“The dream of home ownership is closed off to younger people today” - Steve Reed, Housing Secretary Steve Reed exclusively tells the New Statesman about the seven billion pounds Labour are giving to the six mayoral combined authorities for social and affordable housing. In an interview with Oli Dugmore, Labour’s housing secretary outlines the plan, and discusses young people’s housing woes, abolishing landlords and his history with Morgan McSweeney. Treat yourself or someone special to big ideas...
Nov 07, 2025•30 min
Voters in New York City have elected a socialist, Muslim, 34-year old Mayor. Here's what Labour need to learn from Zohran Mamdani's campaign. -- Zohran Mamdani calls himself "Donald Trump's worst nightmare". In the UK, senior Labour figures including Wes Streeting have praised the young Democrat Mayor-Elect's campaign. But should Labour be celebrating a win in America's Democrat stronghold, when they can't win their own seat in Wales? George Eaton and Megan Kenyon join Anoosh Chakelian to discus...
Nov 06, 2025•25 min
A four-month investigation with Channel 4 News reveals harrowing failings at one of Britain’s most prestigious hospitals. Oli Dugmore speaks to the New Statesman's Investigations Editor, Hannah Barnes. Read: Britain’s next maternity scandal LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acas...
Nov 05, 2025•34 min
Is Britain becoming a country of mass violence? On Saturday evening, a Doncaster to London train was forced to stop in Huntingdon after eleven people were injured in a stabbing spree. Anthony Williams, a 32 year-old British national, was charged on Monday with multiple counts of attempted murder. Oli Dugmore is joined by Anoosh Chakelian and Rachel Cunliffe. Read: Knife crime is creeping into Middle England LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a qu...
Nov 04, 2025•40 min
Today, Nigel Farage set out his updated vision for the UK economy. At a speech and press conference in London, The Reform UK leader talked tax, immigration, welfare, Brexit and his days working in the City. The New Statesman’s Ethan Croft was at the event. Ethan joins Oli Dugmore to discuss. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writin...
Nov 03, 2025•44 min
Is Build Baby Build doomed? Is Katie Lam running for leader? Where is Priti Patel? Can the UK really support 5 large leftist parties? Luke O’Reilly joins Anoosh Chakelian to answer listener questions. Ask us a question LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
Nov 01, 2025•20 min
The Deputy PM believes that Labour can beat the threat of the populist right, Nigel Farage and Reform. Lammy says that Labour can achieve this by tackling the cost of living crisis, uniting the centre and left of British politics and putting security first. Oli Dugmore sat down with David Lammy to discuss his plan. Read: Nigel Farage can be stopped LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politic...
Oct 31, 2025•23 min
Which are the most deprived neighbourhoods in England and how might this map onto voter intent? Anoosh Chakelian is joined by senior data journalist Ben Walker, to discuss what we can learn from the English Indices of Deprivation. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
Oct 30, 2025•24 min
Another bad week for Prince Andrew. You could say the man hasn’t had a good week since 2011. Although, actually, he does live in a 30-bedroom mansion in Windsor and enjoyed a million quid a year from his mum. In this week's cover story Will Lloyd makes the case for abolishing the monarchy , and that the Windsors have always been more involved with British politics than we know. He speaks to Oli Dugmore in this episode. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN...
Oct 29, 2025•47 min
With the Autumn budget looming, the government has some tough decisions to make. Rachel Reeves has to find a predicted £30bn in extra revenue to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules. But as part of its manifesto pledges, Labour promised not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT. And after a crushing defeat in Wales last week, what can the government actually get away with without angering the public further? Anoosh Chakelian is joined by polling analyst Steve Akehurst. Read: Just Raise Ta...
Oct 28, 2025•25 min
The Caerphilly by-election proves Reform can be beaten. But is Keir Starmer the man to do it? Last week voters in Caerphilly confounded pundits by electing their first Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd (MS). Reform UK had expected to be the party to overturn Labour's 100 year dominance in the Welsh seat - but they were wrong. The loss was a disaster for Labour, but came with a glimmer of hope: Reform UK can be beaten. Now the party needs to ask whether their current leader, Keir Starmer, is the m...
Oct 27, 2025•26 min
The youngest winner of the Booker Prize fell silent. Now she's back with a new novel. -- With only her second novel The Inheritance of Loss , Kiran Desai won the 2006 Booker Prize, the leading literary prize in the global Anglosphere, becoming - at the time - the youngest person ever to do so. She was thirty-five. Then: silence. 19 years of it, before another novel emerged - this year. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Desai joins Tanjil Rashid on The New Society to discuss her latest novel, an...
Oct 25, 2025•46 min
Is Welsh Labour dead? Plaid Cymru won a historic victory in the by-election, trouncing Labour who had been dominant for over 100 years. The "middle child" as Plaid's new MS describes them, also beat Reform, who pollsters expected to win the seat. In this episode, Harry Clarke-Ezzidio reports from Caerphilly to analyse the results of the election. He speaks to Rhun ap Iorwerth, Huw Irranca-Davies, Llyr Powell, and Dan Evans. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STAT...
Oct 24, 2025•29 min
After 14 attempts, Lindsay Whittle has won the Caerphilly seat in South Wales for Plaid Cymru. Reform came in second with over a third of the vote, and Labour trailed in third with 11%. A devastating loss for the party. Harry Clarke-Ezzidio is joined by Ben Walker in Caerphilly Leisure Centre. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writ...
