All Episodes

He wants to be adored – Burnham’s people-pleasing policy debut

Full Time for Starmer: Can Burnham Find a Way to Win?

Burnham, Binface and Starmer's final flight

Northern Soul: Burnham's Manchester No10 plan

Brexit at 10: A decade of drama, deals and disruption

What does Andy Burnham really stand for?

Burnham v Starmer: The King of the North heads South

The way you Makerfield

Protests, politics and the killing of Henry Nowak

The Blair Necessities

May 2026 elections: what are the implications for local government reorganisation?

Burnham Issues

Starmer, Streeting and the fight for No10

Elections 2026: Fragmentation nation

Is Keir Starmer in the last chance saloon?

Starmer vs Robbins: Why the Mandelson row keeps getting worse

The Peter Mandelson scandal: What are the lessons for Keir Starmer's government?

Is the UK (and Keir Starmer) under attack?

Who will pay the prices of war?

Money talks: Influence and interference

Can Rachel Reeves protect both households and the public finances from the energy price shock?

Can the UK weather the Middle East storm?

Keir Starmer and the cost of security

International Women's Day special: The inside story of life as an MP

Trump vs Iran: Is the UK ready for war?

Will Rachel Reeves spring a forecast surprise?

All roads lead to Romeo

Resets and resignations: Starmer's worst week yet

Keir Starmer's Mandelson Scandal

Growth strategy pains, trains and regional deals

Starmer’s Trump diplomacy and Darren Jones’s fast fixes

Wes Streeting’s government health-check

Donald Trumps Starmer’s New Year Plans

2025 in Review: Starmer's Year of Drama

The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications

Four mayors delayed, three ministers reflect, and a House of Lords battle renewed

Should the U.K. do budgets differently?

Autumn budget 2025: What is Rachel Reeves’ plan for the economy?

In conversation with John Swinney MSP, First Minister of Scotland

John Swinney’s goals for Scotland

Keir Starmer’s government: Traitors or Faithfuls?

Rachel Reeves and the art of pitch rolling the Budget

Home Office truths with Shabana Mahmood

The Prisons Crisis Strikes Back

Tinker, Tailor, Starmer, Spies

Lessons in Kemistry

Gloves off: Starmer v Reform

Starmer’s Liverpool Drama

Trump’s State Visit: The Sequel

The Mandelson misjudgement

Stand and deliver?

What really happens at the party conferences…

Getting It Right When Things Go Wrong: Ministerial Leadership During Crises

The secrets of being a government minister

Government in summer: who feels the heat?

The reshuffle revelations

STARMER LAYS DOWN THE RULES

The scandal and the superinjunction

Starmer and Macron: Le Spécial Relationship?

Ending in tears: Labour’s first year in government

Starmer vs the Labour rebels

What do the Nolan Principles mean today?

Iran-Israel conflict: Will Trump (and Starmer) go to war?

The morning after the Spending Review before

What choices did the government make in the 2025 spending review?

In conversation with Jeremy Hunt MP: Britain's place in the world

Keir Starmer gets ready for war

How will Starmer rate his ministers

THE ART OF THE BREXIT DEAL

Starmer and the strangers

The Trump-Starmer trade deal: What’s the beef?

Local elections: Ready for Reform?

Are Starmer and Badenoch making plans for Nigel?

Extra: What is the role of big suppliers in government procurement?

Trump’s Tariff Turnaround

Trump Declares War: Tariff Liberation Day

Will Trump rip up Reeves’s rebalanced books?

Will Rachel Reeves and Darren Jones’ sums add up?

Keir Starmer rewires the state: An interview with the prime minister

Will Ukraine be “Keir Starmer’s Falklands - or his Iraq”?

Starmer and Trump: special relationship or odd couple?

What is the UK’s place in Trump’s world?

In conversation with John Healey MP, Secretary of State for Defence

Starmer’s border crackdown, Trump’s Ukraine sellout

Keir Starmer: Leader or HR Manager?

Does Rachel Reeves have a runway to growth?

The Southport attacks: Has terrorism changed?

Government 2025 at The IfG: Darren Jones Keynote Speech

Rachel Reeves takes a gilt trip

Happy New Year, Keir?

2024 in Review: The Start of the Keir Show

Christmas Special: IfG Book Club

Power to the people

Appetite for Disruption

The Plans they are A-Changing

The new cabinet secretary: Can Sir Chris Wormald rewire the British state?

