With Westminster largely empty during the summer recess, host Aggie Chambre heads out of London to watch MPs in different parts of the country meet the people who really matter — the voters. At constituency surgeries in Glasgow East, Pontypridd and North Norfolk, Aggie watches politicians help desperate constituents who have nowhere else to turn, hearing heartbreaking stories of poverty as well as local rows about overgrown trees and NHS dentists. And on doorstep visits she sees them met by barking dogs, angry voters and even the occasional slammed door. Aided by Tory MP Duncan Baker, Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones and SNP MP David Linden, Aggie explores how the job of an MP has changed — and whether this is really the sort of work they should be carrying out at all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I know what MPs did last summer

POLITICO’s weekly political series lifts the curtain on how Westminster really works, offering in-depth insight into the political issues which typically only get broad-brush treatment in the wider media. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Just how much power do the economists of Threadneedle Street really wield? As the Bank of England grapples with whether to keep interest rates at an all time high, host Sascha O’Sullivan goes on a mission to find out. In this week’s episode, she speaks to those who have been at the very heart of Westminster's relationship with the Bank for the last three decades. Former Prime Minister Liz Truss tells Sascha exactly why she believes Bank of England economists were attempting to pull apart her mini-budget and "take her down." Former shadow chancellor and Gordon Brown adviser Ed Balls explains how the Bank's independence came about in 1997, and suggests some of the people sitting on the Monetary Policy Committee have developed a spot of group think in their decision making. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation and former adviser to Alistair Darling, talks about how the 2008 global financial crisis changed the powers the Bank could deploy in times of emergency. And Andy Haldane, the former chief economist for the Bank of England for more than 30 years, reveals how close to a political intervention the then-Governor Mark Carney came during the Brexit years and how, after the pandemic, the Bank's economists missed inflation coming down the track. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the Bank of England really a secret political player?

After the Tories' drubbing in the local elections and the many, many rumors about efforts to unseat Rishi Sunak, Aggie Chambre talks us through how to prepare a secret Conservative leadership campaign. Former No. 10 head of political comms Adam Jones takes us inside Liz Truss's "fizz with Liz" soirees, explains why she took *that* picture in the tank, and says his former boss got "punch drunk" on love from Tory members.  Former adviser Lucia Hodgson, who ran Andrea Leadsom's 2019 leadership bid, explains the years of work they put into that campaign, and reveals why you need to know everything you can about your opponents.  Aggie speaks to former Tory contender Michael Heseltine about what he did and did not do before his infamous run in 1990 — about his regrets, supporters and missteps.  And former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries claims it’s nigh on impossible to get any work done in government when everyone is so obsessed with who the next leader of the Conservative Party will be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How to prepare a secret Tory leadership campaign

In the first episode of season 14, host Aggie Chambre tells the inside story of how POLITICO broke the Westminster honey trap story, and goes in search of who is really responsible. She hears from most of the key characters involved in the scandal that rocked SW1.  Two victims tell Aggie about their messages and one of them explains what happened when he organized a meeting with the catfisher.  POLITICO's own Dan Bloom reveals for the first time that he received a message from the mysterious catfisher and talks through his part in breaking the story.  The BBC's Henry Zeffman describes what it was like to be targeted and why he initially smelled a rat.  The Times’ Aubrey Allegretti gives behind the scenes details of his initial phone call with William Wragg, when the MP admitted some involvement in the scandal.  And Ciaran Martin, former CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre, explains how the scandal shed "a lot of light on the vulnerabilities of our political system." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inside the Westminster honey trap scandal

Host Sascha O'Sullivan delves into the secrets of the polling industry and asks — if the polls were wrong before, could they be wrong again? David Cameron's former pollster Andrew Cooper tells Sascha how the Conservatives upstaged the polling industry in 2015 and pulled an unexpected election victory out of the bag. Labour polling stalwart Stan Greenberg, who has run the numbers for Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Ed Miliband, explains what the other side of the 2015 campaign was like. Tom Lubbock of JL Partners and Josh Williams of Labour Together explain why voter archetypes — from "Mondeo Man" to "Stevenage Woman" — are so beloved by the media ... and how they're actually useful for politicians seeking to win elections. Sascha also tags along to a series of focus groups — including with More in Common's Luke Tryl — to see how they really work. And the New Statesman's associate political editor, Rachel Cunliffe, and pollster Scarlett Maguire explain how communicating polling can be twisted or over-egged — and why we really should be talking about more than just the top line.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The secrets of the pollsters

This week, Aggie Chambre looks at the art of the leak and asks — why do people do it, and what happens when your political secrets are exposed? Former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green talks about helping to leak Home Office secrets when Labour was in charge. Aggie hears from journalist and author Isabel Oakeshott about her controversial decision to leak Matt Hancock’s Covid WhatsApps — and why she had to adopt a disguise during the process. POLITICO’s Jack Blanchard and Jeremy Corbyn’s former spinner James Schneider tell Aggie about the infamous 2017 Labour manifesto leak and the consequences for the party’s campaign. And Times political editor Steven Swinford, recipient of a hefty chunk of Westminster’s secrets, talks us through how he got leaked information about the second Covid lockdown and government decisions around Huawei.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I know what MPs did last summer

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