The Week in Westminster

As Andy Burnham is confirmed as the Labour candidate for the Makerfield by-election, George Parker asks whether this signals the start of a long goodbye for Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. He brings together Labour MP, Miatta Fahnbulleh, who resigned as an Energy minister earlier this month, and Jonathan Ashworth, formerly a member of Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet.The question of whether Britain should one day rejoin the EU has reared up once again in this shadow Labour leadership contest. To discuss that George speaks to the EU's former ambassador to the UK, Joao Vale de Almeida.Following the Government's confirmation that HS2 could eventually cost over £100bn and may not open until 2039, George turns to Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, who chairs the Transport Select Committee, and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.And, is Kemi Badenoch doing a good job as Conservative leader? George speaks to Lee Cain, former Number Ten Director of Communications to Boris Johnson, and Times columnist, Seb Payne.

Caroline speaks to the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who is also Minister for Equalities and Women, about the tumultous week for Sir Keir Starmer as almost 100 Labour MPs called on him to go. Claire Ainsley, who was policy director for Keir Starmer when he was in opposition and is now at the Progressive Policy Institute and Robert Colville, director of the centre right think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies assess whether Labour is doing enough to promote growth, in the week that the UK economy unexpectedly grew by 0.6% during the first three months of the year.Conservative peer Matthew Elliott, who was the Chief Executive of the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum ten years ago and the Liberal Democrats’ Business spokesperson Sarah Olney debate whether Europe is once again becoming a defining issue in British politics after the prime minister vowed to put “Britain at the heart of Europe”.And two long-term Westminster insiders discuss Labour's leadership challenge: the Labour peer, Ayesha Hazarika, who worked as an adviser to several senior Labour party politicians and LBC presenter and writer Iain Dale.

Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster

The appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador dominated Commons proceedings again this week. Isabel discusses where it leaves Sir Keir Starmer's authority with Labour MP Sarah Champion and Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin. Isabel discusses the Golders Green attack where two Jewish men were stabbed with Labour peer, John Mann who has served as the UK government's Independent Adviser on Antisemitism since 2019. Earlier this week, a report on the health of the nation was published showing a drop in the number of healthy years that British people can expect live to. Former Conservative health minister Steve Brine and Labour MP, Anna Dixon who used to work in health policy review the findings. And, with local elections in England, the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly next week, Isabel brings together Conservative peer and political anaylst Robert Hayward and Sienna Rodgers, the deputy editor of The House Magazine for their predictions.

George Parker analyses the latest developments at Westminster.To discuss the ongoing row over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, and what it means for the Prime Minister's authority, George is joined by Labour MP, Preet Gill, and former Conservative Attorney General, Dominic Grieve.This week the Assisted Dying Bill was finally laid to rest after it ran out of time in the House of Lords. To discuss whether the legislative campaign is over George speaks to one of the Bill's supporters, Green MP Ellie Chowns, and Ruth Fox, director of the Hansard Society.The Commons and Lords were engaged in some parliamentary ping pong this week on the issue of banning social media for under 16s. Former Conservative Schools Minister, Lord Nash, debates with Labour MP, Helen Hayes, chair of the Education Select Committee.And, as the Government announces that its new complaints system for upholding free speech in universities will come in to force later this year, George brings together former Conservative Cabinet minister, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Professor Alison Scott-Baumann of SOAS University of London.

The row over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador erupted again this week. Sonia discusses the issues raised over security clearance with Hannah White, Director of The Institute for Government and Caroline Slocock, a former civil servant who was private secretary to Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Sonia discusses the impact on the UK economy of the war in Iran with Labour peer Stewart Wood, who is a former adviser to Gordon Brown and Chair of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. And Rupert Harrison, who worked alongside George Osborne at the Treasury, and is now a senior adviser at the investment management company Pimco.Earlier this week, the Prime Minister spoke of closer ties with the EU on food and other goods. To discuss this Sonia is joined by Labour MP Catherine West who is a former Foreign Office Minister and Reform UK MP Danny Kruger.And, last month legislation was finally passed to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords. To reflect on their removal Sonia is joined by two hereditary peers: crossbencher Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon and the Liberal Democrat Lord Thurso, who is also a former MP.

