Westminster Insider

After a wild week in No.10 Downing Street, host Patrick Baker takes listeners on a podcast tour of the famous building to find out how the hell a cobbled-together Georgian townhouse is meant to run a modern state. Patrick asks how the rabbit warren layout influences those who govern the country, for better or worse. In one of his first interviews since stepping down, former Cabinet Secretary Simon...

Does anyone care about British farmers? Those ploughing the fields and harvesting crops certainly don't feel Westminster pays attention to them. So this week Westminster Insider finds out how the relationship between politics and farming – from post-Brexit trade deals to inheritance tax. She speaks to NFU President Tom Bradshaw about how Keir Starmer set up the promise of hope for farmers, before...

With Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party suffering some teething problems, host Patrick Baker delves into the art of starting a new political outfit. Corbyn himself speaks to POLITICO's Bethany Dawson at one of the many Your Party regional assemblies happening across the country. With tensions between Corbyn and co-leader Zarah Sultana simmering as the duo try to get their start up off the ground, Labour i...

Liz Truss is never far from the shores of the United States, hobnobbing with the folk seeking to "Make America Great Again." What does she think Britain can learn from the second Trump era? Anne McElvoy travels to Washington to talk to the former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss, who’s on a self-proclaimed “mission” to remake the U.K. in the image of MAGA-land. It’s exactly three years since...

It’s been a week where the politics of the Middle East and Britain’s relations with China have loomed large over Westminster. For all the backslapping and goodwill of Sharm el-Sheikh, will the ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners in Gaza pave the way for a political solution? What part could Britain play? And how will the row over the collapsed Chinese spy case play out at home as the...

With dire poll ratings and Reform UK in the ascendancy, Kemi Badenoch’s well-received speech at party conference provided a rare moment of optimism for the Conservatives. But where are they headed next? Host Patrick Baker has been behind-the-scenes of Conservative Party conference in Manchester, on a mission to find out. From the control center – A.K.A. the Politico Pub at the heart of the confere...

Host Sascha O'Sullivan goes behind-the-scenes of Labour Party conference in Liverpool, talking to senior politicians and advisors as she tries to hunt for Keir Starmer's ideology – once dubbed "Starmerism". She tracks down Andy Burnham as the threat of a leadership challenge from the Manchester Mayor fades into the distance. And she speaks to Lucy Powell as she runs to be deputy leader of the Labo...

Four and a half thousand miles away in Nepal, Gen Z protestors recently brought down their government in just 48 hours, amid roiling anger over corruption and nepotism. The uprising, led by online influencers harnessing the power of AI and Tik Tok, has sent shockwaves through South Asia. So, this week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker decides it’s time to look at U.K. politics through the...

Just this week, Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, has made a fresh effort to remove migrants arriving from the English Channel with the Government's one-in-one-out agreement with France. So this week on Westminster Insider, host Sascha O'Sullivan finds out why it's so hard – and who is really in control. She speaks to former Home Secretary James Cleverly who explains the thinking behind the con...

U.S. President Donald Trump is in town next week for an unprecedented second state visit to the U.K.  The sacking of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s Ambassador to Washington, following the revelations about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, could not have provided a more awkward backdrop for the visit.  Shorn of his “Trump whisperer,” and badly bruised by recent events, the prime m...

Zack Polanski, the self-confessed eco-populist, won the leadership of the Green Party in a landslide this week. So Westminster Insider Host Sascha O'Sullivan finds out why the Green Party have often struggled to be taken seriously in SW1. Sascha speaks to the man himself – Polanski – who tells her he is a vegan, who doesn't drive and wants to tell "similar stories as Nigel Farage" but his will be...

With a very busy autumn of politics just around the corner, many in the government are looking at the polls and wondering how they turn their fortunes around. This week, host Patrick Baker explores how Labour might use the coming months to try and reset the narrative. Speaking for the first time since he left Number 10, Ravinder Atwhal, Labour’s former head of policy and author of its election-win...

From Glastonbury performers to classical music buffs, Westminster has always been packed full of music obsessives. But the music industry has not always been so obsessed with politicians. Who could forget Stormzy calling out Theresa May over Grenfell or Elton John calling Keir Starmer's government "absolute losers"? So this week on Westminster Insider, host Sascha O'Sullivan finds out what how imp...

