As the new Labour government introduces its landmark legislation to nationalize the railways, host Emilio Casalicchio asks: How do we get the trains to run on time? He travels to Japan, where privatized high speed trains whiz passengers between cities at 300 mph and delays are measured in seconds not minutes. And he examines the nationalized rail system in Switzerland, home to a joined up transport network with passenger experience at the heart of the business. Former Transport Secretary George ...
Sep 06, 2024•44 min•Season 15Ep. 3
As Westminster heads back to work after the summer recess, host Jack Blanchard talks to six political experts about what’s coming up in the months ahead. The FT’s Stephen Bush and the Spectator’s Katy Balls discuss the challenges facing new Prime Minister Keir Starmer this autumn, and consider the Tory leadership contest is likely to play out. Ben Zaranko of the Institute for Fiscal Studies runs the runes over the U.K. economy, with one eye on the all-important budget of October 30. POLITICO’s o...
Aug 30, 2024•58 min•Season 15Ep. 2
Host Sascha O'Sullivan meets a few of the new parliamentarians slowly figuring out their way through Westminster. New Labour MPs — and soon-to-be office buddies — Jake Richards and Chris Curtis give Sascha rundown of their whirlwind first few days in SW1 and a taste of their plans to make a difference in parliament. Lola McEvoy, newly elected Labour MP for Darlington, re-lives the nerves of giving her maiden speech directly after Reform Leader Nigel Farage. She explains the challenges of very qu...
Aug 23, 2024•49 min•Season 15Ep. 1
Our next season of Westminster Insider is gearing up with new episodes next week. To whet your appetite, we’ve reached into our extensive back catalogue to bring you one of our fan-favorite episodes – whether you’re new to the show or been a listener from the beginning, we hope you enjoy revisiting this historical deep dive into what ex-prime ministers do once the gig is up, hosted by Aggie Chambre. Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, fired by Truss 38 days into her 45 day premiership, talks of th...
Aug 16, 2024•50 min
As Keir Starmer enters 10 Downing Street on the back of a landslide election victory, host Sascha O'Sullivan takes us inside the night power shifted in the U.K. In the final episode of the season, she brings us an hour by hour account of the most consequential general election for a generation, speaking to political insiders for their take on events as they unfolded. At the moment the 10 p.m. exit poll dropped, Sascha spoke to Tom Lubbock, pollster and co-founder of JL Partners, about the implic...
Jul 05, 2024•36 min•Season 14Ep. 10
As the general election reaches its final week, host Sascha O'Sullivan takes us inside the last push of the campaign. She explores how parties use every trick of the trade, from advertising to frantic leafleting, to try to capture every possible vote and travels to the BBC debate in Nottingham where the main party leaders had one final face off. Ayesha Hazarika, broadcaster and former adviser to Ed Miliband, explains how many voters begin tune into an election campaign only once they reach the l...
Jun 28, 2024•45 min•Season 14Ep. 9
As we approach the final lap of the 2024 general election, host Sascha O'Sullivan discovers what life is like for the photographers who trail hot on the heels of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. She speaks to PA photographer Stefan Rousseau, who talks about the blunders of this campaign, the photos we'll remember long after votes have been cast, and how special advisers try their hardest to frame their boss's image. Former Labour aide Ayesha Hazarika relives the turmoil of Ed Miliband's bacon sandw...
Jun 21, 2024•46 min•Season 14Ep. 8
As Reform teeters close to overtaking the Conservative in the polls, Aggie Chambre goes inside Nigel Farage’s party and asks if he will could actually achieve his takeover of British politics. Starting in January, when Aggie first asks Farage if he’s planning to return to frontline politics, she tracks the party’s journey from small start-up to a shock poll putting it ahead of the Conservatives. In February, she hears from the Wellingborough candidate Ben Habib about the progress he has made on ...
Jun 14, 2024•57 min•Season 14Ep. 7
As Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer prepare to launch their manifestos, host Sascha O’Sullivan takes a look at what goes into the making of the crucial documents that spell out each party’s plan for government. Former Tory adviser Cleo Watson recalls how it all went wrong for Theresa May at the 2017 election when a manifesto pledge on social care blew up. Authors of the 2019 manifesto Rachel Wolf and Rob Colvile explain how the slogan “Get Brexit Done” got the election done for Boris Johnson. Stalwa...
Jun 07, 2024•46 min•Season 14Ep. 6
Days before this general election's first television debate, host Aggie Chambre looks back at the history of debates in this country and asks how politicians go about winning them. ITV's Julie Etchingham, who will host the first debate Tuesday, recalls being asked to take on the gig, explains what she's thinking during these set piece events and reveals what really happens before and after the debates take place. Reform's Nigel Farage, who has performed in several TV debates, gives his tips for ...
