Political Fix
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Political Fix
The Financial Times takes you into the corridors of power to unwrap, analyse and debate British politics with a regular lineup of FT correspondents and informed commentators. New episodes available every Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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556 epizod
Introducing Untold: Toxic Legacy
Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You mig...

Has Kemi Badenoch silenced the critics?
Conference season is over for another year and after a rousing speech from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to the party faithful, the Political Fix...

Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Mission to Mars
US President Donald Trump has pledged to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”, China could send its first crewed mission to Mars within a...

Labour’s conference comeback?
This week, the Political Fix team comes to you from Liverpool — with all the news from the annual Labour Party Conference. Sir Keir Starmer struck a p...

Does Starmer have a northern problem?
As the prime minister prepares for his annual party conference, the mayor for Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, seems to be mounting a thinly veiled b...

Trumpery, pageantry and the ‘special relationship’
President Donald Trump landed in Windsor this week for his historic second state visit to the UK. What ensued was a celebration of pomp and pageantry...

Starmer in a spin as the ‘Dark Lord’ bites the dust
After the toe-curling revelations about Lord Peter Mandelson’s connections with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the ambassador’s departure s...

Bonus ep: How the UK is navigating the Trump era
US President Donald Trump is coming to the UK next week. What can we expect from his visit? And where do things stand between the US and the UK? In th...

Rayner, Reeves and Reform
It wasn’t the start to the new parliamentary term that Prime Minister Keir Starmer hoped for. His insistence that his focus is now on “delivery, deliv...

Farage, flags and the ghosts of Labour’s past
Just as Sir Keir Starmer was stealing a few days' summer holiday, Reform unveiled its immigration policy, former Labour heavyweights called for a with...

The mess in the NHS
England’s NHS is in a ‘critical and deteriorating condition’ - those are the words of Lord Darzi who investigated the state of the NHS for the new Lab...

Starmer's superpower: soft power?
Maga arrived in Chipping Norton this week, heralding an intense round of British diplomacy ahead of the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska on Friday. Ukrain...

Introducing Swamp Notes: The real cost of gutting USAID
Political Fix is on a break this week. In its absence, we're taking the opportunity to introduce you to its sister podcast, Swamp Notes, the weekly US...

Why Starmer changed his mind about Palestinian statehood
Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the UN General Assembly. The decision comes after some Labour MPs a...

One year in opposition
As MPs head back to their constituencies for the summer, the Political Fix panel reflects on the year in opposition for Kemi Badenoch and her Conserva...

The Afghan Files: the inside story on the catastrophic leak
One of the gravest security lapses in UK history came to light this week after a judge lifted a superinjunction on a catastrophic data leak that could...

Resetting Franco-British relations: the cross-channel contract
Emmanuel Macron made his state visit to the UK this week – the first EU leader to do so since Brexit. It heralded a reset between France and Britain,...

A year of Keir
This week marks a year of Keir Starmer’s government. But if Labour was expecting to celebrate the anniversary – it didn't pan out that way. Despite cl...

Starmer’s welfare woes
Sir Keir Starmer faced a huge rebellion from within his own party this week after scores of MPs opposed changes to make it tougher to collect some dis...

Starmer on standby
Will he? Won’t he? President Donald Trump has given little indication as to whether America will join in the conflict between Israel and Iran. So wher...

Reeves sets Labour’s course – but what will it deliver?
Labour’s long-awaited spending review dropped this week. Rachel Reeves unveiled funding settlements for government departments – and a newly upbeat to...

Facing down a fiscal firestorm
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has had an action-packed week. She made a U-turn on winter fuel payments, announced plans to spend billions of pounds on n...

Coming soon: The Wolf-Krugman Exchange
In a special six-part series of The Economics Show, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman...

Who’s afraid of Nigel Farage?
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Reform party leader Nigel Farage clashed on economic issues this week. Farage said his party was the champion of the w...

Is Labour’s post-Brexit reset a victory or a betrayal?
The UK and EU announced a historic deal to ‘reset’ their relationship this week. Keir Starmer called the deal a “win-win”, while a “gobsmacked” Kemi B...

Labour's immigration crackdown
It’s been another turbulent week for Labour after Keir Starmer announced a crackdown on legal migration. The prime minister gave what has since become...

Ask Political Fix: Trade, tax and leftwing pacts
Our first Q&A special episode is finally here! You sent in questions, now our panel answers them. Is the UK-US trade deal worth the paper it’s signed...

Local elections special: end of the two-party duopoly?
This week, we’ve seen Reform UK trounce Labour and the Conservatives across England in local elections.
Nigel Farage’s party has secured a fift...

Reform on the march? Our local elections guide
Ahead of England’s local elections next week, the Political Fix team pick the races to watch and what’s at stake for the main parties, as voters head...

What is a ‘woman’ in law? The Supreme Court ruling
The UK Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling this week about the legal definition of a woman in equality legislation. Judges ruled that a woman is so...

Markets or Trump: who’s in charge?
The markets have gone haywire since Donald Trump’s announcement — and then pause— of a host of new US tariffs. Host Lucy Fisher is joined by Political...

Trump’s trade war: trouble ahead for Britain
Donald Trump has shaken up the global economy with his seismic new tariffs this week. UK exports to the US will now face a 10 per cent levy – less tha...

Doom, gloom and not much headroom: Spring Statement
Rachel Reeves was forced to slash spending to balance the books in her Spring Statement this week. Welfare spending will be cut more deeply than initi...

Austerity redux? Spring Statement lookahead
It’s crunch time for chancellor Rachel Reeves next Wednesday, when she will present her Spring Statement to parliament. Downgraded growth forecasts an...

Starmer’s ‘Project Chainsaw’: the NHS, Whitehall, welfare
“The world’s largest quango is scrapped” – that’s how the government framed the abolition of the NHS management body this week. It was the latest targ...

Will Starmer sink or swim in Trump’s world?
Sir Keir Starmer has won plaudits from across the political spectrum for his handling of the rapidly growing rift between the US, Europe and Ukraine –...

The Starmer-Trump love-in
Donald Trump showered praise on Keir Starmer during the UK prime minister’s visit to the White House this week, describing him as ‘special’, a ‘beauti...

‘America is now an adversary’
The future of Ukraine and the defence of Europe will dominate when Keir Starmer jets out to the White House for talks with Donald Trump next week. Can...

The right to die: who should have the final say?
The bitter and emotional wrangling over the assisted dying bill reached new heights in parliament this week, following proposed changes to a key safeg...

Trump and Reform: Is US-style populism set to sweep the UK?
Donald Trump has stunned the world with a raft of extraordinary interventions this week, prompting Keir Starmer to keep his head down. But what happen...