With just three weeks to go until the Budget, Rachel Reeves gave a surprise speech to reset expectations on who she’s planning to hit with more taxes on November 26. This has fuelled further speculation about whether the government's central manifesto pledge to not raise income tax rates is now doomed. Host Miranda Green is joined by FT colleagues Jim Pickard, Sam Fleming and Katie Martin to discuss the chancellor’s options: a pick’n’mix of tax rises or breaking a central pledge to the electorat...
Nov 07, 2025•35 min
With a month to go until the Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves needs to find a projected £30bn to balance the books. And the forecasts are not in her favour, with the OBR’s bigger than expected productivity downgrade dealing another blow to the Treasury this week. So where will the chancellor find the money – and if Labour have no choice but to break their manifesto tax pledge, where will that leave them with the electorate? Host George Parker is joined by associate editor and columnist Stephen B...
Oct 31, 2025•34 min
Chancellor Rachel Reeves received a rare bit of good news from lower inflation statistics this week, which could reduce government borrowing ahead of the November Budget. But the uphill struggle to improve Labour’s standing in the polls continues after a drubbing in Caerphilly, the embarrassing failure of the one-in-one-out migrant policy and the chaotic start to the grooming gang inquiry. Host George Parker is on hand to dissect the week along with deputy political editor Jim Pickard, UK chief ...
Oct 24, 2025•29 min
The countdown is on: Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just six weeks to finalise her Autumn Budget before the November 26 deadline. This week, she was in Washington DC for the annual meeting of the IMF, where she hinted at tax rises for the rich, while pinning some blame for Britain’s economic problems on her predecessors. The British public are not likely to love the chancellor’s efforts to fill the projected £22bn hole, but who will they hold responsible? Host George Parker is joined by deputy opi...
Oct 17, 2025•33 min
Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You might be living with lead and not know it: the toxin is often invisible to the human eye, but wreaks havoc on our bodies once we’re exposed. The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22. Listen on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. For information on how to live safely with lead, please visit th...
Oct 14, 2025•2 min
Conference season is over for another year and after a rousing speech from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to the party faithful, the Political Fix panel is asking: has she done enough to silence her critics and reverse the party’s slide into oblivion? And while recovering from a month on the road, your trusty Political Fixers mull over the performance of the other parties and what lies ahead as parliament reconvenes on Monday. Plus, more questions than answers about a Chinese spying case that...
Oct 10, 2025•35 min
US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a decade, and Elon Musk wants people to actually settle on Mars, transforming the human race into an interplanetary species. In a new series of Tech Tonic, the FT’s Peggy Hollinger asks if we’re really about to land, and even live, on the red planet. Free to read: Musk’s mission to Mars Three days with America’s rocket chasers Tech Tonic is produced ...
Oct 06, 2025•2 min
This week, the Political Fix team comes to you from Liverpool — with all the news from the annual Labour Party Conference. Sir Keir Starmer struck a patriotic tone to the Labour faithful, promising to fight Nigel Farage’s “politics of grievance” and build a renewed, healthy Britain “with the flag waving in our hands” — flags he was keen to reclaim from his opponents on the nationalist right. And that confident tone had also been struck by his chancellor, the day before. Rachel Reeves reaffirmed ...
Sep 30, 2025•36 min
As the prime minister prepares for his annual party conference, the mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, seems to be mounting a thinly veiled bid for the Labour leadership. In numerous interviews given to the media this past week, Burnham said he had been privately urged by MPs to challenge Sir Keir Starmer. And the provocation came with what looked like a personal manifesto: tax increases on the wealthy, mass nationalisations and a promise not to be “in hock to the bond market”. So do Bu...
Sep 26, 2025•32 min
President Donald Trump landed in Windsor this week for his historic second state visit to the UK. What ensued was a celebration of pomp and pageantry fit for a king: a Red Arrows flyby, a lavish banquet in a castle, and a press conference at Chequers – during which the president continually heaped praise on the ‘special relationship’. Was this display of UK soft power just symbolic sycophancy, or has it resulted in some real substance? Host George Parker – fresh from the prime minister’s country...
