Electoral Dysfunction

Westminster is restless, and the team are digging into why. Beth, Ruth and Harriet discuss the growing unease inside Labour, as somebody new joins the cabinet table. 

They also go over the damning findings of Baroness Amos's interim report into maternity care in England, featuring deeply personal accounts from women affected by systemic failings, including former Conservative MP Theo Clarke, who now hosts the podcast Breaking The Taboo. 

The chancellor is being accused of "lying" over what she knew and when ahead of her budget – so did Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer actually mislead the public? 

Beth walks us through a detailed timeline of the OBR forecasts, the so-called "black hole", and why journalists now feel they were given only half the story. Ruth and Harriet weigh in on political honesty, the dangers of selective briefing, and why trust between the government, the media and the public is fraying fast. 

Plus, former Number10 director of communications Matthew Doyle joins the trio to discuss Labour's early months in power, the turbulence around political messaging, and how governments lose (and can rebuild) narrative control. 

With all the speculation, it was always going to be a big one, but Rachel Reeves's second budget turned into a political earthquake before she even stood up at the dispatch box.

In this bumper budget special, Beth, Ruth and Harriet unpick what happened on one of the most dramatic days in the fiscal calendar.

With the unprecedented leak of the Office for Budget Responsibility's assessment giving the opposition a sneak preview, Kemi Badenoch delivered a fiery attack. Listeners weigh in on their thoughts of her comebacks.

The home secretary is going hard on immigration and she's taking a lot of people with her, not least Kemi Badenoch and the Reform party.

Shabana Mahmood is using her identity – as a British Asian Muslim – to prove why she understands the migration problem in the country better than most.

So how extreme are her new policies, modelled on the Danish system? Can she persuade the whole Labour party that they're not going too far, when they've spent years calling Tory policies "racist"?

And as a tough, plain speaking and passionate politician, is she the new Margaret Thatcher? And could she pose a threat to Keir Starmer now the Labour Party is looking beyond him as leader?

Plus – Harriet thinks the chancellor will scrap the two child benefit cap entirely at next week's budget – but is that actually popular with the party? Or are Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves bending to the demands of their backbenchers?

UPDATE: We talked again on this episode about speculation that Rachel Reeves was going to raise income tax rates in the budget. Since we recorded, Beth's been told that those plans have been ditched.