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cover art for Andy Burnham's gamble to beat Reform in Makerfield and reach Number 10 — and will Reform have to wage war on a reluctant civil service?

The Julia Hartley-Brewer Show

Andy Burnham's gamble to beat Reform in Makerfield and reach Number 10 — and will Reform have to wage war on a reluctant civil service?

Keir Starmer is (currently!) vowing to lead Britain through its current crisis — but are his supporters falling away? 


James Lyons, Starmer's former Director of Communications at Number 10, joins Julia to dissect the Prime Minister's extraordinary resilience — or delusion, depending on who you ask. 


With U-turns piling up, MPs briefing against him, and a leadership circus consuming Westminster, Lyons gives an insider's view of the man at the centre of it all.


Then it's the by-election that has been branded the ‘most significant in 50 years’. 


Andy Burnham is heading to Makerfield — a seat that voted 65% for Brexit, where Reform swept the recent local elections. 


Is this a bold political gamble to prove he can beat Reform UK… or a catastrophic miscalculation? And did Wes Streeting's comments about wanting to rejoin the EU deliberately torpedo Burnham's chances before he's even on the ballot?


Richard Tice, Deputy Leader of Reform UK, makes the case that his party are throwing everything at Makerfield — and explains why he thinks the Tories are simply irrelevant. 


He also faces tough questions on Nigel Farage's undisclosed £5 million gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harbour, the Standards Commissioner investigation, and whether Reform can actually govern if civil servants go on strike.


Plus: TikTok censors a Reform immigration video using the Online Safety Act — and Julia asks whether Nadine Dorries has repented for helping create it.


Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.


Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.

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  • Bleksley Blasts Bobbies Over Nowak Tragedy

    51:10|
    Charlie Rowley reacts as Burnham’s Makerfield pitch fuelled Labour leadership rumours, as Henry Nowak’s murder intensified policing rows and political pressure. Nowak’s family met Badenoch and Starmer, while Elon Musk’s comments drew rebukes amid calls for calm and accountability. Royal finances faced scrutiny over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s cottage arrangements, raising questions about privilege, transparency and public trust.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM. Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • Henry Nowak's family call for 'common sense' equality: Kemi Badenoch reacts to her meeting with the family

    52:28|
    The Prime Minister and Hampshire's Chief Constable insist there is no two-tier policing. But Hampshire Police's own documents, in black and white, explicitly state that officers must not treat people the same or be colourblind. Officers who underwent the force's mandatory DEI training reported feeling pressured — afraid to say the wrong thing. One in five feared being rejected for speaking their minds. Is this institutionalised groupthink running through policing, the NHS, the civil service, and more?Brendan O'Neill argues that Keir Starmer is not protecting Henry Nowak's legacy — he is using it as a political shield to deflect scrutiny from the very policies that shaped this tragedy. Nigel Farage was heckled in the Commons while bringing up many people’s experience of two-tier policing. Yet in 2020, the same political class praised Black Lives Matter rage from the rooftops.Kemi Badenoch, fresh from a meeting with Henry's family, makes the case for sweeping away identity politics entirely — and explains why consistency under the law, not special treatment for any group, is the only path forward.Plus: Lord Mann's report recommends banning all political badges in the NHS — and Julia asks why anyone ever thought that was acceptable in the first place.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • Henry Nowak: Two-Tier Policing, Race Bias and the Death of Equality Before the Law

    42:41|
    The murder of Henry Nowak sent shockwaves across Britain, after the body cam footage of police handcuffing a dying, stabbed teenager whilst he told them he couldn’t breathe and had been stabbed.  Julia Hartley-Brewer unpacks what this case reveals: the deadly consequence of an institutionalised ideology that has infected British policing from top to bottom.Julia is joined by commentator Benedict Spence, who argues against the left’s narrative that Nigel Farage is politicising this story against the wishes of the family. He says murder is inherently political and that no victim's family holds a monopoly over public debate. Together they dissect the violent protests in Southampton, the accusations of exploitation levelled at Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, and the uncomfortable truth that two-tier policing isn't a conspiracy theory — it's written down in black and white in policing race action plans.Then, Rick Prior — former Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who was suspended for daring to say exactly this — joins Julia to explain how DEI training, the Police Race Action Plan, and the institutional obsession with "equality of outcomes" over equal treatment has left officers terrified of being labelled racist. The result is a culture where an accusation of racism outweighs a boy bleeding to death on the pavement.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM. Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • ‘I can’t breathe’: Did two-tier policing led to Henry Nowak’s death? The case that's shaking Britain