Sep 19, 2025•41 min
After the toe-curling revelations about Lord Peter Mandelson’s connections with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the ambassador’s departure seemed inevitable to all - with the exception of some in Downing Street. Questions about the speed of his sacking, what Sir Keir Starmer knew and why the New Labour grandee was hired in the first place will plague the prime minister as he prepares for US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit. Host George Parker is joined by FT columnist Stephen Bu...
Sep 12, 2025•31 min
US President Donald Trump is coming to the UK next week. What can we expect from his visit? And where do things stand between the US and the UK? In this special bonus episode, our two FT political chat shows, Political Fix and Swamp Notes, team up to unpack relations between the two longtime allies. Marc Filippino, host of the Swamp Notes podcast, and US managing editor Brooke Masters are joined by Political Fix’s George Parker and Lucy Fisher to discuss. This episode was recorded on September 6...
Sep 09, 2025•32 min
It wasn’t the start to the new parliamentary term that Prime Minister Keir Starmer hoped for. His insistence that his focus is now on “delivery, delivery, delivery” was eclipsed by the furore surrounding the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, over her tax affairs. To discuss where her precarious position leaves Starmer, plus his attempts to get the economic agenda back on track, host George Parker is joined by political correspondent Anna Gross, FT columnist and author of the daily Inside Pol...
Sep 05, 2025•32 min
Just as Sir Keir Starmer was stealing a few days' summer holiday, Reform unveiled its immigration policy, former Labour heavyweights called for a withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, and Tony Blair popped up in the White House. So with recess nearly over, the prime minister is trying to take back the news agenda starting with a shake-up at Number 10. And with conference season almost under way, an upcoming visit from President Donald Trump, and the Budget around the corner, S...
Aug 29, 2025•33 min
England’s NHS is in a ‘critical and deteriorating condition’ - those are the words of Lord Darzi who investigated the state of the NHS for the new Labour government last year. In response, Starmer unveiled a ten year plan to fix it focusing on delivering three big shifts in healthcare: hospital to community; analogue to digital; sickness to prevention but is it too little, too late, or is the problem just too big to fix? In this week’s special episode, host George Parker is joined by our global ...
Aug 22, 2025•36 min
Maga arrived in Chipping Norton this week, heralding an intense round of British diplomacy ahead of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday. Ukraine is top of the agenda and both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy have been doing their bit liaising between US vice-president JD Vance and President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several European leaders. In this week’s episode, host George Parker is joined by Europe editor Ben Hall and White...
Aug 15, 2025•28 min
Political Fix is on a break this week. In its absence, we're taking the opportunity to introduce you to its sister podcast, Swamp Notes, the weekly US politics podcast from the Financial Times. Six months after the Trump administration gutted the US Agency for International Development, experts are tracking the impact of its absence. The FT’s David Pilling and the Brookings Institution’s George Ingram describe the surprising ways countries are adapting to a world with less resources for the poor...
Aug 08, 2025•19 min
Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the UN General Assembly. The decision comes after some Labour MPs and cabinet ministers accused him of being too slow to respond to the Gaza crisis. Host George Parker is joined by FT columnists Stephen Bush, Robert Shrimsley and deputy opinion editor Miranda Green to discuss how the prime minister arrived at this decision, and whether UK recognition of a Palestinian state will change the state of play in the regi...
Aug 01, 2025•36 min
As MPs head back to their constituencies for the summer, the Political Fix panel reflects on the year in opposition for Kemi Badenoch and her Conservative party. Host George Parker is joined by Robert Shrimsley to discuss their exclusive interview with the party leader, along with Anna Gross and Jim Pickard to talk Reform, the right-wing agenda, and the rhetoric that some fear could stoke a repeat of last summer's riots. * The figure referenced regarding £45bn cost of net zero comes from the IFG...
Jul 25, 2025•35 min
One of the gravest security lapses in UK history came to light this week after a judge lifted a superinjunction on a catastrophic data leak that could have affected 100,000 Afghans, as well as British spies and special forces members. Political Fix’s Lucy Fisher, one of the journalists who broke the story, returns to the show to talk with host George Parker about how the FT uncovered the secret scheme, the superinjunction that was imposed on her, and the political fallout from the exposé. And th...
