Chinese whispers — at home and abroad
Sir Keir Starmer is 5,000 miles away in China, meeting President Xi Jinping to drum up investment and deepen relations, but back on the home front the PM’s leadership looks increasingly beset. Manches...
30 Jan 36min
When the ‘special relationship’ isn’t so special
From ‘brilliant ally’ to ‘weak and stupid’ within the same paragraph, it’s hard to know how to handle the impulsive outbursts from America’s 47th President. And yet, this is the position in which the ...
23 Jan 35min
Disloyalty and defection: the Tory-Reform psychodrama
First he was pushed and then he jumped: high drama at Westminster after Kemi Badenoch sacked her rival for the Tory leadership Robert Jenrick - his crime was plotting a defection to Reform UK. Hours l...
16 Jan 34min
Trump trouble: Starmer's tricky start to 2026
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had wanted to kick off the new year with a strong domestic start, tackling the cost of living crisis head on, in the hopes of improving his dire poll ratings. Instead, ...
9 Jan 34min
Swamp Notes: Is the US economy really K-shaped?
Imagine a graph with one line going up over time. Below it, another line does just the opposite. It kind of looks like the letter K. On the FT's Swamp Notes podcast, Claire Jones and Rob Armstrong bre...
2 Jan 19min
Political Fix Live: Labour’s year in review
It’s been another turbulent year in politics. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced down rebellions from within his own party, overseen scandals and sackings, and delivered a constant barrage of bad n...
12 Dec 202538min
Deals, donations and damage limitation
Sir Keir Starmer started the week with not one but two speeches defending his party’s Budget decisions in the wake of claims that chancellor Rachel Reeves had misled the public and fellow MPs about th...
5 Dec 202539min
