True London

Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics is the best person you could possibly have to explain the fairness or otherwise of the government's plans for changing how it contributes to the funding of local government. We also dipped into the government Pride in Place funding programme and consider whether that will do much for the Uk capital, which is rich in many ways yet also has very high poverty rates.

Previously a school teacher like her dad, Hina Bokhari has been a Liberal Democrat Merton councillor since 2018, the first Muslim woman to win a seat in that borough. She was elected to the London Assembly in 2021.In our conversation she reflects on her party's recent conference, its attitude to London and hopes for making gains at next year's borough elections and speaks with feeling about the recent increase in racist incidents and flag intimidation. She also speaks up for the Labour Mayor following Donald Trump's latest insulting behaviour and recalls her father being a teacher and mentor to the young Sir Sadiq.

The Green Party's new national leader is a confident, charismatic, self-styled "eco populist" who has a seat on the London Assembly. Will his elevation help his party's electoral prospects n the capital or hinder them? An LSE Policy Fellow and expert number cruncher, Jenevieve Treadwell looks at the challenges the party faces with holding its broad electoral coalition together and making it bigger. Green supporters in Lambeth and Hackney might be enthused by Polanski's radicalism. But what about those in Richmond?

As well as being a Labour AM, Elly Baker is the current chair of the London Assembly's transport committee. In this podcast she talks about the decline of London's bus service, antisocial cycling and the transport committee's recent intervention over fare dodging - an issue that has been exploited by right-wing politicians as part of a larger negative narrative about the capital. And with London Underground strikes imminent, she draws on her experience working for trade unions to offer some thoughts about relations between the Tube unions and management. For more top coverage of the UK capital city, read OnLondon.co.uk.

Lewis Baston is one of the most respected elections analysts in the country and his coverage of London's is unrivalled. He wrote for On London about a by-election in Cranford ward in the borough of Hounslow held on 21 August 2025 and an other held a week later, on 28 August 2025, in the very different West Hampstead ward in the borough of Camden. In this podcast, he elaborates on what the outcomes tell us about the capital's voters and its shifting political landscape.