TV studio to offer up his own Norwich seat to allow Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham a path back into Parliament and make a bid for No 10. He said his party felt "in checkmate" and that it was time to put "country before party, party before personal ambition". Is a change of leadership now a “when not if “question? Is Lewis a lone wolf? Or are the vul...

Parliament is not usually the place where you hear racist language. But yesterday, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood repeated a racist slur that she has often been subjected to. Was she right to use this language to illustrate her point? And was she using it to justify her latest asylum policies? Later, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi joins us to talk about the Epstein files and the mounting pressure on...

The Home Secretary is putting her new hardline immigration plans before parliament - saying if Labour doesn’t do something drastic then worse will come. The new policy includes returning asylum seekers to their home country once it’s deemed safe. And quadrupling the amount of time they will have to spend in the UK before earning indefinite leave to remain. Some Labour MPs are already queuing up to...

It’s been a chaotic week for Labour, with rumours of internal plots and Downing Street briefing wars. As questions swirl around Keir Starmer’s leadership, and with Rachel Reeves facing mounting pressure to steady the party’s economic footing, Labour’s internal tensions are threatening to boil over. Lord Blunkett joins Jon in the studio to dissect what is going on inside Labour, how Starmer might g...

Never write off a born racer: Sir Mark Cavendish had won 30 stages of the world's biggest cycling race, The Tour de France (even winning one makes a riders career) but he'd been out of the game for 5 years - so no one would give him a job. What happened next was one of the biggest comebacks of all time to put him among the sporting greats. Sir Mark Cavendish joins us on today's show - how did it f...

23,000 pages of documents from the “Epstein files” have been released by Congress. They reveal damning details, and suggest that Epstein and Trump were in contact long after the President has previously said. In the emails Epstein said of Trump: "I am the one able to take him down". So are Trump's connections to Epstein finally catching up to him? And do these emails really have the power to take...

Late last night came a crisis response from Downing Street responding to a story no one had even heard. The suggestion was a plot - to unseat the prime minister - supposedly by the Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Streeting vehemently denied the plot. But a briefing went out from Downing Street suggesting Starmer was ready for the fight. What on earth is going on? Later, Jon speaks to Christine Fla...

The BBC has been set a deadline of Friday by Donald Trump's lawyer to apologise and "appropriately compensate" the US President for a Panorama edit of his January 6th speech. If the broadcaster doesn't respond, the threat of a $1bn lawsuit looms. The outgoing head of the BBC Tim Davie today told staff to "fight for our journalism" - but it's not yet clear how it will respond to the unprecedented t...

Over the last 48 hours, The News Agents have spoken to more than 30 people - insiders at the BBC - to try and work out the facts of what actually happened inside the corporation, and when. Both the Director General and the CEO of News resigned over the weekend, so why are some talking about a “right wing coup“? Why did the apology take so long to arrive? And why is Trump now threatening the state...