Cabi-not yet Secretary

Starmer’s Farmer Drama

Donald Trump's Team Calls

In Conversation with Michael Gove

Is the world ready for Donald Trump?

Rachel Reeves' Halloween budget: trick or treat?

What did Rachel Reeves’ budget reveal about the government’s priorities?

Donald Trump and the politics of interfere

Saturday Night's Alright for Investing

Gray goes out of fashion

After Sue Gray: How can Keir Starmer reset No.10?

Why was the Conservative Party Conference so upbeat?

Live from the Labour Party Conference!

KEIR AND PRESENT DANGER

Extra: What can be done to improve government procurement?

Winter Fuel of Discontent

Decades of failure by central government

Starmer looks back in anger

Appointments of contention

Does Sam Freedman have a plan to fix the failed state?

The politics of the Olympic Games

SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep.4: Moving On

The Chancellor’s statement of intent

SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep3: Beyond the department

The Trump vs Harris Showdown

SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep2: Relationships

Britain with the brakes off, America at the abyss

SpAdcast: What is it really like to be a special adviser? – Ep1: Into government

Keir and Prison Danger

LIVE: The day after the 2024 general election

Sunak’s election gamble: will Starmer hit the jackpot?

Election 2024: Poll positions

Election 2024: This Charming Manifesto?

Question Time Special: What does the election mean for civil servants?

Sunak vs. Starmer: Tax Attacks

Rishi Sunak’s Titanic challenge

Extra: General Election question time special

Rishi Sunak’s General Election gamble

Starmer steps on Sunak’s toes

Dover and done with

Local Elections 2024: Swings and roundabouts

The rules of Rishi’s flight club

Trust in government up in smoke?

Foreign Office Politics

Rishi Sunak and the Attack of the Cybermen

The Prime Minister’s plot twists

Preparing for Power: Ep 6 – Into Government

What’s wrong with the centre of government – and how can we fix it?

The general election budget?

Preparing for Power: Ep 5 – Making Manifestos

What do we really know about Keir Starmer?

Preparing for Power: Ep 4 – The governing party

The Hoyle Crisis

Preparing for Power: Ep 3 – The Opposition

Rishi Sunak’s double by-election trouble

Preparing for Power – Ep.2: The Civil Service

Sunak gambles as Starmer u-turns

Preparing for Power – Ep.1: Access Talks

The Gathering Stormont

Has Sunak lost the plot?

Rishi vs. The Rebels

The Post Office scandal: Trouble on the horizon

2024 Preview Special: Let election battles commence

Christmas Special: The IfG Fantasy Cabinet

The IfG Review of 2023: Posturing and panicking, poison and paranoia

Rishi Sunak’s unhappy Five Families

Was this Rishi Sunak's worst week yet?

Sunak’s Captain Marble act falls flat

Autumn Statement of Intent?

Sunak's flights of fantasy?

LIGHTS! CAMERON! RESHUFFLE ACTION!

The Suella/Sunak Stand-Off

Boris Johnson's orgy of narcissism

Inside Briefing Extra: Where next for English devolution?

250th EPISODE: Many unhappy returns? Rishi Sunak one year in

Rishi Sunak's double trouble

Mystery date: when is the right time to call a general election?

Keir Starmer’s Mersey Mission

The Start of the Keir Show

Rishi Sunak's Conference Call

Rishi Sunak's Seven Deadly Bins

Plane speaking with the PM

Concrete Evidence

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 6 - Parliament

The Rishi Reshuffle

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 5 - Managing budgets and working with the Treasury

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 4 – Working with Number 10

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 3 – Working with the civil service

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 2 – The day-to-day reality

Special: Becoming A Minister Part 1 – The first day

The Recess Digest

Special: Sunak’s ethics plan

Uxbridge Over Troubled Water?

Good chaps and bad apples

Searching For Evidence

Rishi Sunak and the drip-drip of bad news

Rishi Sunak counts the costs

Boris Johnson: The Party’s Over

Ex-Prime Ministers' Question Time

WhatsApp with the Covid Inquiry?

Drivetime with Suella Braverman

Why Doesn't Westminster Work?

Sunak's Scorecard and Minority Reports

Sunak's Little Local Difficulties and Starmer's Big Local Victories

Scapegoats or snowflakes?

Extra: The Treasury and the Covid crisis

Non-Dom Status

Striking images: What caused the NHS crisis and can it be fixed?

Dover Queues and Brexit Truths?

