The Politics Show

This is a deeply personal, deeply divisive issue; and today a private members bill to permit assisted dying in the UK is being presented to the House of Commons.  Politicians will have a free vote on the issue later this year. The New Statesman this week asks whether the UK and its care system is ready for such a law.  In this episode we speak to those who've lost loved ones and are left...

The NHS is facing the most difficult period in its history. Just days into office, the new government declared the official position of the Department for Health and Social Care is that the NHS is “broken”.   While there’s evidence NHS productivity has been growing at a faster rate than other public sectors over the last decade, major barriers still remain. The latest Office for National Stat...

Andrew Marr sits down for an exclusive interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And later on in the episode the team discuss what we might have missed from Labour's first 100 days in power. Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter:  Morning Call   Submit a question for a future episode:  You Ask Us LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM TH...

Power shifts inside Number 10, a Tory leadership shock twist, and Sturgeon reviews Johnson’s book. **follow in your podcast app so you never miss an episode** Keir Starmer has made changes at the top of his Number 10 team. Sue Gray has been ousted as chief of staff and replaced by the Labour campaign supremo Morgan McSweeney.  George Eaton and Rachel Cunliffe join Hannah Barnes to explore wha...

Right now the Republic National Committee is involved in around 120 legal cases across the US connected to the upcoming 2024 elections. It's predicted that we won't know the results of the election for days after the vote. And when we do it might very well be challenged. This is set to be the most litigious election in US history. So what does this mean practically? And is the scene being set for...

"If we don't like it, we should demand it changes," one listener writes in. Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Andrew Marr and George Eaton to answer listener questions, including if Andrew stands by his comments from February that Starmer would be radical, and whether Lebanon has a right to self-defence. Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter:  Morning Call   Submit a questi...

And why is democracy a low priority for American voters? Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Andrew Marr, George Eaton, and Katie Stallard. Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter:  Morning Call   Submit a question for a future episode:  You Ask Us LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every F...

On the 7th October Sharone Lifschitz's parents were taken as hostages by Hamas. One year later her father, along with almost 100 other hostages, have not returned and the entire region stands at a crossroads. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced by the ensuing conflict as Israel have conducted air strikes, first on Gaza, currently on Lebanon and Yemen. How did this conflict es...

In a 2022 poll, a majority of Americans said they believe their government was corrupt and rigged, and more than a quarter believed it might soon be necessary to take up arms against it. Conspiracy theories have ripped across America’s political landscape for decades, but in the last 10 years the divide between fact and fiction has become almost indistinguishable at times. So how did we get here?...

"A very dark speech, very serious, very closely argued, but there was passion there, but the passion was anger" - Andrew Marr reacts after Keir Starmer's speech at Labour party conference, the first Labour prime minister to do so in 15 years. We also hear from David Blunkett, Wes Streeting MP, Baroness Taylor, and Henry Tufnell MP, on the key takeaways from the party's time in Liverpool. LISTEN AD...

We're coming to you from Liverpool where Rachel Reeves has just delivered her keynote speech at this year's Labour Party Conference. There were lots of smiles in the Chancellor's speech as well as the commitment to the tough economic decisions that she has to make, but has she managed to turn the page on Labour's rough beginning in government? Hannah Barnes hears from Andrew Marr, Rachel Cunliffe,...

Labour Party Conference is just around the corner and the party needs to tell a story about the bigger picture for their time in government, but could this get lost amongst the smaller stories cropping up around free clothes and the chief of staff's pay? Hannah Barnes, associate editor, is joined in the studio by Andrew Marr, political editor, and George Eaton, senior editor. Sign up to the New St...

Conference season is underway and Ed Davey sat down with the New Statesman's Rachel Cunliffe to set out his party's ambitions to become the party of opposition. We also hear from Wes Streeting and the political battle for NHS reform. Hannah Barnes is joined in the studio by Andrew Marr, political editor, and Rachel Cunliffe, associate political editor. Ed Davey: “The Conservatives are in our sight...

