For the first time ever, voter ID will be required at the polling stations next week for the May local council elections in England. It may not seem like a big ask - many countries in Europe already demand it. Yet it's triggering alarm bells. Why has the government introduced a solution to a problem (voter fraud) that didn't exist? Why has it restricted the kinds of ID you're allowed to bring? And why has it refused to accept the advice - even from senior Conservatives - saying the changes could...
Apr 27, 2023•36 min
The renting crisis in Britain is unsustainable. More than sixty percent of private renters faced a rent rise last year - and they're already spending around 32 percent of their income on housing. Today on The News Agents we hear from those who are struggling to even get on the rental ladder - properties are massively over subscribed. Some tenants are putting down payments on flats they haven't even seen. Others are seeing deposits withheld and are blamed (and charged) for the disrepairs their la...
Apr 26, 2023•44 min
As Prince Harry brings his case against the News Group Newspapers (Murdoch) at the High Court, his lawyers have made an astonishing allegation: that his brother, Prince William, reached a payout over claims his phone had been hacked. News of the settlement revealed in court documents - show the late Queen was involved in “discussions and authorisation” of the agreement. The judge may yet decide to throw the case out for coming too late. But if not Harry, we are told, is determined to see it thro...
Apr 25, 2023•43 min
Stay indoors! We continue to advise all British nationals in Sudan to stay indoors wherever possible. We recognise circumstances will vary in different locations. You should exercise your own judgement about your circumstances, including whether to relocate at your own risk. This is the current advice from the Foreign Office - who have managed to evacuate UK diplomatic staff, but are struggling to help up to 3,000 UK citizens stuck in the warzone that is Sudan - many now fearing for their lives....
Apr 24, 2023•38 min
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has resigned. The inquiry into whether he bullied staff has finally been published. Its conclusion? Raab is a bully. Lewis explores the reports findings and asks what it means for one of his closest allies — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.
Apr 21, 2023•46 min
Tom Parker Bowles is a food writer and critic with strong views on coronation chicken, UK farming and... of course, quiche. His mum is about to be crowned Queen - so today we chat about the monarchy, the dos and don'ts of royal food, protest and a certain Harry. And we chat through the political ramifications of Rishi Sunak's response to the bullying inquiry into Dominic Raab. You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos The News Agents is a Global Player Or...
Apr 20, 2023•31 min
This is your midweek episode of Succession. Because Rupert Murdoch - aka Logan Roy - has shelled out nearly 800 million dollars to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion - a company that makes voting machines. Fox News had tried to claim the voting machines manipulated the result of the 2020 presidential election to make Trump lose. Which was clearly bollocks. Late last night, Fox settled out of court - to make the trial of the century go away. Today we get inside the Murdoch mind with for...
Apr 19, 2023•32 min
Another high profile arrest in the SNP. This time, Party Treasurer Colin Beattie - who was called in for questioning in the inquiry into party finances - specifically the concerns over £600,000 raised by supporters to fund a second independence referendum. It's been a rocky few weeks since Sturgeon announced her resignation in February. The arrest of her husband and Chief Executive of the SNP, the blue evidence tent in their garden, the removal of a camper van from the in-laws in Dunfermline, le...
Apr 18, 2023•39 min
Animal Rights Protestors are being blamed for the death of a racehorse at the Grand National this weekend after they forced a delay which - trainers say - agitated the animals. Animal Rising - the protestors - say: Don't blame us - horses are dying on racecourses; with or without the delays. But they're delighted we're now having a conversation about animal cruelty, sport and what happens to thoroughbred horses if racing stops. We speak to Ed Chamberlin who saw it all unfold with his own eyes - ...
Apr 17, 2023•46 min
If you thought the overturning of Roe v Wade- the constitutional right to an abortion in the United States was the end of it in 2022, then 2023 has other ideas. Or rather the radical, anti-abortion groups in the United States have other ideas. Just this week, Florida’s Governor (and presidential hopeful) Republican Ron DeSantis introduced a six week abortion ban in the third biggest state in the country. And in Texas, a Trump-appointed judge ruled that a drug used in over 50% of abortions in Ame...
