Share
UnHerd with Freddie Sayers
Tom Tugendhat: the Chinese Government sent letters to my home
Tom Tugendhat MP is Chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and one of the five British MPs placed on a sanctions list yesterday by the Chinese Communist Party. He spoke to Freddie Sayers about what it means.
On the impact of sanctions on him personally
It doesn’t affect me at all, really, because I have no interests in China, either personal or professional. So for me, it’s not significant. But what this is, is an attempt to intimidate British business people, intimidate British politicians and, by the way, intimidate many other people around the world. This is an attempt to bully and I hope it will be seen for exactly what it is.
These are Chinese rights, not Western rights
I think we need to stand up for human rights as set out by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which is not a Western imposition. Those human rights were written by P.C. Chang, a Chinese diplomat. These are Chinese rights that we’re standing up for. And it’s quite something that the Chinese Communist Party is the organisation that is looking to condemn the Chinese citizenry to hardship and its non Chinese powers that are looking to stand up for the Chinese people.
‘Guarding the guards’ over Covid restrictions
I know the government got extra powers, which allow it to go until six months time, but it needs to lift them the moment that that is reasonable to do so which I hope, according to the government’s own timelines will be around the 21st of June. So I think that, you know, there is certainly a job of guarding the guards for members of parliament today and powerful speeches by people like Charles Walker yesterday, and and indeed many others on all sides of the house were very important to listen to, but I don’t think it’s quite the same parallel.
On personal harassment by the Chinese state
I’ve had letters sent to my home, which is a sort of a ‘we know where you live’ type of message by people in mainland China and friends of mine in agencies have been quite clear as to who they believe has done it. And I’ve had fake email addresses set up in my name and sent out messages to people like you often claiming all sorts of extraordinary and spurious claims… There’s absolutely no doubt that in a tyrannical state like China, these are not the actions of free citizens. These are the actions of the Chinese state. There’s no doubt about it at all. And speaking to internet providers, it’s absolutely clear, who has been doing it, there’s really no doubt at all.
‘Minor irritation’
The Chinese state has been doing this to its own people for 50 years — it’s hardly surprising that it’s now doing it to people it considers a nuisance overseas. The reality is that the Chinese government runs an extremely aggressive totalitarian regime with which it seeks to silence dissent. It has some of the largest numbers of people in prison, it has some of the highest capital punishment rates in the world, it executes in prisons in order to achieve its aims. And it intimidates in order to attempt to silence beforehand. And you know, the fact that I’m getting some minor irritation, it shouldn’t be here or there.
More episodes
View all episodes
Prince Andrew: The case for the defence
45:05|UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to journalist Michael Tracey about the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and what Tracey describes as a "moral panic" surrounding the Epstein scandal. Tracey challenges the mainstream narrative, arguing that the case against the former Prince relies on fictionalised accounts and inconsistent testimony from the late Virginia Giuffre, and by examining recently surfaced FBI memos and the charges of misconduct in public office, suggests that the current constitutional crisis is driven more by mass hysteria and media credulity than by unassailable legal evidence.
Anton Jäger: The Far-Right's route to victory
01:03:25|UnHerd’s Jonny Ball meets historian, academic, and author Anton Jäger to discuss his new book ‘Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences’, charting the pronounced shift in engagement and death of political institutions since the 1980s via analysis of movements like Brexit, BLM, and the rise of the far-Right.
Danish minister: Here's how we controlled immigration
20:39|UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers meets with former Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration, Kaare Dybvad Bek – fresh from his high-profile talk at the Policy Exchange - to explore how his centre-Left Social Democrats party successfully implemented hardline immigration policies to reduce asylum applications to their lowest in 40 years. He argues that by curbing uncontrolled migration, the Danish government has effectively neutralised the populist far-Right and maintained public trust in the welfare state, offering a blueprint for other European leaders - including Keir Starmer - on how to manage borders from a progressive, pro-labour perspective.