May 31, 2024•48 min•Season 14Ep. 5
Will the Sun win it? After Rishi Sunak called a shock general election, host Aggie Chambre set out to discover just how much influence newspapers will have in this campaign. Former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock tells her what it was like being attacked in the press in the run up to the 1992 election. Former Sun editor David Yelland reminisces about Rupert Murdoch and Tony Blair's relationship — and said it was like a "love affair." He says getting the backing of Fleet Street can be a "self fulfilli...
May 24, 2024•43 min•Season 14Ep. 4
Just how much power do the economists of Threadneedle Street really wield? As the Bank of England grapples with whether to keep interest rates at an all time high, host Sascha O’Sullivan goes on a mission to find out. In this week’s episode, she speaks to those who have been at the very heart of Westminster's relationship with the Bank for the last three decades. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss tells Sascha exactly why she believes Bank of England economists were attempting to pull apart her min...
May 17, 2024•48 min•Season 14Ep. 3
After the Tories' drubbing in the local elections and the many, many rumors about efforts to unseat Rishi Sunak, Aggie Chambre talks us through how to prepare a secret Conservative leadership campaign. Former No. 10 head of political comms Adam Jones takes us inside Liz Truss's "fizz with Liz" soirees, explains why she took *that* picture in the tank, and says his former boss got "punch drunk" on love from Tory members. Former adviser Lucia Hodgson, who ran Andrea Leadsom's 2019 leadership bid, ...
May 10, 2024•48 min•Season 14Ep. 2
In the first episode of season 14, host Aggie Chambre tells the inside story of how POLITICO broke the Westminster honey trap story, and goes in search of who is really responsible. She hears from most of the key characters involved in the scandal that rocked SW1. Two victims tell Aggie about their messages and one of them explains what happened when he organized a meeting with the catfisher. POLITICO's own Dan Bloom reveals for the first time that he received a message from the mysterious catfi...
May 03, 2024•55 min•Season 14Ep. 1
Host Sascha O'Sullivan delves into the secrets of the polling industry and asks — if the polls were wrong before, could they be wrong again? David Cameron's former pollster Andrew Cooper tells Sascha how the Conservatives upstaged the polling industry in 2015 and pulled an unexpected election victory out of the bag. Labour polling stalwart Stan Greenberg, who has run the numbers for Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Ed Miliband, explains what the other side of the 2015 campaign was li...
Mar 22, 2024•53 min•Season 13Ep. 8
This week, Aggie Chambre looks at the art of the leak and asks — why do people do it, and what happens when your political secrets are exposed? Former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green talks about helping to leak Home Office secrets when Labour was in charge. Aggie hears from journalist and author Isabel Oakeshott about her controversial decision to leak Matt Hancock’s Covid WhatsApps — and why she had to adopt a disguise during the process. POLITICO’s Jack Blanchard and Jeremy Corbyn’s former ...
Mar 15, 2024•42 min•Season 13Ep. 7
New host Sascha O'Sullivan explores Westminster's obsession with all things Australia — and considers the lessons British politics might learn from down under. From the U.K. Tory party's succession of Aussie campaign chiefs to the varying attempts to deploy Australian-style immigration policies, Westminster has held an enduring fascination with its rougher political cousins down under. Sascha speaks to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has long enjoyed links with the U.K. Tory pa...
Mar 08, 2024•56 min•Season 13Ep. 6
By now, surely everyone in Westminster knows how to get ready for government — but have enough considered how to prepare for opposition? In this week's episode, host Aggie Chambre tackles the conundrum of how to prepare for the one job in politics no one wants. She speaks to former opposition leader Neil Kinnock about his time in charge, including the advice his children gave Tony Blair's kids. Conservative peer George Young, who has been around since 1974, talks about all the times his party ha...
Mar 01, 2024•44 min•Season 13Ep. 5
As the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches, Jack Blanchard returns home to the north of England to hear the stories of the refugees who arrived there in 2022 — and of one small town community which opened its arms to help. Jack meets those who hosted Ukrainian people in their homes, and hears from the Ukrainians themselves about what it's like to arrive so suddenly in a far-off land. Community organisers discuss how they rallied round to help, while former Refugees M...
Feb 23, 2024•58 min•Season 13Ep. 4
As the people of Wellingborough headed to the polls for a historic vote, hosts Aggie Chambre and Sascha O'Sullivan took a train to the East Midlands to see how by-elections really play out on the ground. Over the course of a month, they went door-knocking with the candidates, spoke to disenfranchised voters and, finally, stayed up all night to watch the count. They watched Reform’s Ben Habib drive round in an gigantic, double-decker blue bus and Labour’s Gen Kitchen show off her Taylor Swift fri...