EXTRA - The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement: 25 years on

Someone Like Yousaf

EXTRA - The Emily Maitlis interview

EXTRA - Iraq War 20th Anniversary: The Robin Butler Interview

Boris Johnson's Partygate Hangover Returns

The Morning After The Budget Before

Will the government’s “stop the boats” plan work?

Stop boats, get votes?

International Women’s Day Special

Northern Ireland special: The Windsor change

Gray Goes Gracefully?

A year of war in Ukraine

A Holyrood Ending

Impermanent Secretaries: The Cabinet Reshuffle

100 days of Sunak

Sunak’s slipping standards?

Blasts from the past: Live at the IfG Conference 2023 with guest DAN SNOW

Payday Groans

Buckle up for 2023

Constitutions under pressure: Lessons for the UK

The IfG Review of 2022 – The year of living dangerously

The Winter Of Discontent 2.0

Peer Pressure

Selection headaches & tactical dilemmas

Rishi Sunak’s Growing Pains

Autumn Statement of intent

Gavin Williamson shuts up and goes away

Rumble in the Westminster Jungle

Ready for Rishi?

Broken Truss

Is the lady for u-turning?

"The nightmarish state of British politics"

Gilt trips & bank statements

Europe's Energy Crisis

Gloves off for Truss v Starmer

The Queen, the King and the Constitution

In Liz we Truss?

Truss triumph or Sunak surprise?

WHAT IS THE POINT OF PARTY CONFERENCES?

THE SECRET MAP OF WHITEHALL

THE LIFECYCLE OF A MINISTER

NUMBER 10 AFTER JOHNSON

Changing of the guard

The Sunak v Truss showdown

A Penny for Their Thoughts?

Boris Johnson: Exit Means Exit?

Around the World in 8 days

Double Trouble

The Only Way is Ethics

1922 and all that: Johnson’s crisis of confidence

VONC Special: Boris On The Brink?

Beyond the Beehive: lessons on government reform from New Zealand

Gray Matters

Belfast and the furious

Boris and the Giant Queen’s Speech

Election selection rejection

A little local difficulty?

Partygate in the House

Paying the penalty?

Information, Misinformation, Disinformation

Another fine mess for No10?

Is Rishi fuelling discontent?

Spring Statement Special Edition

Russia's Money Talks

Pouring Oil on Troubled Waters

THE UKRAINE CRISIS HITS HOME

How can Putin’s Ukraine war end?

Putin’s War - Can Sanctions Work?

Playing Chicken With Kyiv

Director’s Annual Lecture 2022

Send In The Not Complete Clowns

Sir John Major: In Democracy We Trust?

It’s a Shame About Gray

Ukraine on the Brink

Dog Fights and Defections

24 Hour Work Event People

It takes Inflation of Billions to Hold us back

2021: Groundhog Year

Peppa Pig Strikes Back: What fiction and fantasy can teach us about government, Part 2

One Hell of a Kicking for Boris Johnson

Ain’t no Party like a Number 10 Party

Why Does It Always Rayn On Keir?

“Is everything OK, Prime Minister?”

Sleaze into Another Week

“Not Remotely A Corrupt Country”

A Massive Owen Goal

Budget post-mortem: A new age of optimism?

Budget Review: Have Your Twix and Eat It

Budget Preview: Rishi Business

The David Amess murder: Will politics change?

Brexit: An Early Frost

The Boris in the Bubble

Right Keir, Right Now?

Levelling Up Means Levelling Up

Reshuffle Kerfuffle

The Taxman Cometh

Afghanistan: From Great Game to Blame Game

Special: Summer governing, happened so fast

Afghanistan: Rage of the Commons

The Afterlife Of Prime Ministers

Magic Johnsonism?

Boris’s End Of Term Report

Where The Wild Pings Are

Levelling Up or Spreading the Jam?

COVID: They think it’s all over

Hancock: Tryst Issues

A Deal Down Under

G7: There's Summit About Boris

EXTRA: Future Covid-19 scenarios: how can the world meet long-term threats?

The PM: Why ‘unfitness for office’ doesn't matter

Domolition Derby

Travel: Are You An Amber Gambler?

The Third Way… by Boris Johnson?

Elections ’21: Sheer Hartlepool Attack

Soft Furnishings, Hard Questions

Accessing your Flexible Friends

The Lobbying Scandal: ACOBA on the ropes

Who Judges The Judges?

Disintegration Nation

Scandal In The Wind

COVID: The Year of Indecision

Warheads Revisited – Inside the Integrated Defence Review

The Only Way Is Sussex

Budget 2021: Party like it’s 1969?

