The Exchange | Long-form interviews from the New Statesman

Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister, Andy Burnham is. What just happened? Why did it happen? And what now? Oli Dugmore is joined by the New Statesman's editor-in-chief Tom McTague for a Starmer retrospective.

Gary Stevenson, economic campaigner and YouTuber, is using this change in government to lobby for a wealth tax. Without one, he predicts, "society will collapse". He joins Oli Dugmore on this episode of The Exchange.

Over 1000 of Epstein's victims of sexual abuse and trafficking have now been identified; some have chosen to come forward publicly, and among them there was one voice which was the loudest. Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In 2021, she decided she wanted to tell her own story, in its entirety. Joining forces with the ghostwriter Amy Wallace, she began working on Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for JusticeBut in 2025, before publication, Giuffre was found dead in her home in Australia. She’d let it be known that should anything happen to her, she wanted her story to be told. Amy Wallace joins Oli Dugmore to continue telling that story.--Statement from Sky Roberts as printed in Nobody's Girl: “Just to straighten this out, I never abused my daughter and didn’t know that Forrest —- did that either. If I had known about that, I would have been very angry and taken care of the situation. I gave my daughter every single thing she ever wanted and never ever touched her sexually, I never even knew what was going on with Epstein until I read about it online and getting calls from news agencies. There is so much they are getting wrong, even her middle name, it is Virginia Lee Roberts and not Virginia Louise. I am a moral person and believe that men who take advantage of young children should be prosecuted and then castrated. It really pisses me off that someone would write that I would ever abuse my children. As a father, I only tried to give my children a good life.” Statement from Giuffre vs Prince Andrew court case, 2022:"Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over the years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims."

Some had dubbed Starmer as "the Trump whisperer", so how has this change in leader come across in the US? Do they even care?Mehdi Hasan, founder of Zeteo, joins us on The Exchange to discuss the view from across the pond and how Britain became a punching bag for the American right.

Yesterday morning Keir Starmer resigned as prime minister. Today is the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum. Britain will soon welcome its seventh prime minister in a decade.Are the two events connected? Or is country's instability rooted further back in history?Editor-in-chief Tom McTague joins Oli Dugmore.

Children's laureate, screenwriter, author of Millions, architect of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, and father of seven, Frank Cottrell-Boyce joins Oli Dugmore to discuss what childhood means in Britain today.Over two years visiting schools, prisons and asylum hotels, he found a country that has quietly stopped looking after its youngest citizens. He talks about the NEETs crisis, furniture poverty, what summer holidays now mean to children who dread them, and why the most radical thing you can do for a child is sit on a sofa and read to them.

Mariana Mazzucato is one of the most influential economists of modern times. An avowed progressive, her ideas impact the lives of millions of people, from the United States to sub-Saharan Africa. She was directly consulted in the creation of Biden’s CHIPS Act, which is worth $280 billion. The World Bank’s Mission 300, is straight out of her book Mission Economy.Oli Dugmore sits down with her to discuss the hope for progressive change in our political and economic systems.The Common Good Economy: A New Compass by Mariana Mazzucato is out now (Allen Lane).

Are AI companies the new empires?Journalist Karen Hao says the parallels are striking. This disruptive sector  requires vast amounts of land, minerals and water – not to mention data and content from individuals. Hao interviews subjects ranging from those close to Open AI CEO Sam Altman to workers in the Global South who’ve been traumatised by their jobs in AI content moderation.She joins Oli Dugmore on The Exchange.