Westminster Insider

Andy Burnham has promised Britain can “hope again”. But with inflation rising, borrowing costs soaring and trillions of pounds of national debt, how much room does Chancellor John Healey actually have to deliver in the budget on Oct. 28?

This week, Pat and Sascha speak to Treasury insiders to find out who really calls the shots when a Chancellor puts together a budget.

First, they hear from Matt Pound, one of former Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ closest advisers, about the tough choices facing Healey, the dangers of leaks and U-turns, and why keeping the bond markets onside matters more than politicians might like to admit.

Then, Cameron Brown, who worked under both Kwasi Kwarteng and Jeremy Hunt, and Simon Finkelstein, who advised Hunt at the Treasury, reveal just how obsessed Westminster has become with the bond markets.

And POLITICO’s Financial Services Editor Fiona Maxwell gives her predictions for what Healey might have in store on budget day.

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00:00 Budget context

04:43 Matt Pound interview

20:40 Why bond markets are so important during budgets

25:20 Ex-treasury staffers Cameron Brown and Simon Finkelstein

37:23 Politico's financial services editor Fiona Maxwell

41:32 The Oddcast: modern day jousting...

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This podcast has been updated to correct the description of Simon Finkelstein’s role.

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Customs union, single market, rejoin, second referendum. It's all feeling a little Ground Hog day in Westminster after Andy Burnham reopened the Europe question at Labour Party conference.

Hosts Sascha O'Sullivan and Pat Baker find out how the row over Europe will play out in the next few years, with Reform MP Danny Kruger and Labour MP Stella Creasy.

Sascha speaks to Cecilia Malmström, former EU Trade Commissioner during the Brexit negotiations, who says any new deal with the EU would need to be "Nigel Farage-proofed" in case Reform wound up in Downing Street.

UK-EU reporter Jon Stone explains what Burnham is hoping to gain from the EU summit next month, and whether Britain's friends in Brussels care about Westminster looking again at Britain's relationship with the trading bloc.

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00:00 Introduction

03:16 Return of the EU wars?

08:00 Stellar Creasy and Danny Kruger

18:58 Could there be a second referendum?

24:10 Does the EU care about the UK?

27:20 Former EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom

32:45 The 'Oddcast'

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On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool.

In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham’s conference speech, Craig opened up about what it’s really like taking over from her predecessor — and how she plans to make the job her own.

Fresh from a trip to New York, she revealed what she learned from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and what Greater Manchester might borrow from his playbook.

Craig told Westminster Insider about her plan for Donald Trump’s visit to Manchester next year. Plus, she faced Pat and Sascha’s quick-fire round.

Westminster Insider returns in full on October 16.
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With England through to the knockout stages of the World Cup and hopes rising that football might finally be coming home, Westminster is watching nervously — and closely.

The beautiful game shapes the national mood like little else. For politicians, that creates both huge opportunity and huge risk.

This week, Patrick Baker speaks to football and politics journalist Joey D’Urso about the deep historical links between football and political power, and why World Cup success has long shaped Britain’s political imagination.

Political commentator and former Labour adviser Scarlett McGwire explains why authenticity matters more in football than almost anywhere else in politics — and recalls the bizarre moment Gordon Brown’s advisers staged photos of him cheering on England to make him appear “less Scottish.”

In a late-night pub viewing of Scotland vs. Brazil, Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman offers a perspective from north of the border on the hardship of following the Tartan Army, England’s World Cup hopes and home nations rivalry.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater reflects on football’s power to bring people together across political divides, and why politicians should resist turning the game into another front in Britain’s culture wars.

And playwright James Graham, creator of the hit play and TV series Dear England, argues that football may be one of the last great communal experiences in British life — one of the few places where strangers still come together to feel something collectively.
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The Greater Manchester mayoralty made Andy Burnham famous. Now he's hoping he can take the approach he developed in the city to the whole country.

This week on Westminster Insider, host Sascha O'Sullivan speaks to four serving mayors — and one former one about whether the role will prepare Burnham for the highest office in the land.

Labour Mayor of the East Midlands Claire Ward, who was a minister in Gordon Brown's government, told Sascha that mayors have much more power than junior minister.

Oliver Coppard, the Labour Mayor of South Yorkshire, explains how the job requires you to manage different competing interests, albeit on a smaller scale than as a prime minister.

But former Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street warns that when it comes to financial responsibility and party management — two pitfalls of Keir Starmer's leadership — the job of mayor is "totally different".

Helen Godwin, West of England Mayor, and Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East, have graciously said they won't kick Burnham out of the Labour mayors' WhatsApp group if he becomes PM.
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