Feb 16, 2024•41 min•Season 13Ep. 3
Host Jack Blanchard goes for lunch with the Sunday Times' chief political commentator, Tim Shipman, as the deadline for his new Brexit tome approaches. Over a bottle of claret and (medium) rare steak, Shipman discusses the art of long-form political writing; recalls his best and worst interview experiences, from Donald Trump to Theresa May; considers his favorite moments of the chaotic past decade in British politics and offers tips to aspiring journalists on how to do a "proper" political lunch...
Feb 09, 2024•55 min•Season 13Ep. 2
For the first episode of the year, host Aggie Chambre goes inside right-wing TV channel GB News and investigates the role it might play in shaping the future of the U.K. Conservative Party. And she looks at the scandals, controversy and culture that has surrounded the channel so far. With the help of the channel's chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos, and former presenters including Simon McCoy and Guto Harri, Aggie tells the story of how the organization went from a chaotic launch to finding it...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr•Season 13Ep. 1
For the final episode of the year, host Jack Blanchard and a series of expert guests look ahead to 2024 and what is certain to be an extraordinary year of world politics. The Spectator’s Katy Balls and the Times’ Patrick Maguire survey the election prospects of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer respectively, while More in Common’s Luke Tryl — a polling and focus group expert — assesses Britain’s current electoral landscape. The Resolution Foundation’s David Willetts looks ahead to the Budget in March...
Dec 22, 2023•57 min•Season 12Ep. 8
Host Aggie Chambre explores the crisis in Britain's prison system and asks what can be done to fix it. She goes inside a prison riddled with drugs and violence, and hears from the governor and from long-serving inmates about what's really going on. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk sets out his plan to overhaul the sector, and why he believes part of the answer is to stop handing out jail terms for less serious crimes. Former Tory leader Michael Howard relives his famous "prison works" speech of 1993...
Dec 15, 2023•44 min•Season 12Ep. 7
In the week Boris Johnson finally said sorry for the mistakes made by his government during the COVID-19 pandemic, host Aggie Chambre explores the art of the political apology — and asks how politicians can redeem themselves after completely screwing up. Johnson's former Downing Street aide Cleo Watson analyses her former boss's apology, and why he chose to deploy it this week. Neil Parish, the former Tory MP who apologized — and quit — after getting caught pornography in the House of Commons ch...
Dec 08, 2023•48 min•Season 12Ep. 6
With opposition parties starting to dream about life in Whitehall as the next election looms, host Aggie Chambre takes a look at how politicians actually prepare for government. She hears from the key players involved in the 2010 election — the last time opposition parties came to power. The former Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, then the most senior civil servant in the country, recalls an eyebrow-raising chat with David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition. Former Tory minister Nick B...
Dec 01, 2023•43 min•Season 12Ep. 5
With opinion polls showing Donald Trump beating President Joe Biden in key battleground states a year out from the next U.S. election, podcast host Jack Blanchard asks whether Westminster is even remotely ready for the prospect of a second Trump presidency. Britain's former Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch and ex-Downing Street comms chief Katie Perrior recall their own interactions with Trump during his first tenure as president, while Keir Starmer's former chief of staff Chris Ward considers...
Nov 24, 2023•45 min•Season 12Ep. 4
In the week U.K Home Secretary Suella Braverman was finally sacked, host Aggie Chambre asks what you actually have to do to get fired from the government — and what the calculations are for the leaders doing the firing. Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, recalls his "underhand" sacking of two junior ministers, while Cleo Watson, a former deputy chief of staff at Downing Street, reveals the secrets of the reshuffle whiteboard. Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan tells Aggie what really h...
Nov 17, 2023•42 min•Season 12Ep. 3
Britain's civil service is under fire like never before — criticised as an obstructionist "blob" by ministers and castigated for a "terrifyingly sh*t" response to the COVID-19 pandemic by former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings. So what do U.K. government officials — normally banned from speaking to the media — actually make of it all? This week in a special 'focus group' episode, five former mid-ranking civil servants sit down with host Aggie Chambre to lift the lid on life inside Whitehall...
Nov 10, 2023•41 min•Season 12Ep. 2
As war rages in the Middle East, host Jack Blanchard sits down with Alf Dubs, the 91-year-old Labour peer who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport — which organized the rescue of children from the Nazis — aged just six. Dubs reflects on his experiences as a child refugee in 1939 and on how he forged a new life in the U.K. He explains why he got into politics, and how he has since devoted much of his life to helping other young people in dire need. He calls for more humanitarian support for ...
Nov 03, 2023•42 min•Season 12Ep. 1
