Afleveringen
-
After weeks of speculation, Andy Burnham finally unveiled his first cabinet late on Tuesday, with John Healey the surprise choice as chancellor, Ed Miliband moving to the Foreign Office and Shabana Mahmood remaining as home secretary. Then came his first speech outside Downing Street. Dispensing with the familiar prime ministerial lectern, Burnham promised to end rough sleeping, reviving one of the defining pledges of his time as mayor of Greater Manchester. In the latest episode of In The Room, we pick apart what his appointments tell us about the government he wants to lead, who has emerged with real power, who has been cast aside, and whether the promises he's making now are ones he can actually keep.
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Video editor: Jose Luis Ugarte
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Andy Burnham has finally been crowned Labour Party leader. Attention turns now to his top team, with home secretary Shabana Mahmood hotly tipped to be named chancellor. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting continue to cast a shadow over Burnham’s picks. On Monday, after formalities with the King, Burnham will become the UK’s seventh prime minister in ten years. Today, we tell you what to expect in Monday’s power transition, discuss what his top team might signal, and ask whether Shabana Mahmood will make the best choice as chancellor.
Read more from The Independent:
Mr Milburn’s historic NEET review deserves cross-party support
Andy Burnham claims he has a plan for change – it’s a shame he still hasn’t told us what it is
What Shabana Mahmood as chancellor could mean for your money and taxes
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Video editor: Vali Raza
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
It’s Keir Starmer’s final week in office. 739 days ago, after a rejection of the Tories and a sweeping landslide for Labour, he became PM. So where did it all go wrong for him? Today we take a trip down memory lane to summer 2024 and the beginning of Keir Starmer’s rocky first 100 days and ask: can Andy Burnham learn from Keir Starmer's mistakes?
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Andy Burnham has promised “growth in every postcode”. It is a big, attractive political line – the sort of thing voters want to hear after years of feeling poorer, public services feeling stretched, and wages struggling to keep up with the cost of living. It is also a promise that tells us a lot about Burnham’s politics. He has long argued that Britain is too London-centric, that Whitehall is too slow, and that too many decisions about towns and cities are made by people who do not live in them.
Today, Helen and Cleo analyse Burnham’s economic proposals so far and give insight into the harsh reality politicians face when promising ‘growth’ - does Burnham have enough time before the next general election for people to really feel this change?
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Nigel Farage got Westminster watchers in a frenzy today. A cryptic tweet promising a statement on “the future of my public life” triggered two hours of fevered speculation: resignation as Reform leader, departure from Parliament, or another act of political theatre.
What followed was a scathing attack on the media and political class he routinely rails against - despite his own deep entanglement with both. With practiced ease, he cast himself as an embattled outsider, explaining his anger, his treatment in public life, and the need for a £5m donation from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire to fund his personal security.
A resignation did eventually come - Farage confirmed he will resign as MP for Clacton, forcing a by-election - in which he intends to stand again. The manoeuvre all but guarantees him another summer of headlines, airtime and attention, cutting neatly across Andy Burnham’s attempt to seize the political agenda.
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Nigel Farage has spent decades turning political setbacks into opportunities. Parties have risen and fallen around him, controversies have come and gone, and yet he has always managed to emerge stronger.
But this week feels different. Questions over a £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire, lucrative outside earnings, a series of disappointing by-election results and an unusually defensive run of media appearances have prompted fresh questions about whether Britain's most resilient political survivor is finally losing his golden touch.
Helen MacNamara and Cleo Watson ask whether this is just another Westminster bubble story or the first real sign that Farage is being judged not as a political insurgent, but as a prime minister-in-waiting.
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Devolution – or devo-maxxing – was the order of the day in Andy Burnham’s most significant speech yet on how he would govern. In front of an eager press pack that scrambled up from London, the prime minister-in-waiting set out a bold agenda focused on devolving power, reforming Whitehall and reindustrialising Britain.
But devolution is a tune plenty of leaders have played before. Tony Blair turbo-charged it after 1997, George Osborne promised a Northern Powerhouse, and Boris Johnson made plenty of noise about levelling up. Still, Britain remains top-heavy, with power and wealth concentrated in London. The UK also sends a far greater share of tax revenue to central government than almost all other major economies.
So is now the right time to devo-maxx? And is Burnham the right man to do it?
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Video Editor: Vali Raza
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Andy Burnham’s camp is caught between euphoria and fear. After his victory in the Makerfield by-election and Keir Starmer’s resignation, the path to No 10 appears to have opened up for the former Manchester mayor.
On what would be his third attempt at the Labour leadership, Burnham could be prime minister by mid-July – and the UK’s seventh in ten years. But with the clock already ticking, is his team prepared for power?
Helen MacNamara and Cleo Watson assess the mood inside Burnham’s camp, the mistakes he must avoid repeating from the Starmer years, and why greater urgency and ruthlessness will be needed if he is to govern successfully.
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
It wasn’t so close after all. Andy Burnham achieved 9,241 votes more than the second place Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon. Even talk of Restore Britain stealing votes from Reform mattered little in the end. The reality of the Makerfield by-election is it’s a thumping win for Labour’s Andy Burnham, and a disappointing night for Nigel Farage, whose attempts to dial up division in recent weeks didn’t pay off.
In this bonus episode we react to this week’s two Westminster by-elections where voters in Makerfield and Aberdeen South went to the polls. The latter is an interesting case study of single issue campaigning and a sign of a possible Tory revival in Scotland. We also reveal what our advice to Andy Burnham would be as efforts to oust Keir Starmer from No 10 heat up.
