Casual Conversations and Community Engagement

Today we look at what politicians are saying on camera and behind the scenes about the local elections coming up on Thursday.

Laura, Paddy, and Henry discuss whether it could be a good week for all the parties apart from Labour and the Conservatives.

And there’s talk of a future coalition between Reform and the Conservative Party.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://discord.gg/m3YPUGv9

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1

Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O'Connell with Henry Zeffman. It was made by Chris Flynn and Bella Saltiel. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The weekend series editor is Chris Flynn. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.