Mandarin mayhem
After another torrid week for the prime minister, the focus has shifted from No 10 to Whitehall as the UK’s top civil servant is shown the door. Cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald had been in the job...
13 Feb 31min
Mandelson, money - and the risk to the prime minister
Fresh revelations about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have sparked a political explosion in Westminster, reopening questions about Keir Starmer’s decis...
6 Feb 34min
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