Executive Producer: Rod Ardehali
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
This week, Keir Starmer announced a ban on social media for under-16s. It’s a punchy policy announcement. And it’s a clear sign that he has activated legacy mode. Today, we ask: what will his legacy really look like? And why are prime ministers obsessed about their legacy?
On the week of the announcement, Nigel Farage has dialled up his divisive rhetoric with a brand new Substack page. His numbers on the platform are already towering over Starmer’s. We’ll discuss the prime minister's inability to engage in and win arguments with fringe political leaders, giving breathing room to extremist ideas in the UK - and ask: why the hell are politicians all on Substack anyway?
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Next week will see one of the most consequential by-elections in UK political history. Journalists, pollsters and politicians are swamping the small market town near Wigan - where the voters of Makerfield could make Burnham king.
At the time of recording, Labour are 10 points ahead of Reform in the polls. To close the gap, Reform must win a battle of ideas on the right, where Restore Britain are currently polling at 8%. In this episode, Helen and Cleo discuss what happens if Burnham actually wins - will he become prime minister any time soon? And is Keir Starmer really in ‘legacy mode’?
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
After 83 days of waiting, the government has finally released the second tranche of files on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador to Washington. The first tranche was already heavy on the filler, but the latest set of documents takes it to a whole new level. It features an incredible amount of seemingly pointless material: Mandelson’s resignation letter appears 8 times, there’s pages of printed versions of Microsoft Teams notifications and the full transcript of a President Trump interview with ABC News.
Today, we dissect the files, picking out the parts that do really tell us a lot - in particular about how Peter Mandelson himself operated behind the scenes.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
A Dyson floor lamp, a £4,000 fountain pen, boxsets of Scandi noir TV dramas. These are just a handful of the items that former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell purchased with the £400k he embezzled from the party over the course of a decade. The full list is even longer. Murrell has been remanded in custody and likely faces lengthy prison time.
Ever since the eruption of the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal, there’s been a dark cloud of mistrust over politicians. Yet some politicians still play fast and loose with public trust, morality and transparency.
Today, we discuss the shady world of money in politics. We'll also debate whether MPs ought to have a pay rise - and you might be surprised about the outcome.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
With the writing seemingly on the wall for Keir Starmer, two contenders have already thrown their names into the ring for his job. Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting has launched an appeal to heartland Labour voters, suggesting he might be vying to initiate a "Brexit 2.0." Meanwhile, Andy Burnham, the "King of the North," has made it clear that if he wins the Makerfield by-election, he wants in at No.10.
But do either of them have what it takes? This week, Helen MacNamara and Cleo Watson discuss the two frontrunners for Westminster’s most coveted job, how Wes might have messed up his chances already, and whether Burnham can bring some of his Manchester magic down south.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
It’s hotting up in the bid to become Labour leader. Angela Rayner’s tax affairs are cleared up, Wes Streeting has resigned as health secretary and Andy Burnham has found a route back to Westminster. But Keir Starmer is resolutely staying put – for now.
Today, we analyse who really has the numbers, what the public thinks of all this and assess Andy Burnham’s chances of winning in Makerfield. Plus, Cleo gives her insider analysis on what it really takes to launch a leadership bid.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Keir Starmer is still clinging to power. But when this morning’s 9:30am cabinet meeting began, that outcome looked far from certain. More than 81 MPs have now called for him to step down - the number required to trigger a leadership contest - but only if they unite behind a single challenger. For now, they remain split. And, in characteristically procedural style, Starmer has managed to buy himself another day.
Today, we analyse the political manoeuvring of a thrilling few days in Westminster and give our advice to the runners and riders lining up to replace the Labour leader.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Labour is losing votes to the Greens and seats to Reform. Across England, Scotland and Wales, the electoral map is shifting in ways not seen for years. The foundations of the two-party system are looking more fragile than ever.
In this bonus episode, we ask: are voters sending a message Westminster still isn’t hearing? What does history suggest about Starmer’s chances of staying in power? And what do Labour’s losses to both the Greens and Reform reveal about the future of British politics?
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Local elections are often a stick used to beat the government with. That’s never been truer than in this Thursday’s contests. Across the country, voters are expected to desert Labour, exposing the real dividing lines in British politics that have been emerging since before the 2024 general election.
In this week’s episode, we reveal whether Labour can survive a two-front battle against Reform and the Greens, what happens when unvetted fringe candidates win seats, and whether projected election disasters will ultimately topple Keir Starmer's leadership.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
His own MPs are turning on him, the civil service are raging at him and, at next week’s local elections, the public will likely express their unhappiness too. All of this has made Keir Starmer’s job a lot harder.
Today, we analyse how Starmer’s handling of the Mandelson vetting scandal has significantly weakened relations with the civil service, why putting a three-line whip on his own MPs is always a revealing move and why picking a political strategy is imperative if he wants to maintain his hold on power.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
Westminster watchers have had their popcorn out over the past 24 hours.
On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was grilled by MPs for two hours. A day later, Sir Olly Robbins, the sacked Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, gave a meticulous account to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. The result: fresh doubts over Starmer’s handling of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
This week on In The Room, former Deputy Cabinet Secretary Helen MacNamara and ex-No.10 special adviser Cleo Watson share their reaction. They discuss how Robbins landed a series of hammer blows on Starmer in his testimony - and why new questions over the appointment of Matthew Doyle could prove to be his undoing.
Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose
Producer: Sam Durham
Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here.
Email your questions to Helen and Cleo on [email protected].uk.
This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Laat meer zien