    35:33|
    The body cam footage from the murder of Henry Novak is incredibly disturbing. A young man, stabbed and dying, tells police four times he's been stabbed and nine times he can't breathe — and is handcuffed and left to die with two pints of blood in his lungs. His killer was never even handcuffed.Julia Hartley-Brewer doesn't hold back. She is joined by Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick, Shadow Policing Minister and Conservative Deputy Chairman Matt Vickers, and former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville.Is this proof of two-tier policing in Britain? All three guests say yes. The rot, they argue, runs far deeper than two officers at a crime scene. It goes straight to the top — the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs Council, the Home Office race action plans, and decades of critical race theory embedded throughout the establishment.Why did Keir Starmer take the knee for George Floyd but stay silent for three days after Henry Nowak's killer was convicted? Why are words treated as more dangerous than knives? And what would it actually take to tear this broken system down?Also: the Mandelson Files and the bombshell WhatsApp message from Pat McFadden that exposes exactly what Labour MPs really think about taxpayers' money.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM. Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • More Mandelson files coming ... and Nicola Sturgeon defends herself over 'crime she didn't commit'

    38:08|
    Julia Hartley-Brewer breaks down what hundreds of bombshell texts, WhatsApps, and emails are expected to reveal about Peter Mandelson's controversial appointment as UK Ambassador to the United States. Also under discussion is Nicola Sturgeon's BBC interview in which she claims to be serving a sentence for a crime she did not commit. Julia and former Conservative government adviser Claire Pearsall question the idea that Sturgeon knew nothing about her husband Peter Murrell embezzling £400,000 from the SNP — including an £80,000 Jaguar, a £125,000 camper van, and 108 loo rolls bought the day before Sturgeon told the nation not to stockpile.Plus: the Hague rules the UK does NOT have to pay Rwanda £100 million. Was the £700 million Rwanda scheme a catastrophic waste of your money?And Tory plans for benefit ration cards for criminals — sensible policy or political fantasy?Then, political commentator James Mathewson joins for a fiery on-air clash over trans rights, Donald Trump, Reform UK, and whether James Murray is a coward for finally admitting that trans women are not women.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM. Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • Britain's ‘Lost Generation’: One in Six Young People Face a Workless Future

    29:45|
    Over a million young people aged 16 to 24 are currently not in education, employment or training. Former Cabinet Minister Alan Milburn argues that without urgent action, that figure could rise to one in six within five years. How has this happened? Milburn points to young people’s ‘aspiration’, but a job market that is failing them, following increases to employer’s national insurance and the minimum wage. Julia adds young people’s attitudes… and failed parenting. Ryan Wayne from the Tony Blair Institute joins the show to discuss the report, as well as Tony Blair’s criticism of the government. Julia questions his boss’s legacy — mass immigration from Eastern Europe, the 50% university target, and net zero — arguing they systematically dismantled opportunities for a generation of young Brits.Lord Daniel Hannan, incoming Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, lays out the economics that have led to our current malaise: punishing hikes in National Insurance, the Rayner Employment Rights Bill, and a near two-thirds rise in the minimum wage since lockdown have made hiring young people a risk too far for businesses. Add to that a welfare system riddled with perverse incentives, a surge in mental health diagnoses with patients coached by online influencers, and a lockdown hangover we've barely begun to recover from — and the picture is bleak.Also: Dame Helen Mirren, 80 years old and walking through London with her husband, is subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade by a pro-Palestine activist. Philip Ingram MBE connects the dots between Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the radicalisation driving these shocking street confrontations.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM. Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • Blair criticises Starmer’s Labour for having no plan, the wrong policies on net zero, migration, and growth — and Reform in-fighting as Restore Britain improve in polls