Oct 24, 2025•17 min
Andrew Marr says he thought Labour would fix everything, but: "I was wrong". -- Andrew Marr is stepping down as political editor of the New Statesman. In this, his last regular podcast appearance (he'll be back, don't worry!) he reflects on the last three years in politics - and where we're heading next. He admits committing "the journalistic sin" of optimism when Keir Starmer was elected, and addresses criticism he's faced from media colleagues on both the left and right of the political divide...
Oct 23, 2025•46 min
Donald Trump's planned summit with Vladimir Putin is cancelled. Here's why. -- Less than a week after Donald Trump offered to meet Vladimir Putin in Budapest, the proposed summit has already fallen apart. Officially, "there's no need" for the two presidents to meet, since their respective foreign ministers are conducting conversations. But what's really behind the cancellation? And what on earth is Donald Trump up to in Venezuela? Seven extra-judicial attacks on civilian boats, dozens dead witho...
Oct 22, 2025•32 min
James Schneider, the former director of strategic communications for Jeremy Corbyn, was involved in the founding of Your Party earlier this year. He has since stepped back from the project. In this episode he joins Anoosh Chakelian to discuss the growing gap on the left of UK politics and who could fill it. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the be...
Oct 21, 2025•53 min
Andrew had already stepped down as a working royal, after that disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, but he’s now gone a step further and agreed to relinquish the “title or the honours which have been conferred upon” him. Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Will Lloyd and Rachel Cunliffe to discuss what these latest decisions, announced on the eve of the publication of Virginia Roberts Guiffre's posthumous memoir, mean for the Royal Family. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM...
Oct 20, 2025•26 min
A century on from the her birth, Tanjil Rashid sits down with the Iron Lady's official biographer, Charles Moore. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 18, 2025•45 min
For over 30 years, John Gray has written for the New Statesman on everything from Artificial Intelligence to Friedrich Nietzsche. He joins deputy editor Will Lloyd to discuss the state of the nation. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 17, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Andrew Marr joins Rachel Cunliffe to discuss his column in this week's magazine, Tax the old . They also discuss the latest developments in the China spy case. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 16, 2025•27 min
"All I've done all my life is deals. The greatest deals just sort of happen…” President Trump announced at a celebratory peace-deal signing attended by dozens of nations in Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this week. But who were the powers behind Trump? Behind this deal? Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Freddie Hayward who has written this week’s cover story The Emperor: How Trump and his British Courtiers secured the Gaza deal LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ...
Oct 15, 2025•21 min
Did Keir Starmer's government quash an espionage case to curry favour with China? -- There's fury in Westminster over the case of two alleged China spies which collapsed last month. Kemi Badenoch has accused the Labour government of deliberately quashing the prosecution to appease China, blaming National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell. The government denies this, and Keir Starmer has said Powell has his "full support". So what really happened? And why does China matter so much to the UK govern...
Oct 14, 2025•32 min
All 20 remaining, living hostages have returned to Israel after 2 years in captivity, following the October the 7th Hamas attacks. The remains of the 28 deceased hostages are yet to be returned. Meanwhile, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,700 detainees from Gaza today. To discuss this historic day in the Middle East and how it came to be, Oli Dugmore is joined by Katie Stallard and Freddie Hayward. Later in the episode Ethan Croft and Rachel Cunliffe look at the ques...
Oct 13, 2025•34 min
Is Labour reading from the Reform handbook? And what is the government doing to address rising child poverty? Oli Dugmore is joined by Rachel Cunliffe to answer listener questions. Got a question? Ask us here! LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Oct 11, 2025•26 min
Almost 10 years ago the Calais 'Jungle' was demolished by the French authorities, structures were burned to the ground and the migrants were forced to flee, once again. Small-boats crossings are on the rise, and for those waiting for their chance, a new 'Jungle' has become home. Oli Dugmore is joined by Miles Ellingham and Jack Jeffrey who reported this week's cover story The truth about the small-boats crisis from northern France. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE ...
Oct 10, 2025•33 min
Andrew Marr joins Tom McTague to discuss the ascension of Shabana Mahmood, and the Blairites haunting Keir Starmer's government. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter every morning ✍️ Enjoy the best of our writing via email every Saturday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 09, 2025•30 min
You might have missed it, many people did, but this week the Conservatives met for their annual party conference in Manchester. Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Ethan Croft, who's just stepped out of the conference hall listening to Badenoch's speech, and later in the episode by Will Dunn - who's been watching the whole affair on GB News. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter e...
Oct 08, 2025•27 min
Is the Green Party Britain’s only viable left wing party? Amid other proposals, their conference voted to abolish landlords at the weekend. Meanwhile Labour is tweaking the surveying process for house buying, and the Tories say they’ll cut benefits to subsidise first time buyers. Oli Dugmore is joined by Luke O'Reilly and Megan Kenyon. LISTEN AD-FREE: 📱 Download the New Statesman app MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN: ❓ Ask a question – we answer them every Friday ⏰ Get our daily politics newsletter ...
Oct 07, 2025•41 min
Two years ago, on October the 7th, 2023, Hamas militants committed a series of atrocities in southern Israel. 1,195 people were killed in the attacks. 251 people were taken hostage by Hamas, 47 remain in captivity. Some alive, some dead. Since then, war has ravaged the Gaza Strip and, in the form of escalating settler violence, spread to the West Bank. Israel has inflicted famine on Gazans. Over 60,000 Palestinians have been reportedly killed in the conflict, a third of them children. And this w...
Oct 06, 2025•58 min