Apr 14, 2023•28 min
China's President Xi Jinping has told his troops they should be ready for real combat. So now we are wondering if Taiwan will be the next Ukraine. It comes after a week of China sabre-rattling in the Taiwan straits - surrounding the island on all sides with a blockade. France's President Macron is just back from Beijing where he's set the cat amongst the pigeon's with some ill-judged comments about Taiwan. In fact, the Elysee Palace thought them so ill-judged they ordered their removal from the ...
Apr 13, 2023•38 min
We've been told off-record that Joe Biden might be Irish. Obviously, unattributable. So keep it under your hat. He's the latest in a long line of US Presidents who feels the pull of the Emerald Isle very strongly and traces his ancestry back there by 180 years. But he begins the day in Belfast - reflecting on the Good Friday peace accord 25 years ago. But can he get power-sharing back on track? Or is he too scared to even mention it? And we look at the delights and dangers of a world exclusive i...
Apr 12, 2023•42 min
Labour’s Easter weekend attack ads about the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak specifically have been called 'politics of the gutter' by, awkwardly, Labour’s former Home Secretary David Blunkett. Lewis is joined by Steve Reed, the party’s Shadow Justice Secretary, who was behind the campaign. He, as you’ll hear is entirely unapologetic. Is this the start of a new period of a more vicious politics? And NHS surgeons may be about to face their own #MeToo moment, with female surgeons coming forward to s...
Apr 11, 2023•34 min
There are two questions that accompany any political scandal. What did you know and when did you know it? After questioning Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell for eleven hours yesterday, police are back at their Glasgow house, and there's still a blue evidence tent in the garden. It comes just a week after the leadership election of new SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf, seen as the Sturgeon succession candidate. So what should we make of the timing of all this? And what are the political imp...
Apr 06, 2023•37 min
When we left you Trump was on the cusp of entering the Manhattan criminal court as an arrested man. That didn't go well. A door was flung shut in his face. And the indignities began. In this special all-nighter episode of The News Agents we take you through the charges against him, the reaction, the defence and the speech to his supporters in Mar-a-Lago. We speak to a key member of Trump's campaign team who was with him in the wings moments before he went on stage. You can watch our episodes in ...
Apr 05, 2023•39 min
Donald Trump will today become the first US president to appear in court on criminal charges. He arrived in NYC late yesterday and will shortly be heading to Lower Manhattan District Court to have his fingerprints taken and hear the 34 charges of improper business dealings being levelled against him. Will the criminal charges stack up? Will Trump keep his cool? And will his supporters take to the streets in protest? In Part One we take you through the process step-by-step. In Part 2 - tomorrow m...
Apr 04, 2023•26 min
Rishi Sunak has pledged to end the 'political correctness' that stops police arresting child sex abusers from ethnic minority backgrounds. The scandals of Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford show how badly things can go wrong for victims when the perpetrators are seen to be beyond the law. But Labour's West Yorkshire mayor has called it 'dog whistle politics' - and some are wondering why the Conservatives are borrowing the far right language of Tommy Robinson. Is it possible to have a nuanced debate? A...
Apr 03, 2023•29 min
For the first time in American history a former president has been indicted (charged) with a criminal offence. Donald Trump will appear in a New York court on Tuesday afternoon. Do the charges stack up? Will they help Trump or hinder Trump? And how is this unprecedented moment going to impact the Presidential Race of 2024.? Spoiler alert - you can actually campaign from behind bars... You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos The News Agents is a Global P...
Mar 31, 2023•45 min
Ten years on from the horse meat crisis, a new scandal has engulfed almost the entire food retail sector. Huge quantities of foreign pork - sometimes tens of thousands of tonnes a week - has been passed off, fraudulently as British. One meat processor - who can't be named for legal reasons - has been accused by former employees of 'washing' hams that are visibly rotten, or mixing bad meat with fresh produce. They even allege paperwork - which would pick up infections like bacteria or E.coli - wa...
Mar 30, 2023•38 min
THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS TO BE HOUSED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP screamed the headline in the Daily Express. That was in February of 2016. And it never happened. The idea has been mooted in various ways about ten times in the last decades - including by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor in 2020. Each time the idea is dropped for being unworkable, unaffordable or illegal. So why do we keep falling for it? Also - should the descendants of slave owners be making reparations to the people or the places the...
