The News Agents

When the Winter Paralympics get underway this weekend in Italy history will be made. Davy Zyw was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 30 and given 18 months to live… but he’s now 38 and he’s going to be the first person to compete at a Winter Paralympics with MND. Defying his degenerating body, Davy will compete on the board for ParalympicsGB, with his five-year-old son watching on....

Much of the coverage of the Iran conflict this week has been trying to understand the British government’s position on America’s strikes. On Friday, Keir Starmer said that the UK would not allow American fighter jets headed for Iran to use British bases. And yet by Sunday, that position had changed. Why? New reporting today may shed some light on that. Tim Shipman at the Spectator claims that Keir...

Trump is furious with Starmer over his delay in granting the US access to UK bases as part of their military operation against Iran . He's called the UK "very uncooperative" and says Starmer has ruined relationships, even going so far as to say "this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with." So where does this leave Starmer now? Is it really a fatal blow to the 'special relationship' or c...

You might think, just days into a major conflict in the Middle East, that Donald Trump and Keir Starmer would be speaking regularly, supporting each other, and coordinating among allies. That's how it normally works in the 'Special Relationship' right? Instead, Trump has taken to The Sun to blast the Prime Minister as "not helpful", accusing him of imperilling the transatlantic alliance, and sugge...

Keir Starmer has agreed to a US request to use British military bases for "defensive" strikes on Iranian missile sites. But the Prime Minister said the UK has learned lessons from the "mistakes of Iraq", and was not involved in the strikes on Iran. So why are we letting the US bomb Iran from our bases if we can’t say whether we support the war or not? The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK -...

Iranian state television confirmed this morning that the country's supreme leader had been killed by joint US-Israeli strikes. President Trump addressed the world from his beach resort Mar-a-Lago to declare that "freedom is at hand" for Iran, urging citizens there to rise up against their repressive government. It’s potentially a pivotal moment in the Middle East as we wait to see if a brutal regi...

For all Labour's insistence that the Gorton and Denton by-election was a straight fight between them and Reform - the Greens demonstrated in Greater Manchester that they are now a fighting force on the radical Left of British politics, who present a new kind of challenge to Keir Starmer. Hannah Spencer won convincingly, with Labour floundering in third place. Starmer visited the constituency earli...

The recent killing of Mexican drug lord ‘El Mencho’ has caused unrest and cartel violence across the country. Guadalajara - one of Mexico’s host cities in this summer’s World Cup - was one of the worst affected. So what state are we left in, just months away from the tournament? Should fans be worried about the threat of cartel violence? And with ICE and President Trump ever present in the U.S. -...

The Royal family is no stranger to headlines, scandal and existential crisis. But with the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the mood has shifted leaving the future of the Royals more uncertain than ever before. Can the British monarchy be reformed? Or is this the beginning of the end for the Royal family? The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/ Download SAILY in...

In a dramatic statement to MPs this morning, Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle revealed that he had felt "duty-bound" to report to the police what he had heard on a recent trip to the British Virgin Islands - that Peter Mandelson was due to head to the island. It was that tip off which led to Mandelson being arrested and questioned by the Met on Monday, and an allegation that has been called "base...

Late yesterday afternoon Peter Mandelson was led from his London house by two plain clothes police officers with very visible body cameras into an unmarked police car. In the bland euphemism that followed a Met statement told us a 72 year old man had been arrested in Camden. Today we discuss what this move does to Starmer, his party, and the wider reputation of New Labour. And we have insight into...

Trump is not a happy bunny. It all started on Friday when the Supreme Court declared his tariffs - the backbone of his economic policy - illegal. By this morning it was worse. He’s stomping around threatening the Supreme Court with a lower-case, no caps name (seriously) and warning his tariffs policy is about to get "more obnoxious". Has the ruling delivered a fatal blow to his authority? Can lead...