Joe Pike looks back at Westminster politics in the first months of 2026.He is joined by FT political editor, George Parker, Guardian columnist, Gaby Hinsliff, and GB News political editor Chris Hope.

Isabel Hardman assesses the Iran conflict, three weeks in, with Labour's Dame Emily Thornberry MP who chairs the Foreign Affairs select committee and the former Conservative deputy Foreign Secretary Sir Andrew Mitchell MP. The chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, Ruth Curtice and the business journalist and crossbench peer Patience Wheatcroft, who sits on the Lords Economic Affiars Committee discuss rising energy costs caused by the conflict and whether the government should intervene. Legislators in Scotland and Westminster have been debating assisted dying this week. Labour MP Beccy Cooper is a doctor, who supports assisted dying and Robert Lisvane was Clerk of the House of Commons and now sits as a crossbench peer. Is it inevitable that the bill will run out of time in Westminster? And the Labour MP Naz Shah told Isabel about her childhood shaped by hardship and injustice within a British Pakistani family in Bradford and her journey to become a parliamentarian.

Pippa Crerar of The Guardian assesses the latest developments at Westminster.To discuss the unfolding conflict in the Middle East, and Britain's response, Pippa is joined by Labour peer, Lord West, a former First Sea Lord and Security Minister, and former Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, who also served as a minister in the Foreign Office and MoD.Following the vote on the government's controversial Courts and Tribunals Bill which would restrict jury trials, Pippa speaks to Dame Vera Baird KC, a former Labour minister and Victims' Commissioner who now chairs the Criminal Cases Review Commission, and Cassia Rowland, senior researcher at The Institute for Government who specialises in criminal justice.Sunder Katwala, Director of the think tank British Future, which focuses on immigration and integration, and crossbench peer Kishwer Falkner, the former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, debate the government's new strategy on social cohesion.And, following the release of government documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, Pippa speaks to Keir Starmer's former Director of Strategy, Paul Ovenden, and the political editor of the New Statesman, Ailbhe Rea.

George Parker discusses Prime Minister Starmer’s decision not to support the US-Israel offensive against Iran, and the pressure he has been under for it, with the crossbench peer Kim Darroch, who was the UK’s Ambassador to the United States during President Trump’s first term, and the Labour peer Cathy Ashton, a former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs who led negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.To analyse the Spring Statement that the Chancellor delivered on Tuesday, George is joined by the former Conservative Chancellor, Sir Jeremy Hunt, and the Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, who chairs the Commons Treasury Committee.MPs debated the Representation of the People Bill in the Commons this week. The Bill would allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote at the next general election. To discuss the Bill, George spoke to Labour MP for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, who is the youngest female MP in the House of Commons, and 19-year-old George Finch from Reform UK, who leads Warwickshire County Council; he is the youngest council leader in Britain.And Robert Fox, the veteran war correspondent, and Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London, debated the special relationship between the US and the UK in light of Prime Minister Starmer’s decision not to support the US–Israel offensive against Iran, which sparked criticism from the White House.

Sonia Sodha discusses the Greens' by-election win in the Greater Manchester seat of Gorton and Denton and where this leaves Sir Keir Starmer with the Bassetlaw MP Jo White, who chairs the Red Wall caucus and Andrew Fisher, who was a senior adviser to Jeremy Corbyn when he was Labour leader and is now a columnist for the i newspaper. To assess reforms for children with special educational needs and disabilities, Sonia is joined by Sir Nick Gibb, a former Conservative MP and a long-serving schools minister and the Labour MP Jess Asato who is on the Education Select Committee and has a child with special educational needs..Sonia discusses the appointment of Antonia Romeo to the top job of Cabinet Secretary with Helen MacNamara, who spent 15 years in senior civil service roles and was deputy Cabinet Secretary during the pandemic. And the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart and Professor Robert Hazell from the Constitution Unit at UCL discuss whether this week's parliamentary debate on the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a trade envoy in 2001 spells the end for the long-standing convention that MPs must not criticise members of the royal family in the Commons chamber.