The News Agents

It started with a tabloid story that a male and female presenter on daytime TV were no longer getting on. Big deal. It was accompanied by darker rumours about Philip Schofield, a fixture on television for decades. And then the wisps of smoke on a hillside became a full scale wildfire, tearing through ITV. His relationship with a much younger man have now turned this into a daytime chat show into peak time drama, and questions are now growing for ITV senior management.An ITV statement on Saturday responded to allegations that ITV ignored any potential relationship Schofield had at ITV.“ITV can confirm that when rumours of a relationship between Phillip Schofield and an employee of ITV first began to circulate in early 2020 ITV investigated. "Both parties were questioned and both categorically and repeatedly denied the rumours as did Phillip's then agency YMU."Phillip’s statement [a few days ago] reveals that he lied to people at ITV… over this relationship."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan joins Lewis Goodall on The News Agents in a wide-ranging interview shedding light on working with Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Rishi Sunak. He also talks about his PTSD after getting death threats and his new book, Breathe: Tackling the Climate Emergency.

We'll be looking at sex, lies and Downing Street later in this episode with a writer who worked in Number10 - and we'll be asking if politicians REALLY want an honest conversation about Immigration - but we begin with the newest launch failure by Elon Musk. This one involved not a rocket but a presidential candidate - who thinks he can beat Donald Trump. If that was ever true, it feels much more unlikely today after the campaign launch went up in flames.

Does it matter if Boris Johnson broke more Covid rules by inviting guests to his country home, Chequers, when the rest of the country was in lockdown? His former advisor Guto Harri says it's time to get over it. There are more important things to discuss. But we're not so sure the country is quite so ready to forgive and move on. What does it say about the country in which we live, if rules no longer count and if the civil servants who report wrongdoing are threatened with legal action? Later we look at the latest Presidential hopeful to take on Donald Trump - Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor, who is launching his campaign on Twitter.

Celebrations at Newcastle United as they qualify for the Champions League. It's a success story for the club, team and fans - but it's all been helped by new money from their Saudi backers. Today we look at a future of football as nation states - securing victories on the pitch, battling geopolitics off it. And we look at the investigation by The Athletic journalist Adam Crafton, who reveals the pressure Boris Johnson's government brought to bear on the Premier League during the Saudi takeover of Newcastle, the failure of which he said would be "an immediate risk" to the UK/Saudi relationship.

Did Home Secretary Suella Braverman break the ministerial code by asking civil servants to help her avoid a public speed awareness course?She insists there's nothing to see here - she's taken the points on her licence and wants to move on. Her allies insist she's the victim of a smear campaign by those who don't like her immigration policies. But today on the News Agents we talk to former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland who asks what she was doing at the National Conservatism conference, and whether she is committed to 'collective cabinet responsibility' - a subtle dig at her own prime ministerial ambitions perhaps?

When Matt Hancock visited News Agents HQ yesterday, he repeatedly refused to answer questions about decisions he made in government during the pandemic. And it got us thinking about why so many politicians struggle to admit when they’ve got things wrong. Today Lewis asks why is it - in politics - that sorry always seems to be the hardest word?

Matt Hancock, this afternoon, walked into The News Agents bunker for the first time. In this full, unedited interview, he tells us what he makes of the right of the Conservative Party, why he gave Isabel Oakeshott 100,000 of his WhatsApp messages, and he tells us who he thinks leaked the video revealing his affair with his aide at the height of Covid restrictions.

The MP for South West Norfolk has made a speech in Taiwan urging the UK Government to treat China as a security threat. She's the first former PM to visit Taiwan since Margaret Thatcher. China - which is seeking 'reunification' with Taiwain - has called it a 'dangerous stunt'. Many in Truss's own party feel the same way. But is there sense in her message even if she's the wrong one to deliver it? And what is she hoping to achieve - for the world, her party and herself? And, later, we speak to Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz about playing twins in her drama 'Dead Ringers', moves to curtail women's rights in the US, her husband James Bond, and Lewis' acorn.

Today we take you behind the scenes at Nat Con: the Conservative-ish conference taking place in London this week. It's a meeting of hard Brexiteers, nationalists, libertarians, and the 'anti woke'. With a smattering of Holocaust minimisers, homophobes and climate-deniers thrown in for good measure. It's an exciting place - attended by senior cabinet ministers too - and today we ask if they are the fringe or the future of the Conservative Party.