Caroline Wheeler of The Sunday Times assesses the latest developments at Westminster.In the wake of a historic Commons vote in favour of a bill to legalise assisted dying, Caroline speaks to Labour MP Jake Richards, a supporter of the bill, and Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, an opponent of it.To discuss the ongoing crisis in the Middle East Caroline speaks to the Chairman of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, Lord Beamish, and the former Conservative Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat.After the Government announced further delays to HS2, Caroline brings together the Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Ruth Cadbury MP, and the former Conservative Rail minister, Huw Merriman, to assess whether we can have confidence in future infrastructure projects.And the former Cabinet Secretary, Sir Simon Case, shines a light on life at the heart of government in the week it was revealed he would soon take a seat in the House of Lords.
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28:09
14/06/2025
Pippa Crerar of The Guardian assesses the latest developments at Westminster. Pippa takes a closer look at Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Spending Review with the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Conservative MP John Glen and Labour’s Dame Siobhain McDonagh, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee. How to prepare for an ageing society is the subject of an inquiry by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee and Pippa discusses this with Labour peer, Stewart Wood, who chairs the committee and Daily Telegraph columnist Annabel Denham. Pippa interviews the Big Issue founder and crossbench peer, John Bird about the scrapping of the 200-year-old Vagrancy Act which will decriminalise rough sleeping in England and Wales. And, following the government's u-turn on winter fuel this week, David Gauke who was a Treasury minister at the time of what became known as the omnishambles budget under George Osborne and former BBC presenter Carolyn Quinn discuss famous political u-turns.
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28:06
07/06/2025
George Parker, the political editor of the Financial Times assesses the latest developments at Westminster.Following the publication of the Strategic Defence Review, George discusses the recommendations made in the Report with its main author, the Labour peer Lord Robertson, who is a former secretary general of NATO and a former Labour defence secretary and with Penny Mordaunt, the former Conservative defence secretary. Amid mounting concern at Westminster over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, George is joined by Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale and Labour MP Jon Pearce, the chair of Labour Friends of Israel, to discuss the latest.To discuss the results of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election in Scotland, George brings together Jamie McGuire, who was a Labour councillor until he defected, a few days ago, to Reform UK and Kezia Dugdale, a former leader of the Scottish Labour Party who is now at the Centre for Public Policy at Glasgow University.And, finally, ahead of next week's Spending Review, George speaks to crossbench peer, Lord Macpherson, who was the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury and to Conservative peer and former Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, who is the editor of the Spectator magazine.
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28:04
24/05/2025
To discuss the government's U-turn on taking winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners, Caroline is joined by the Conservative peer, David Willetts - president of the Resolution Foundation, which focuses on people on lower incomes; and Claire Ainsley, former policy director to Sir Keir Starmer, now at the Progressive Policy Institute.Also this week, the UK and the EU struck a trade deal. Caroline speaks to the EU Ambassador to the UK, Pedro Serrano about it. Reform UK’s newest MP Sarah Pochin, who served as a magistrate for twenty years and the Labour MP and barrister Catherine Atkinson discuss plans by the former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke for the biggest shake-up of sentencing in England and Wales for more than 30 years. And, this week marks the first anniversary of a public inquiry report into the infected blood scandal. The former Health Secretary, now Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham has campaigned on behalf of victims and came into the studio with Lee Moorey, who was given contaminated blood.
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28:12
17/05/2025
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster
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