Robby Soave on 'Epstein Derangement Syndrome'
32:10|UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with senior editor at Reason, Robby Soave, about the long-awaited release of the Epstein Files and the fallout following the disclosure. Has the dump of millions of unverified documents sparked a modern-day witch hunt, where gossip is mistaken for evidence and guilt by association replaces due process? They explore how both ends of the political spectrum have weaponised the files to smear opponents, the high cost of sacrificing privacy, and why the lone “no” vote in Congress may have been the most prescient voice of all.
Can Reform win in Manchester?
54:35|UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers explores the upcoming high-stakes by-election of Gorton and Denton with a deep dive into the constituency and its localised microcosm of global populist trends. He is joined by Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester, Rob Ford, founder and editor of the Manchester Mill, Joshi Herrmann, and councillors Allan Hopwood (Reform) and Shahbaz Sarwar (Workers Party) to analyse whether the Labour stronghold will crumble under pressure from a surging Green Party or a high-profile Reform UK campaign led by Matt Goodwin within a new landscape of sectarian identity politics and deepening public frustration with the UK’s traditional two-party system.
Glenn Loury: Elon Musk’s apartheid politics
26:31|UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to eminent economist and social scientist Professor Glenn Loury about a troubling new shift in American discourse: the rise of Right-wing identity politics. Traditionally a critic of the woke Left, Loury turns his sights on the world’s wealthiest man, arguing that Elon Musk is making a "category mistake" by importing South African racial anxieties into the American context. By embracing white solidarity and racial essentialism, Loury argues, the Right is not defeating identity politics, but is instead adopting a politically destructive mirror image of the very ideology they claim to oppose.
John Bew: The Davos world is over
50:41|In this exclusive interview, UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers speaks with Professor John Bew - leading historian and chief foreign policy advisor to the last four UK Prime Ministers – about the friction caused by the Trump administration's push to acquire Greenland and the resulting panic within the Western alliance. Set against the backdrop of the 2026 Davos summit, the conversation confronts the 'break glass' moment facing Western leaders and explores the uncomfortable reality of our current era: Will the UK shift from economic dependency toward restoring its own national power to navigate a scary new era of ‘bully powers’? Is the Western alliance truly over, or can a nuanced and multi-layered approach preserve the core security frameworks that have defined the last 80 years? How should middle powers respond when the United States - the traditional guarantor of global norms - begins to operate under a pre-1945 logic of annexation and unilateral tariffs? And could a new Northern European alliance provide the necessary leverage to protect sovereign interests in an increasingly bipolar world?
The ICE debate: Sohrab Ahmari vs Jenin Younes
53:55|Freddie Sayers debates the killing of Renee Good by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis with civil liberties attorney Jenin Younes and UnHerd’s US editor Sohrab Ahmari, examining the incident through the lens of the "Rashomon effect" where observers draw diametrically opposite conclusions from the same evidence. Was the shooting a catastrophic violation of civil liberties and potentially an illegal execution, or does the responsibility lie with Good for obstructing a lawful federal operation and “weaponising" her vehicle, a view echoed by the Trump administration's branding of the event as an act of domestic terrorism. The discussion concludes with YouGov’s David Montgomery, who reveals how the broader American public view the use of force, and what significant long-term political risks the incident may yield for the Republican project.
Why Trump will get Greenland
43:41|UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers speaks with author and Cambridge professor Helen Thompson, economist Pippa Malmgren, and Danish MEP Henrik Dahl about the Trump administration's escalating rhetoric and strategic moves to acquire Greenland. Covering the historical legal underpinnings of Danish sovereignty while analysing modern geopolitical drivers such as the Monroe Doctrine, Arctic militarisation, and the essential role of the region in a new space race for strategic security dominance, they explore how the Greenland situation is symptomatic of a profound breakdown in trust between Washington and Western Europe, with the administration increasingly viewing European leadership as obstructive political rivals in a shifting global order.