Budget: The Four Hundred Billion Pound Man

Budget 2021: To recovery and beyond?

EXTRA: Tony Blair on Coronavirus one year on

Blind Dates

Lifting lockdown 2021

Sundown for Lockdown?

What next for the NHS?

Welcome To The Hotel Quarantina

Border Farce

COVID: Why won’t the Government learn?

Director’s Annual Lecture 2021

No.10’s Command and Control Problem – plus Biden and Britain

Backlogs and Burnout: Will the NHS buckle?

America’s Day of Chaos

IFG LIVE SPECIAL The Brexit deal: An IfG briefing

Outsourcing the Death Star: What fiction and fantasy can teach us about government

The Year The World Stood Still: 2020 In Review

So Here It Is, Mini Christmas

BONUS: What does a Biden presidency mean for the UK?

Groundhog Deal

Roll Out To Help Out

INSIDE BRIEFING EXTRA: When Brexit and Covid collide

Do They Know It’s Rishmas Time?

No Such Thing As A Free Relaunch

A Hard Cain’s Gonna Fall

BIDEN HIS TIME: Inside Briefing Extra

Advice to government in the coronavirus crisis

Fate Of The Union

Is Britain’s Circuit Breaking?

All Disquiet On The Northern Front

Driven To Tiers

EXTRA: Brexit – Deal or No Deal?

And The Wind Cries ‘Boris’

We All Live In A Trade Talks Submarine

Freeze A Jolly Good Furlough

Test Botch Special

Specific and Limited Chaos

Simon’s on the Case

Return to Brexit Island

Slave To The ’Rithm – Exams crisis fallout

Marksism Today: The A Levels Fiasco

Northern Uproar and Overloading the Lords

The Pain In Spain

Civil Service: Is a Hard Rain really gonna fall?

Huawei, Lewis And The News

Rishi’s Groupon Gamble

SIR BERNARD JENKIN on the Civil Service’s turbulent week

A Good Year For The Roosevelts

Resign o’the Times: Mark Sedwill departs

Let’s Go Outside?

U-Turn When You Don’t Want To

COVID: You do the Aftermath

BONUS: Mark Landler of the NYT extended interview

Do the Demoggcracy Conga

Should Have Gone To SPAD-Savers

BONUS: The roots of America's COVID chaos with Dan Balz of the Washington Post

Back To Life, Back To Reality?

On Her Majesty’s Beleagured Service

For Those About To Unlock

“R” Wars against the Phantom Menace

Remote control: JACOB REES-MOGG on the Commons under COVID

Coming to the COVID Crunch

The Impossible Choice

Second in Command?

Designated survivors: Who’s in charge?

Sunset Clause is coming to town: Inside the Corona Bill

Coronanomics – “An enormous moral decision”

How to handle a national emergency – a special podcast

IfG INTERVIEWS: Julia Gillard, former Australian PM, on women in politics

Let’s get fiscal: Can Sunak bury Corona in cash?

IfG INTERVIEWS: David Gauke, former Treasury Secretary and one-man “Gaukward Squad”

A matter of life and debt

EXTRA: Rutnam vs Patel lays Civil Service/Govt turmoil bare

Breaking Spad: is something rotten in the state of Johnson?

“The Department of No”: Inside the Number Ten-Treasury rivalry

Reading the runes of Reshuffle Day with Gavin Barwell

BONUS: Gina Miller – “Parliamentary sovereignty is much more important than Brexit”

Getting Away With It? How to scrutinise an all-powerful Government

BONUS: Gisela Stuart – “I didn’t realise how deep the grievance of Remain voters was.”

Home and Huawei: Will Boris pass his first post-Brexit test?

What works in Whitehall – and what doesn’t?

The Leverage Report

BONUS: Jonathan Powell – “What I discovered in No.10 is how LITTLE power you have”

Revolution Number Ten

Get with the programme? Johnson’s new era of government

Holyrood vs. Westminster: A Scottish Independence Special Edition

Johnson unbound? Election results special

Election: The Final Countdown

Inside the Manifestos

A Guide to the Constitutional Galaxy

Getting Stuff Done: Why it’s always harder than you think

A firehose of public spending?

Parliament’s wake-up call for Government, the future of tax and David Lidington MP

Inside the Election stalemate – plus leading Brexiter Graham Brady MP

Inside the Brexit endgame – plus Hilary Benn MP