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.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

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.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

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.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton for Podot

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.

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Presented by Adam Payne, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

With the Prime Minister in Washington this week the Labour MPs Steve Yemm and Chris Evans, as well as Professor Sam Edwards from Loughborough University, and Lord John Alderdice, Liberal Democrat peer, join host Alain Tolhurst to look at the so-called ‘special relationship’. From its history, to why the close bilateral partnership between the UK and America is so enduring, but why it might now be under threat as Keir Starmer tries to deal with the Donald Trump White House. Elsewhere in the episode Katie Perrior, Downing Street director of communications under Theresa May, also talks about what is was like to deal with the first Trump administration.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

This Parliament could finally see further modernisation of the way the Commons operates, with a new committee led by Cabinet minister Lucy Powell setting out plans for meaningful reform in a host of areas, after clamour from new MPs to finally bring how Westminster works into the 21st century. One of the 2024 intake, Labour’s Rachel Blake, joins Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney, her party’s spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, as well as Sophie Church, reporter at our sister publication The House magazine, alongside host Alain Tolhurst discuss if Westminster working will finally get dragged into the 21st century.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

One of the most complex, and divisive, issues in modern politics is making a return under this government; ID cards. Advocates describe it as a potential way to improve public services, tackle illegal migration and modernise the state, but it remains intensely controversial, due to significant concerns over privacy, data security and equality. To discuss those issues host Alain Tolhurst is joined by Jake Richards, Labour MP for Rother Valley, Kirsty Innes, director of technology at the think tank Labour Together, Rebecca Vincent, interim director at the campaign group Big Brother Watch, and James Baker, campaigns manager at the Open Rights Group.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

Instead of tapping into the mood at Westminster, this week The Rundown is looking at the political mood of the country as we move further into 2025, teaming up once again teamed up with the guys at Thinks, the global insight and strategy consultancy. Last week they polled more than 2,000 UK adults on how they feel about the first six months of the Labour government, their view of the different opposition parties, and if they regret their vote at last year’s general election. To discuss the findings as well as the results of focus groups conducted with voters in swing seats that backed Labour in 2024, Ben Shimshon, co-founder and CEO at Thinks, joined host Alain Tolhurst along with PolHome editor Adam Payne, and Sienna Rodgers, deputy editor of our sister publication The House magazine.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

For the 150th episode this week former deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine comes on the show for a special interview ahead of the publication of his new memoir 'From Acorns to Oaks' about the second part of his career as an advisor to David Cameron and reflecting further on his time in Margaret Thatcher and John Major’s Cabinets. The Conservative peer, who at 91 is still one of the ‘big beasts’ of British politics, despite leaving parliament in 2001 and retiring to Thenford House in Northamptonshire and its 400 acre estate. The book contrasts his work to restore the woodland at his family’s arboretum with his time trying to pursue urban regeneration and increasing Britain’s regional growth, and he speaks to Alain Tolhurst about his long career championing devolution, what Labour need to do to get the economy moving again, and how his party rebuilds after last year’s devastating defeat.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

Before the election Labour promised to restore confidence in government by cleaning up lobbying, improving transparency and tightening the rules for MPs, but is Keir Starmer's administration really sticking to its word? The Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, Melanie Onn, a member of the Commons standards committee, Gabe Winn, chief executive of the Blakeney Group, a public affairs and communications agency, John Johnston, London Influence reporter at Politico, and Jon Gerlis, head of public relations and policy at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, join Alain Tolhurst to take a look inside the sometimes hidden world of lobbying in Westminster.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

A difficult financial outlook has got even tougher for Rachel Reeves in recent days, so what is happening to the UK economy, and just how difficult will things get for the Chancellor with the next OBR forecast and the spending review looming? To take a deeper look at what is fuelling the current market turmoil, and ask whether things really are as bad as during the Liz Truss era, host Alain Tolhurst is joined by Dr Isabel Stockton, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, as well as the Labour MP and member of the Treasury select committee, Jeevun Sandher, and Cameron Brown, a former Treasury special adviser under the last Conservative government.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot