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Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government — Government
Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

The first Labour government in 14 years is facing a daunting to-do list and complex challenges at every turn. Public services are under strain. The civil service is under pressure. And ministers must deliver the government’s missions and milestones. But could Keir Starmer’s plan to “rewire the British state” – through using AI and creating a “start-up” culture – turn these challenges into opportunities?
So where is government working well and what is it doing badly? What can be done to make No10, the Treasury and the rest of government function more effectively? What can Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves do to achieve faster economic growth? What will Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives and the other opposition parties do to hold the government to account? How might Donald Trump shape British politics – and how could the UK’s relations with the EU change in the years ahead?
Get behind the scenes in Westminster, Whitehall and beyond on the weekly podcast from Britain’s leading governmental think tank, where we analyse the latest events in politics and explain what they mean. Every week on Inside Briefing, IfG director Hannah White and the team welcomes special guests for a thought-provoking conversation on what makes government work – and how to fix it when it doesn’t.

Copyright: © Institute for Government

Latest Episodes:

Keir Starmer's Mandelson Scandal Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

The revelations about what contact Peter Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein, what the government knew, and what it did or is now doing about it is the story that is dominating Westminster.

The FT’s Jim Pickard joins the podcast team to look back at an explosive week in UK politics, and the serious questions being asked about Starmer’s judgement, the vetting process, and the ability to eject unfit members from the Lords – from which Peter Mandelson is on a voluntary leave of absence.

Presented by Hannah White. With Alex Thomas.

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Growth strategy pains, trains and regional deals Jan 29, 2026

Show notes

Of all its manifesto pledges, missions and milestones, Labour has been most keen to tell the public that it is ‘going for growth’. But does the government have a robust and well thought-through plan to deliver that growth? Or is it, like so many before it, struggling to really take the ‘tough decisions’ required to drag UK GDP growth rates up to meet – and indeed surpass – those of our fellow G7 nations?

This government has not been short of plans and strategies, but what it has not produced is a strategy for growth that helps it make hard choices nor the right support in place for the PM to follow through on them. This is a problem, as a new paper out this week from IfG and Imperial College London explores.

Meanwhile, regional inequalities are one barrier to growth, and transport is both a symptom and a cause of this. Many regions lag far behind the capital on funding and transport connectivity, preventing people from getting new jobs, travelling to existing ones or otherwise moving about the country – all harming productivity. The authors of another new IfG report supported by Arup join us to discuss their findings – including a case study of themayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham’s work on the Bee Bus Network.

Hannah White presents

With Giles Wilkes, Akash Paun, Harriet Shaw and special guest Soumaya Keynes

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Starmer’s Trump diplomacy and Darren Jones’s fast fixes Jan 21, 2026

Show notes

In a week when Donald Trump has been escalating his threats to NATO member states over Greenland, Darren Jones was on the home front ensuring that the government’s desire to transform government was also continuing. So what is the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister planning? Is it enough to meet the challenges he has identified, and what will they need to do to actually see change? We get stuck into the latest government reform plans, joined by Francis Maude, a previous minister for civil service reform.

And of course it is still 2026, it is still January. So Donald Trump is still dominating all other news. We will discuss the latest challenges he has thrown at the UK government and reflect on what it means for UK-US relations, the Starmer approach to Trump diplomacy and what we learned at a special event we held this week reflecting on the President’s first year back in office.

Presented by Hannah White

Featuring Alex Thomas, Hannah Keenan, Catherine Haddon and special guest Francis Maude

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Wes Streeting’s government health-check Jan 16, 2026

Show notes

Drop the excuses culture. Stop complaining about civil servants. And just get it right the first time rather than repeatedly u-turning. Wes Streeting didn’t hold back at the IfG conference this week - so what does the health secretary’s verdict on the government say about Keir Starmer and the challenges he and his ministers face in 2026?

Wes Streeting, Mel Stride, Darren Jones, Louise Casey, Andy Burnham, Michael Gove, Ayesha Hazarika and Ed Balls all joined the IfG Annual Conference to discuss what government is doing right, what it is getting wrong, and what it needs to do differently. We discuss the fascinating, headline-making and thought provoking day.

The performance of the civil service was a theme that recurred throughout the conference. What does rewiring the state really mean? Is it even happening? What are the reforms that Whitehall really needs? This week also saw the publication of the IfG’s annual Whitehall Monitor, our flagship stocktake of the size, shape and performance of the civil service. It’s packed with data and analysis - and its lead author joins the podcast to tell us all about it.

Presented by Hannah White

Featuring Hannah Keenan, Tim Durrant and Ben Paxton

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Donald Trumps Starmer’s New Year Plans Jan 09, 2026

Show notes

With US military strikes on Venezuela dominating headlines, Lawrence Freedman joins the podcast team to ask what Donald Trump's foreign plans mean for the UK - and assess whether Keir Starmer’s Trump strategy will hold in 2026.

The prime minister found his January announcements knocked off the front pages - but was anyone really listening? We explore the government challenges facing Starmer and his team in the year ahead.

Plus: Ed Balls, Wes Streeting, Mel Stride, Louise Casey, Ayesha Hazarika, Andy Burnham and more. We preview the IfG annual conference.

Hannah White presents.

With Alex Thomas and Hannah Keenan.

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2025 in Review: Starmer's Year of Drama Dec 22, 2025

Show notes

A year is a long time in the podcasting world, especially for podcasts keeping a close eye on the highs, lows, trials and tribulations of government. Because it has been quite some year for Keir Starmer and his team - and for British politics more generally.

We’ve had reshuffles, resignations and resets. The rise of Reform. The breakthrough of the Greens. Promised policy blitzes. A planned rewiring of the state. The start - apparently - of the government’s delivery phase. A government-defining budget. Some government-disrupting leadership challenges - real or imagined. And every now and then someone called Donald Trump crashes into the picture.

The IfG team and the Financial Times’s Public Policy Editor look back on an eventful 12 months and pick out the big moments of 2025 - the most significant stories, the big political developments, and the key appointments that could shape the year ahead. Not all of these will have made huge headlines. Perhaps they should have done - let’s see.

Presented by Alex Thomas

Featuring Chris Smyth, Jill Rutter, Stuart Hoddinott and Catherine Haddon

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The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term as US president – and Trump 2.0 has also shown little regard for facts or evidence. Unexpected presidential announcements are made on social media or in press conferences, and Trump’s positions can appear to change overnight. Leaders of other countries, including Keir Starmer, find their own plans and statements overshadowed or knocked off course.

Despite this chaos and confusion, Trump appears authentic and able to galvanise his base while other, more conventional, political communicators struggle to get their message across.

So is Trump rewriting the rules for government communications? Does the UK have sufficient safeguards against our political leaders adopting Trump’s attitude to facts? Does the UK have robust enough rules to ensure that government communications serve the public not partisan interest? And how is it possible to plan government communications when those plans are constantly blown away by overnight developments in the US?

To discuss these questions and more, the Institute for Government, in partnership with Vuelio, was delighted to bring together an expert panel including:

Katy Balls, Washington Editor for The Times
Simon Baugh, Chief Executive of Government Communications, 2021–25
Alastair Campbell, former No.10 Chief Press Secretary (1997–2000) and No.10 Director of Communications (2000–03) and presenter of the Rest is Politics podcast.
Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government

This webinar was chaired by Jill Rutter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government.

We would like to thank Vuelio for kindly supporting this event.

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Four mayors delayed, three ministers reflect, and a House of Lords battle renewed Dec 12, 2025

Show notes

The government announced that elections for new mayors in four regions will now be delayed. Voters in Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, and Norfolk and Suffolk will be waiting until 2028 instead. Why has the government done this? Is this part of a clever strategy or a desperate last-minute fumble?

Meanwhile, the government is installing yet more peers into the House of Lords after a series of battles between the government and the second chamber. So what lies behind the battle, what might happen and will it make a difference to the long-running debate about Lords reform?

And finally... Sajid Javid says he lost faith in Boris Johnson’s leadership, Simon Hart says the Sunak government nearly collapsed over the Rwanda bill and Theresa Villiers says that WhatsApp group chats were critical to defeating Theresa May’s Brexit deal. We speak to the team behind our latest Ministers Reflect series.

Hannah White presents

With Akash Paun, Jack Pannell and Rebecca McKee

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Should the U.K. do budgets differently? Dec 03, 2025

Show notes

The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility has gone, the Chancellor is being accused of misleading the public. So how did that budget go?

Richard Hughes has taken responsibility for the accidental leak of the budget and resigned. What does this mean for the OBR’s future and political trust in it?

Meanwhile, the Chancellor has been accused of misleading the public over the state of public finances. So what did happen in the budget pitch-rolling and what does this tell us about how well the UK does budgets? Could we, should we, do them differently?

Plus - the Justice Secretary has revealed his plans for changes to jury trials. We dig into the latest news.

Hannah White presents

With Gemma Tetlow, Alex Thomas and Cassia Rowland

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Autumn budget 2025: What is Rachel Reeves’ plan for the economy? Nov 26, 2025

Show notes

Just hours after Rachel Reeves sets out the budget to parliament, this webinar brought together a team of Institute for Government (IfG) experts to share their instant and essential analysis of the chancellor’s plans.

Who are the winners and losers of Reeves’s tax and spending announcements? How will her measures affect economic growth? Has the chancellor finally set a coherent tax strategy? And what challenges now lie ahead for Keir Starmer’s government?

To answer these questions and more, this budget day webinar from the IfG brought together an expert line up featuring Dan Haile, Jill Rutter, and Giles Wilkes. The webinar was chaired by Dr Hannah White.

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