The tentacles of Epstein’s billionaire paedophile ring crossed continents, age, political persuasion and profession. That much is all clear from the files. But what we are still piecing together is how Epstein made his millions in the first place. Was it endowed? Stolen? Invested? Or blackmail? This Friday, Jon and Emily speak to American journalist, Anand Giridharadas, about the 'Epstein class' a...

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to represent their countries at the upcoming Winter Paralympics. For the first time since 2014, since Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme and the war with Ukraine, we will see the Russian flag and potentially hear the anthem. Ukrainian officials are boycotting, but FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, has also recently said he wants to lift footba...

A man in his sixties has been arrested in Norfolk. The mundanity of the police statement belies the monumental significance of what just happened. The eighth in line to the crown, the former Prince Andrew, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew has denied any wrongdoing. The arrest centres around the alleged exchange of confidential emails between him and Epstein in...

Prince William gave an interview to BBC Radio 1 to talk about men’s mental health and the importance of speaking out. It’s a vital topic - and it affects millions of people. What was noticeable, however, was that in the course of the hour long discussion there was not a single mention of the man at the centre of our national discourse - and of his own family - Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Is it sti...

Today we have an exclusive investigation into the relationship between the Metropolitan Police Royal Protection officers and the royals they served. Did things become too cosy? Were they encouraged to ignore wrong doing? And why did none of them want to work for Prince Andrew? LBC crime correspondent and The Crime Agents host, Andy Hughes, has a story from inside the force. And later, we speak to...

The Prime Minister has called for an investigation by the Cabinet Office into the campaign group Labour Together which helped get him into power. The think tank is accused of having dug up dirt on journalists investigating its use of political donations. Who signed off the dark arts smear campaign? And why are we just hearing about it now? Later, is Trump’s attorney General part of that Epstein co...

It has been a dizzying week in UK politics since the publication of the latest of the Epstein files, and the revelations of his links to Westminster. But as the politics took over, it is the voice of survivors that is the centre of this story. This Friday Lewis is joined by Natalie Fleet, Labour MP for Bolsover, to discuss the politics of the last week, finding a voice for the women and victims of...

What a week we’ve had here on The Sports Agents, from penis-gate, to Winter Olympics heartbreak and Premier League managers getting sacked. This weekend sees Scotland host the Auld enemy at Murrayfield as they take on England for the Calcutta Cup . Love might not be in the air north of the border, but there were remnants in the studio - as Gabby welcomed her husband and former Scottish winger Kenn...

Jim Ratcliffe, the part owner of Manchester United, multi-billionaire and Monaco based non dom, has taken the government to task for allowing immigrants to “colonise“ the U.K. Does he realise he’s using a far right trope? Have we become immune to racism in the immigration debate? And why did a successful businessman not even check his facts on the numbers? Later - why has a foreign office civil se...

Keir Starmer came away from a bruising Prime Minister's Questions encounter having to explain why he appeared to make the same mistake twice. No sooner had the fallout from the Mandelson appointment settled (briefly) than the question of why he’d sent another friend of a paedo to the House of Lords. This time it’s his former comms director Matthew Doyle who admitted his error of judgment in campai...

What was the moment of maximum jeopardy for the Prime Minister on Monday? And how did he turn it around? Was there more than one plotter? And what brought the party back from the brink? We dissect what we know about the coup that went wrong. Later, why is Congress talking about the perilous state of our monarchy? And is the King doing enough to set the Andrew Mountbatten record straight? The News...

Another head spinning day in Westminster. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to stand down as Prime Minister, saying "the distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change." Many Cabinet Ministers were quick to jump to Starmer's defence. Some were notably slow to back the Prime Minister. With the drama coming just a day after Starmer lost his right-hand-...

Imagine a loan where the Government sets the terms. It can change the terms at any time, and you have no recourse to alter them yourself. A loan designed so most people never clear it, but pay for it anyway. Not because they failed, but because that’s how it was built. This is the system successive British governments have built. In this episode of The News Agents, we examine the relations of our...