Mar 29, 2023•35 min
Jeremy Corbyn will not be allowed to stand for Labour at the next election. That’s despite the fact he’s been an MP in Islington North since 1983 and led Labour at two general elections- nothing like it has ever happened before. Jon and Lewis explain why Labour’s ruling body has made the move and why Labour’s left might not be as weak as you might think. And the News Agents are joined by a secret agent, or at least someone, who was. Sir Richard Dearlove was the head of MI6 during the Iraq War. T...
Mar 28, 2023•37 min
More mass protests in the streets- this time in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. Millions of Israelis believe their democracy to be in jeopardy. The airport is blocked, universities out of action, a general strike has been called. Even the diplomats won’t go to work. With academic and expert Ayala Panievsky, we explain why so many - both within the Israeli state and in the population at large - believe Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to transform the country’s judicial system to be a gro...
Mar 27, 2023•45 min
In this special episode of The News Agents, Lewis travels to Paris to find out why the City of Lights is on fire. Amidst the tear gas, the riot police, the stun grenades and the flames, The News Agents ask- what's happened? why is it this bad? And why could this riot be the start of a new, far-right, European order? It all comes as huge protests have erupted across France after President Emmanuel Macron forced through a rise in the country’s pension age. You can watch our episodes in full at htt...
Mar 24, 2023•39 min
Keir Starmer spent the morning in Stoke-on-Trent. Not WOKE-on-Trent, as one hilarious Tory Red-wall-er reminded him. But attempts to fire up the culture war are something Rishi Sunak wants no part in. And recent polling suggests it's the right call. Today we look at the state of play of the two main political parties and what the numbers are currently telling us -with James Kanagasoorium of Focaldata. And we ask whether we mind have a billionaire prime minister who pays a million pound tax bill....
Mar 23, 2023•36 min
Boris Johnson told the parliamentary inquiry that he HAD misled parliament, but he hadn't meant to. His repeated defence was that he hadn't been advised what he was saying might be wrong (he had). And that other people hadn't told him that rules might have been broken (they had). He insisted that the leaving parties he'd attended had been essential work and berated Downing Street itself for having too many corridors to make parties safer. Sir Bernard Jenkin led the charge asking what he would ha...
Mar 22, 2023•39 min
The Met Police - so says the explosive Casey Review released today - is a bullying boys club in which predators flourish. Rape evidence is thrown out - because of broken fridges. Eye-watering force is used against Black people. Gay officers are scared of their colleagues. So what happens now? And will this diminish public trust in the force even further? The author of the review Baroness Louise Casey joins us. Plus we get hold of Boris Johnson's defence dossier. He argues he didn't mean to misle...
Mar 21, 2023•36 min
Boris Johnson has submitted evidence to the Privileges Committee which will be judging whether he set out to mislead the House of Commons over Partygate. He argues that 'he was advised he wasn't breaking any rules' - which might seem odd coming from the person who in fact made up those rules. We now await publication of his defence. Also today - why the DUP won't vote for Sunak's latest Brexit deal: The Windsor Framework. And - on Iranian New Year we speak to Anoosheh Ashoori and his daughter El...
Mar 20, 2023•46 min
After nearly a decade of stability spearheaded by Nicola Sturgeon, why do the SNP look like they're imploding? The three candidates after her job are spending day after day taking lumps out of each other. Polling suggests that the only thing that they're hurting though is their common goal: Scottish independence. We speak to one of the candidates who's attack on the independence of the leadership process has been called 'Trumpian'. And we speak to a senior SNP MP about what this is doing to the ...
Mar 17, 2023•44 min
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt finished his early morning media round and then came for a coffee with the News Agents. We asked how many doctors would re-enter the workforce with his pension changes. How Brexit will effect our growth longer term. And where his childcare ideas came from.... You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.
Mar 16, 2023•27 min
Today's bombshell rabbit (to mix a metaphor) was the Chancellor's promise to abolish the lifetime allowance on pensions. If you're super-rich it's time to crack open the champagne. If you're working age and well-paid, it might keep you in your job longer - at least that's the aim- but this is against a backdrop where household disposable income is falling at its fastest rate since the 1950s. We talk childcare, taxation, potholes, and Brexit beer. Later, we revisit the question of BBC impartialit...
Mar 15, 2023•37 min
