The Rundown by PoliticsHome

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The Rundown by PoliticsHome

Our weekly podcast from Politics Home discussing all the ups and downs in Westminster. Please subscribe and share - and keep up with all the latest news on PoliticsHome.com. Got a question for the team? news@politicshome.com.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    What Can We Learn From These Local Elections?

    With much of England set to go to the polls next week we’re previewing a crucial set of local elections, with more than 1,600 council seats up for grabs, as well as six mayoral contests and a high-profile Parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby. On the panel is Jonathan Ashworth, chief executive of the think tank Labour Together and a former shadow cabinet minister, Max Wilkinson, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham and his party’s culture spokesman, as well as Scarlett Maguire, pollster and founder of Merlin Strategies, and Jack Sellers, a former Conservative special adviser who worked for Rishi Sunak in Number 10. They talk to host Alain Tolhurst about the government’s potential electoral struggles, Reform’s high hopes, whether the Tories will take another pasting, and why nobody is talking up the Lib Dems. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    36 min

  2. 18 APR

    Last orders for Britain's pubs?

    With the Commons in recess the pod heads down the pub for another episode looking at the UK’s hospitality industry and the struggles it continues to face - with a host of global headwinds and domestic policy contributing to a bleak outlook for the sector in 2025. Joining host Alain Tolhurst for a pint in The Westminster Arms, a stones throw from Parliament, is Conservative MP Richard Holden, vice chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Pubs and the Shadow Paymaster General, Morgan Schondelmeier, policy manager on tax and trade at the British Beer and Pub Association, Ellie Hudspith, campaigns manager for CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, Steve Alton, CEO of the British Institute of Innkeeping, and Jonny Garrett, chair of the British Guild of Beer Writers and co-host of the Craft Beer Channel. They discuss what the government can do to help this crucial part of the economy, that not only contributes £54 billion in tax receipts, £20 billion in exports, and is the third largest employer in the UK - but also plays a vital role in the country’s social fabric - after it was hit by the triple of whammy of rising business rates, a National Insurance hike, and increased staff costs, this month. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    35 min

  3. 11 APR

    Can Starmer navigate Trump's tariff turmoil?

    Senior Labour MP Liam Bryne, who chairs the Commons business and trade committee, joins host Alain Tolhurst to discuss how Keir Starmer navigates the post-tariff world, and whether the market turmoil could be an opportunity for Britain. Later in the episode a panel of experts discuss the small matter of what on earth is happening to the global economy - and what that will mean for the UK - after Donald Trump’s sudden volte face on Wednesday, abandoning almost all of the tariffs he had meted out on so-called ‘Liberation Day’ a week before, but leaving 10% levies on British goods and 25% on steel and the automotive sector. Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government and a former senior civil servant, Raoul Ruparel, a former adviser to Theresa May on Europe and a special adviser in the Brexit department, Allie Renison, associate director at SEC Newgate and a former policy adviser to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, and Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat MP and his party’s spokesperson on trade, try to make sense of what just happened, and explain what might happen next. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    58 min

  4. 4 APR

    Mark Field on the end of the Tory era

    Former Conservative MP and minister Mark Field speaks to host Alain Tolhurst about his new memoir The End Of An Era, which as the title suggests charts both his own time in politics as well as the waning fortunes of his party over the past 25 years. They discuss his reflections five years on from stepping down from the Commons, what the Tories got right as well as wrong in their time in office, how they might recover once more from last year's disastrous election, why he's voted for the losing candidate in every leadership contest stretching back to Ken Clarke, and the response to writing about his much-publicised affair with Liz Truss, and the incident at the Mansion House dinner in 2019 that led to the premature end of his ministerial career. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    36 min

  5. 28 MAR

    Rachel Reeves turns into the 'concrete Chancellor'

    To discuss the fallout from this week’s Spring Statement, after Rachel Reeves confirmed a host of cuts to benefit payments and a squeeze on public spending to offset a downgrade in the country’s growth forecast, John Glen, Tory MP and a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Helen Barnard, Director of Policy at the Trussell charity, Greg Thwaites, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation think tank, and Chris Curtis, Labour MP and Vice-Chair of the Labour Growth Group, join host Alain Tolhurst. As the question already turns to whether further tax rises will be needed as soon as this year, some Labour backbenchers fume about the optics of the government appearing to balance the books on the backs of some of the poorest in society due to self-imposed fiscal rules, while others have questioned the role of the OBR in guiding the Treasury’s hand every six months. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    45 min

  6. 21 MAR

    Can Starmer re-wire the state?

    Last week Keir Starmer scrapped NHS England as he signalled the government's aim to fundamentally reshape and rewire how the state operates, so the panel is discussing what this means for civil service staff numbers, what impact this will have on the delivery of public services, and how briefings about a so-called ‘project chainsaw’ have gone down in Whitehall. Joining host Alain Tolhurst is Max Blain, who was the official spokesperson for three Prime Ministers, and is now a director at the global advisory firm Portland, as well as Hannah Keenan, associate director at the think tank the Institute for Government, and Suzannah Brecknell, co-editor at our sister publication and Whitehall bible, CivilServiceWorld. To sign up for our newsletters click hereTo view this year's Women in Westminster 100 list click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    36 min

  7. 14 MAR

    Are the wheels coming off Reform?

    After winning five MPs last year and continuing to surge in the polls - are the wheels starting to come off for Reform UK after this week's damaging but wholly predictable internal row involving MP Rupert Lowe and party leader Nigel Farage? Gawain Towler, the party's former director of communications and a long-time spokesman for Nigel Farage, as well as Sophie Stowers, research associate at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, and Harriet Symonds, commissioning editor at The House magazine, join host Alain Tolhurst to discuss if this is just the usual teething problems for an insurgent party, if it might damage their electoral chances this May, and whether this meme is coming true once again. To sign up for our newsletters click hereTo view this year's Women in Westminster 100 list click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton for Podot

    37 min

  8. 7 MAR

    Can Starmer lead the West?

    As the future of Europe dominates the headlines, Lib Dem defence spokesperson Helen Maguire MP, former Tory ministers James Heappey and Greg Hands, and More in Common’s Luke Tryl join host Adam Payne to discuss a seismic week in world affairs as Prime Minister Keir Starmer tries to bring peace to Ukraine. With the tectonic plates of geopolitics shifting day by day, the Labour government faces major questions like how to deal with Donald Trump, and whether a ’coalition of the willing’ can really protect a peace deal from Russian aggression. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Adam Payne, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

    41 min
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    4.2
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    101 Ratings

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    Our weekly podcast from Politics Home discussing all the ups and downs in Westminster. Please subscribe and share - and keep up with all the latest news on PoliticsHome.com. Got a question for the team? news@politicshome.com.

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