Will Dunn meets the political pranksters who sent Liz Truss fleeing in rage. **Follow on your podcast app to get new episodes as soon as they're released** From films detailing Conservative hypocrisy projected on Parliament buildings, to remote-controlled lettuce banners unfurling over the head of the former Prime Minister, Led By Donkeys have been a regular fixture of political activism over the...

Freddie Hayward rejoins the podcast in his new role as US correspondent to answer listener questions on the weird world of US politics.  **Hit 'follow' on your podcast app to get new episodes first** He speaks to Hannah Barnes and Rachel Cunliffe to discuss how Keir Starmer’s commitment to “tough choices” compares with the Kamala Harris campaign, and how US election campaigns use the vast amo...

“She’s done an awful lot of damage to morale,” says Andrew Marr. Hit “Follow” in your podcast app to get new episodes as soon as they publish Chancellor Rachel Reeves secured a victory in Parliament for her proposed changes to the Winter Fuel allowance.  But the move has divided the Labour party, angered voters, and possibly tarnished Keir Starmer’s authority. Is this a sign Rachel Reeves “is...

“We cannot know what sort of human beings will emerge from this.” Following Hamas’s deadly attack on 7 October 2023, Israel’s military response has been described as “inevitable”. Eleven months on, the scope and ferocity of that military response has stunned the world.  In this episode of the podcast we speak to four of the writers who contributed to the New Statesman essay collection Losing...

The former Labour leader’s new coalition could be “a real force” in Parliament, says Andrew Marr. **Hit ‘Follow’ in your podcast app to get every episode as soon as it drops** Jeremy Corbyn has formed a new “Independent Alliance” of MPs, united around opposition to the Gaza war. Answering a listener question on this “You Ask Us” episode, Andrew Marr says Corbyn could well attract more Labour MPs t...

The Grenfell report is damning. Will there finally be justice for Grenfell? -- After seven long years the Grenfell Inquiry has published its damning verdict: the 72 deaths caused by the Grenfell Tower fire were completely avoidable. The 1500-page report names and shames companies and government bodies who’s choices and actions led to the deaths. In this episode, Andrew Marr and Rachel Cunliffe joi...

Noel and Liam Gallagher have managed the impossible. They've apparently buried the hatchet and announced that Oasis is coming back in 2025. Is this the return of Cool Britannia? Rachel Cunliffe, associate editor, is joined by George Eaton, senior editor, to answer listener questions about ex-MP's jobs, SPADs, and the politics of Britpop. Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter:&nb...

On Tuesday morning Keir Starmer addressed the nation and warned that Labour’s first Budget “is going to be painful”, suggesting that tax rises are on the way.  While the prime minister stressed that those with the “broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden”, he warned that he won’t “shy away from making unpopular decisions”, raising the question of whether Labour is bringing back aust...

A listener asks: will Keir Starmer and the Labour government attempt to change the conversation around immigration, or continue with a more hawkish stance in an attempt to win over reform voters? Hannah Barnes and George Eaton discuss in our latest listener questions episode. They also answer questions on how the electorate might change by the next election and whether voting reform will have an i...

Labour have agreed pay deals with NHS staff, public service workers and now train drivers - but they've handed the conservatives an effective attack line. Are Labour really beholden to "union paymasters"? And can they sustain pay rises while cutting the winter fuel allowance? Hannah Barnes and George Eaton discuss on the New Statesman podcast. Also in this episode, Hannah and George look at the cr...

And should Starmer be trying to befriend Elon Musk? Hannah Barnes, associate editor, is joined by senior editor George Eaton to answer this week's listener questions. Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter:  Morning Call Submit a question for a future episode:  You Ask Us LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question –...

The unrest and violence which gripped the country last week after the killing of three young girls seems to have halted for the time being. A brief sigh of relief. But this doesn’t mean that the anger -  which was unleashed on asylum seekers, police, mosques, and local communities - or what may lie beneath it, has gone away. The prime minister promised that rioters would feel ‘the full force...