The New Statesman: politics, ideas and interviews

Andrew Marr sits down for an exclusive interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And later on in the episode the team discuss what we might have missed from Labour's first 100 days in power.Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter: Morning Call Submit a question for a future episode: You Ask Us

Power shifts inside Number 10, a Tory leadership shock twist, and Sturgeon reviews Johnson’s book.**follow in your podcast app so you never miss an episode**Keir Starmer has made changes at the top of his Number 10 team. Sue Gray has been ousted as chief of staff and replaced by the Labour campaign supremo Morgan McSweeney. George Eaton and Rachel Cunliffe join Hannah Barnes to explore what this means - including what exactly a chief of staff does, and who Morgan McSweeney is.A shock twist in the Tory leadership race saw James Cleverly defeated leaving Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick as front-runners to replace Rishi Sunak. Was this a disastrous miscalculation by “camp Cleverly”? And Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister of Scotland, reviews Boris Johnson’s memoir, “Unleashed”, calling it “gut-wrenching” and “craven”.Mentioned in this episode: What is “the grid”?https://pod.fo/e/1e70c5 Nicola Sturgeon video interviewhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58jB3BSeQE4The two sides of Boris Johnson: Nicola Sturgeon reviews “Unleashed”https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2024/10/the-two-sides-of-boris-johnson-unleashed-review-nicola-sturgeonMorgan McSweeney, the permanent insurgenthttps://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2024/10/morgan-mcsweeney-permanent-insurgentMore linksAsk a question: https://newstatesman.com/youaskusSign up for our FREE daily politics email: https://morningcall.substack.com/

"If we don't like it, we should demand it changes," one listener writes in.Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Andrew Marr and George Eaton to answer listener questions, including if Andrew stands by his comments from February that Starmer would be radical, and whether Lebanon has a right to self-defence.Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter: Morning Call Submit a question for a future episode: You Ask Us

And why is democracy a low priority for American voters?Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Andrew Marr, George Eaton, and Katie Stallard.Sign up to the New Statesman's daily politics newsletter: Morning Call Submit a question for a future episode: You Ask Us

On the 7th October Sharone Lifschitz's parents were taken as hostages by Hamas. One year later her father, along with almost 100 other hostages, have not returned and the entire region stands at a crossroads.Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced by the ensuing conflict as Israel have conducted air strikes, first on Gaza, currently on Lebanon and Yemen.How did this conflict escalate so drastically? On this episode of the podcast Sharone Lifschitz and Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, join from London, and speaking from Beirut we hear from journalist Hanna Davis and Yalda Hakim, lead world news presenter at Sky News.This episode was recorded prior to Iran's missile attack on Israel on the 1st October.

In a 2022 poll, a majority of Americans said they believe their government was corrupt and rigged, and more than a quarter believed it might soon be necessary to take up arms against it.Conspiracy theories have ripped across America’s political landscape for decades, but in the last 10 years the divide between fact and fiction has become almost indistinguishable at times. So how did we get here?Hannah Barnes, associate editor, is joined by journalist and broadcaster Gabriel Gatehouse. 

"A very dark speech, very serious, very closely argued, but there was passion there, but the passion was anger" - Andrew Marr reacts after Keir Starmer's speech at Labour party conference, the first Labour prime minister to do so in 15 years.We also hear from David Blunkett, Wes Streeting MP, Baroness Taylor, and Henry Tufnell MP, on the key takeaways from the party's time in Liverpool.

We're coming to you from Liverpool where Rachel Reeves has just delivered her keynote speech at this year's Labour Party Conference. There were lots of smiles in the Chancellor's speech as well as the commitment to the tough economic decisions that she has to make, but has she managed to turn the page on Labour's rough beginning in government?Hannah Barnes hears from Andrew Marr, Rachel Cunliffe, and Andy Burnham, and after the break she speaks to the New Statesman's Nicholas Harris about his trip to the very first Reform conference in Birmingham.