    36:17|
    Tony Blair has dropped a political bombshell on Keir Starmer's desk. In a scathing 5,700-word essay, the former Prime Minister and three-time election winner says Labour has no coherent plan to fix Britain, is governing from a "soft left comfort zone," and will lose the next general election unless it ditches net zero, slashes the welfare bill, stops the boats, and stops pretending that swapping leaders is the same as changing course.Julia Hartley-Brewer is joined by former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who finds remarkably little to disagree with in Blair's brutal assessment, despite their different parties. He breaks down exactly where this government went wrong — arriving with a historic landslide on just 33% of the vote and then standing completely still. No plan. No direction. Just a budget that hammered small businesses with national insurance hikes, a soaring minimum wage, and crippling business rates — the very engine room of British jobs and growth.IDS also reflects on his own record reforming welfare under Universal Credit — cutting between £28 and £32 billion from the budget and delivering the lowest number of workless households since records began — and why Labour's half-hearted attempts to repeat that are doomed to fail.Also: the Makerfield by-election is descending into farce, with Reform and the newly formed Restore Britain tearing chunks out of each other while Andy Burnham eyes the prize. Is this just a parade of oversized egos? Plus, Nicola Sturgeon and the motorhome that apparently nobody saw — for two years, on her mother-in-law's driveway.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker
  • Nicola Sturgeon's husband pleads guilty to embezzling party funds… did she know nothing? Plus: the teenage rapists spared prison time

    38:33|
    Nicola Sturgeon's estranged husband Peter Murrell has pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,000 from SNP party funds. That money was used for four coffee machines worth £9,000, £2,000 on salt and pepper shakers, an £80,000 Jaguar, and a motorhome parked on his mother's driveway. Sturgeon claims she knew absolutely nothing about where the money came from.Julia Hartley-Brewer is joined by Tom Slater, editor of Spiked, to unpick whether that defence is credible. Julia is unconvinced. For a couple who travelled to work together, jointly led the SNP for years, and were legally responsible for signing off the party accounts, the "I saw nothing" response needs to be fully investigated.Also: two teenage boys convicted of rape are spared custodial sentence, despite overwhelming evidence — including footage they filmed themselves. During sentencing, the judge said he wanted to avoid unnecessarily criminalising them. The Attorney General Lord Hermer has now referred the case to the Court of Appeal, but as Julia and Tom argue, the real problem lies deeper, within the sentencing guidelines themselves, which appear to treat youth, low IQ, and ADHD as excuses.And with the Makerfield by-election looming, polling expert Sir John Curtice, Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, joins Julia to break down why this is no ordinary by-election. With Andy Burnham's personal vote, a resurgent Reform UK, and Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain potentially splitting the right-wing vote, the result is likely to pave the way to a new Prime Minister. Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.
  • Stats reveal a FIFTH of the UK population is born abroad – while the government celebrates a reduction in net migration

    21:36|
    The Office for National Statistics has released the migration figures for the last quarter — and whilst the government is celebrating, Julia Hartley-Brewer isn't buying it. She's joined by Reform UK Councillor and Deputy Leader of Durham County Council Darren Grimes, who forcefully argues that nobody voted for the rampant levels of migration over the past decades. From David Cameron's broken promise of reducing it to tens of thousands, to Boris Johnson's staggering 944,000 net arrivals, the British public have been consistently lied to — and are now footing the bill in housing, healthcare, schools, and council translation contracts running into the tens of thousands.Former Head of UK Border Force Tony Smith then joins to drill down into the raw data. Net migration is down to 171,000 — but 88,000 new asylum claims, a 3% boat removal rate, and nearly a fifth of the UK population now foreign-born tells a very different story.Also: Julia discusses the viral clip of Rachel Reeves getting heckled at a Leeds petrol station… and her questioning the British-ness of her heckler. Plus, the Reform candidate for the Makerfield by-election faces media scrutiny over deleted tweets.Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.Available on YouTube and streaming platforms, along with DAB+ radio and your smart speaker.