Jul 18, 2025•33 min
Emmanuel Macron made his state visit to the UK this week – the first EU leader to do so since Brexit. It heralded a reset between France and Britain, dubbed the ‘entente amicale’ by King Charles. Macron and Starmer announced a joint crackdown on migration with a ‘one-in one-out policy’ for asylum seekers and closer cooperation on defence. But it wasn't all hard talk, with much of the limelight focused on a soft-power push: the announcement that the Bayeux Tapestry will be returning to the UK for...
Jul 11, 2025•28 min
This week marks a year of Keir Starmer’s government. But if Labour was expecting to celebrate the anniversary – it didn't pan out that way. Despite claiming a narrow victory with the contentious welfare bill, the government appeared to have one of its roughest weeks on record. Host George Parker is joined by Stephen Bush, Miranda Green and Robert Shrimsley to discuss how Labour got here, and where it can go next. To mark the occasion, they are also joined by a cut-price supermarket cake. Follow ...
Jul 04, 2025•37 min
Sir Keir Starmer faced a huge rebellion from within his own party this week after scores of MPs opposed changes to make it tougher to collect some disability benefits. This episode — recorded just before the prime minister’s concessions on welfare reform — unpacks why the rebellion took place, what it says about Starmer’s leadership and where next for Labour. Host Miranda Green is joined by Stephen Bush and Jim Pickard — check out their recent articles below for fresh analysis on the government ...
Jun 27, 2025•35 min
Will he? Won’t he? President Donald Trump has given little indication as to whether America will join in the conflict between Israel and Iran. So where does this leave the UK and its assets in the region? How does the prime minister play his hand with the president, and what does that mean for his relationship with his own party, especially given Labour's track record? Host George Parker is joined by the FT’s Middle East editor Andrew England, alongside regular guests Robert Shrimsley and Mirand...
Jun 20, 2025•27 min
Labour’s long-awaited spending review dropped this week. Rachel Reeves unveiled funding settlements for government departments – and a newly upbeat tone after the gloomy promise of hard times in her previous Commons set pieces. The NHS and defence were prioritised but other departments and services face a squeeze. Are dividing lines now clear as Labour fights for a second term in power? Why did even the experts call Reeves’ speech “baffling”? Will voters notice any benefit – and in time for an e...
Jun 13, 2025•35 min
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has had an action-packed week. She made a U-turn on winter fuel payments, announced plans to spend billions of pounds on new transport schemes and, following the prime minister’s latest announcement, she now has to find yet more money to fund a rise in defence spending. So where does this leave the chancellor ahead of the spending review next Wednesday? And who will be the winners and losers? Host George Parker is joined by the FT’s Robert Shrimsley, Sam Fleming and J...
Jun 06, 2025•29 min
In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman discuss the economic events reshaping the world in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election. Subscribe and listen to this series on The Economics Show on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episodes will also be available on the FT’s YouTube channel . If you’d like to get in touch and ask Martin and P...
Jun 04, 2025•2 min
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Reform party leader Nigel Farage clashed on economic issues this week. Farage said his party was the champion of the working class, while Starmer warned Farage’s proposed spending rises amounted to “fantasy promises”. Host George Parker is joined by the FT’s Stephen Bush, Chris Giles and Anna Gross to discuss Reform’s fiscal plans. Plus, Labour’s chancellor Rachel Reeves has plenty of fiscal problems of her own. The panel discusses whether or not her economic arit...
May 30, 2025•35 min
The UK and EU announced a historic deal to ‘reset’ their relationship this week. Keir Starmer called the deal a “win-win”, while a “gobsmacked” Kemi Badenoch labelled it a “surrender”. Who’s right? Host George Parker is joined by the FT’s Miranda Green, Peter Foster and Andrew Bounds who unpack the agreement and analyse who came out on top. Plus, the prime minister has handed over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and it didn't come cheap. The panel discusses Starmer's negotiations on the world s...
May 23, 2025•32 min
It’s been another turbulent week for Labour after Keir Starmer announced a crackdown on legal migration. The prime minister gave what has since become a controversial speech suggesting the UK is at risk of becoming an “island of strangers” – and home secretary Yvette Cooper announced an end to all social care visas, tighter rules for highly skilled visas, more rigorous English language tests, and more. Host Lucy Fisher is joined by the FT’s Robert Shrimsley and Jim Pickard to dissect the policie...
May 16, 2025•37 min