Reform UK has claimed its biggest scalp so far with Sir Jake Berry, close friend and ally of Boris Johnson and former Conservative Cabinet minister, joining its ranks. Can Reform break the mould of British politics and vie for power at the next election? In this week's episode of Westminster Insider: Summer Interviews, Anne McElvoy talks to MP Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform. He led the part...

Keir Starmer's authority is under question following a humiliating series of U-turns and a restless parliamentary Labour Party. In this Westminster Insider interview, host Anne McElvoy talks to Maurice Glasman, the Labour peer, who’s seen as the godfather of "Blue Labour" and an influential voice within the Labour movement — with connections to the Trump administration in the U.S. Glasman argues t...

Even as Keir Starmer faces the threat of all-out rebellion over his welfare bill, Westminster can feel the summer recess approaching. So six months into the year and with the anniversary of Labour's electoral victory approaching, host Sascha O'Sullivan enrols a host of experts to give their view on the government's progress on the 'milestones' set out by the Prime Minister last year. Harry Quilter...

This week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker takes a pint-fueled tour through some of Westminster's best-known watering holes in his bid to find out what makes the best political boozer. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage explains why the Westminster Arms is his favorite pub and why his longtime friend, Gerry Dolan, its former landlord, is behind the pub's popularity. Dolan himself recounts how...

In the midst of spending reviews, rows of migration and fights about water bosses' bonuses, everyone could do with a laugh. So this week on Westminster Insider, host Sascha O'Sullivan speaks to a coterie of comedians and satirists in SW1 to find out: what's the point of political satire? Legendary co-creator of Yes, Minister Jonathan Lynn explains how a show designed to make people have a laugh at...

As Reform UK sends its Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team into its new councils to assess "wasteful spending", host Patrick Baker takes a trip to Durham to speak to the county council’s new deputy leader, the former Brexit activist and GB News broadcaster, Darren Grimes, about what Reform's DOGE plans might mean for the local area. And in Westminster a whole host of co...

Host Sascha O'Sullivan goes for lunch with Jo Coburn as she leaves her position as presenter of Politics Live, the BBC's lunchtime political programme. Over a carafe of Picpoul de Pinet, Coburn tells Sascha about keeping calm amid the din of politicians rowing with one another live on air. She discusses the most poignant episodes – and the rowdiest. And Coburn reflects on 28 years at the BBC and h...

With tensions simmering in Keir Starmer’s top team over Labour’s approach to the economy, this week host Patrick Baker looks at what the PM might be able to learn about managing your ministers from past Cabinets and examines Starmer's own leadership style. David Owen, former foreign secretary under Jim Callaghan, recounts the IMF crisis in 1976 as an example of Cabinet government at its most effec...

With Nigel Farage's Reform UK muscling in to key parts of the country, Westminster Insider Host Sascha O'Sullivan speaks to politicians through the North of England, where Labour has an uphill battle to convince their heartlands they can be trusted. Sascha speaks to Labour MP Josh Simons, whose seat of Makerfield had one of the highest proportion of votes for Reform without actually voting in one...

Politicians of all stripes will tell you that the slog of breakfast time interviews constitutes the morning ritual from hell. So this week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker speaks to those who’ve spent more time than anyone trying to master the art form that is the “morning round” — and is given an exclusive broadcasting lesson from Scarlett MccGwire, a media trainer currently working wit...

With Ukraine and Russia in the throes of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire, Westminster Insider Host Sascha O’Sullivan talks to some of the leading figures on the frontline of the war with Russia. She speaks to Finnish Minister for Nordic Co-Operation Anders Adlercreutz, who told her Finland has never stopped buying tanks and building bomb shelters, for fear of a Russian invasion, and builds res...

With the stench of rebellion hanging around the tearooms of SW1 after ministers announced fresh welfare cuts, this week host Patrick Baker explores the backbench revolts of years past, asking how disobedient MPs really plan and plot against their own parties. Veteran Tory MP David Davis describes how he and other rebels defeated David Cameron's plans to bomb Syria almost by accident — and offers t...