Westminster Insider

In the week Jeremy Corbyn was blocked from running again as a Labour MP, host Aggie Chambre takes a look at the secretive world of MPs' selections — and learns how insidery cliques, funding and old-school sexism can all be barriers to entry.Aggie takes a road trip with the man who helped select Rishi Sunak for his North Yorkshire seat, and hears more about the prime minister's slick sales pitch to local members. Tory peer Anne Jenkin discusses her efforts to get more women into parliament, while Labour MP Stella Creasy recalls what it's actually like to go through the high-pressure selection process. Aggie also speaks to journalist Michael Crick about his work cataloguing the 2024 election candidates selected so far, and to author Isabel Hardman on why we get the wrong politicians. And former Momentum boss Jon Lansman has his say on Corbyn's de-selection, and explains how he believes selection 'stitch ups' in the Labour Party could lead to the rise of fascism in Britain.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Westminster Insider profiles the woman who could be running Britain alongside Keir Starmer in a year's time. Host Ailbhe Rea sits down with Labour Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to explore her background, her political instincts, her successes and failures ... and tries her hand at a game of chess against the former child star.Reeves takes us back to the south London of the 1980s where she grew up; the Oxford University of her New Labour years; her career in banking both pre-and post-global financial crisis; and her early experiences as a young female MP — and picks out the moments that made her the politician she is today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Aggie Chambre explores the best and worst political U-turns of recent times — and ponders how and why certain politicians get away with abrupt changes of heart.Former Lib Dem Cabinet Minister David Laws recalls the tuition fee furor that sunk his party, while former Downing Street chief of staff Fiona Hill discusses Theresa May's swiftly-abandoned 'Dementia Tax' of 2017. Liz Truss' close allies Simon Clarke and Sarah Ludlow relive the U-turn over her disastrous 'mini-budget' of 2022, while ex-Home Secretary David Blunkett picks over the most significant U-turns of the New Labour years. Former Thatcher aide John Whittingdale discusses what happens when your leader simply refuses to change course despite massive opposition, while Tory peer Daniel Finkelstein argue that U-turns are actually a cause for celebration in a complex world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Co-host Aggie Chambre sits down for a rare interview with former Downing Street chief of staff Fiona Hill to talk about her central role in Theresa May's first government, the astonishing highs and disastrous lows of life in No. 10, and the devastating impact of being fired after the failed 2017 general election.Hill reveals the years of secret plotting behind Theresa May's successful bid to become prime minister; the inner workings of May's dysfunctional Downing Street operation; and the surprising politician who helped her when she was floored by her departure from No. 10.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New host Aggie Chambre takes us inside the world of TV News, and asks how the advent of 24-hour rolling coverage has shaped British politics.Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge explains the importance of the Sunday shows to the Westminster news cycle, and reveals the reaction from Downing Street after she asked then-PM Theresa May a question she really didn't want to answer.Her outgoing boss John Ryley, head of Sky News, tells the podcast how his channel transformed 24-hour political coverage, and takes a final swipe at his TV news competitors. ITV's Rachel Bradley and veteran broadcaster Michael Crick lift the lid on the art of the doorstep interview, while former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale explains the misery of embarking on a round of broadcast interviews.Craig Oliver recalls his time running David Cameron's comms operation and explains how much thought goes into every TV image. And Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, explains what really happened that time he fell over on Brighton beach — and how much damage the endless TV coverage caused him.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Ailbhe Rea takes you inside the weird and wonderful world of the House of Lords, and explores the increasingly bitter battles over its future.Paralympic gold medallist and crossbench peer Tanni Grey-Thompson lifts the lid on what life in the Lords is really like, and Ailbhe has a rare meeting with an endangered species: a hereditary peer, the Earl of Caithness, in his natural habitat.John McFall, the Lord Speaker, takes us on a guided tour of the grand building itself — and explains how it actually works — while POLITICO's very own Esther Webber explains the joys of covering the second chamber as a journalist.Jess Sargeant from the Institute of Government provides a whistlestop tour of efforts to reform the Lords down the decades — some more successful than others.And we look at the internal debate within the Labour Party over former PM Gordon Brown's recommendation to abolish the House of Lords altogether. Henry Stannard, who worked closely with Brown on his commission, defends the plans, while Labour grandees Neil Kinnock and David Blunkett take radically different points of view.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Ailbhe Rea tells the inside story of Liz Truss' chaotic, historic 49 days in No. 10 Downing Street, via candid interviews with those in the room where it happened.Speaking publicly for the first time about that turbulent period, Truss' former special adviser Hugh Bennett and ex-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's former aide Celia McSwaine lift the lid on life inside Truss' Downing Street — and how it all went wrong in six short weeks. They are joined by Truss' former speechwriter Asa Bennett, her biographers Harry Cole and James Heale, and her political opponent, Labour's Pat McFadden. Using their voices alongside multiple off-record-interviews, Ailbhe retells one of the most extraordinary stories in modern British politics — the rise and fall of the 49-day prime minister. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the final episode of the year, host Jack Blanchard looks ahead to the biggest political stories coming down the track in 2023. Guests include Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies; former U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon; Katy Balls of the Spectator; Stephen Bush of the Financial Times; Ipsos pollster Keiran Pedley; Tory peer and elections expert Robert Hayward; Jill Rutter and Giles Wilkes of the Institute for Government; and POLITICO's own Jamil Anderlini and Cristina Gallardo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Ailbhe Rea looks at the world of political punditry with the help of some of Westminster's best-known commentators and producers, and the comedian Joe Lycett.Rob Burley, who spent years running flagship political programmes at the BBC including the Andrew Marr Show and Politics Live, explains why Lycett's infamous appearance on Laura Kuenssberg's show in September enraged him, and discusses whether conflict is ever engineered on his shows. Scarlett Maguire, producer of the Andrew Neil Show, explains how pundits are selected and why they are needed in political broadcasting.Katy Balls and Stephen Bush, a common TV punditry 'couple', and political journalists for the Spectator and the FT respectively, explain what makes a good or a bad pundit. James Schneider, former head of strategic communications for Jeremy Corbyn, bursts the bubble on the cosy pundit chat and explains why he thinks very little of it is worth listening to at all — but also how Team Corbyn still felt the need to use political punditry for its own ends. And finally Joe Lycett himself, the comedian and one-time "terribly right-wing" commentator, gives his take on his brief turn at political punditry.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jack Blanchard speaks to former U.K. energy ministers and policy experts about the chequered history of British energy policy over recent decades — and how the nation was left so vulnerable to Vladimir Putin's energy price war.Guests including former Energy Ministers Charles Hendry and Michael Fallon, and former Whitehall policy chief Adam Bell, explain how what should have been a smooth transition away from fossil fuels has been blotted by a stalled nuclear program and endless rows about wind turbines. And Stag Energy's George Grant and the Financial Times' Nathalie Thomas rue Britain's failure to invest in undersea gas storage sites which might have offered an insurance policy against the current crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices