Angela Rayner resigned from government, and stood down as deputy Labour leader, following her failure to pay enough tax on a property in Hove. With this Keir Starmer has reshuffled his top cabinet, where are they headed now?

Rachel Cunliffe is joined by Andrew Marr, Tom McTague and Megan Kenyon.

Andrew Marr joins the show to discuss Rayner, Immigration and Graham Linehan's arrest.

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Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is under fire for underpaying Stamp Duty. The right are gleeful but Keir Starmer is standing by his deputy PM. Is he making the right move?

Tom McTague is joined by Andrew Marr, Rachel Cunliffe, Megan Kenyon and George Monaghan.

They also discuss how Labour must respond to the anti-immigration protests, and the questions around free speech that have been raised by the arrest (and subsequent release) of Graham Linehan over anti-trans tweets.

Host: Tom McTague

Guest: Andrew Marr

Guest: Rachel Cunliffe

Guest: Megan Kenyon

Guest: George Monaghan

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Angela Rayner

10:15 Immigration

26:00 Graham Linehan and free speech

Who gets to belong in Britain?

In the past year, the conversation around immigration in Britain - across the political spectrum - has become increasingly vicious. As Tanjil Rashid, the New Statesman’s culture editor, writes for this week’s cover story - we are no longer in “an age of migration”. We have been propelled into something altogether new, “an age of deportation".

Read: The age of deportation

How your snatched iPhone feeds a global criminal supply chain.

Britain’s exports have declined in many areas over the past few years, but there is one category in which trade is booming. The UK has become a leading exporter of stolen goods. 

From iPhones snatched by gangs on the streets of London to luxury cars stolen to order, criminal organisations are shipping vast amounts of items all around the world via Britain’s ports. And the authorities cannot keep up.

Tom Sasse is public policy editor at The Economist, and has been investigating Britain’s stolen goods trade. He joins the New Statesman’s business editor, Will Dunn, to explain how these criminal exports work, why the police are powerless to stop them, and the impact this crime is having - on individuals, on businesses and on the entire British economy.

Listen next:

The Manosphere: Red pills, incels and a misogyny epidemic

Host: Will Dunn

Guest: Tom Sasse

Who's in, who's out - and why?

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Keir Starmer has reshuffled the treasury team and some key parliamentary staff, creating a new "Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister" role and restructuring the government's communication department.

The changes indicate a renewed focus for the government, putting economic issues front-and-centre of operations ahead of the upcoming budget.

The moves also suggest a change of direction in some areas, with leading proponents of the disastrous Winter Fuel Allowance repeal picking up their P45s.

Rachel Cunliffe and Megan Kenyon join Anoosh Chakelian to discuss what can we learn from this reshuffle.

LISTEN NEXT: What the Treasury reshuffle reveals about the budget

READ: Will Keir Starmer's mini-reshuffle make a difference?

Host: Anoosh Chakelian

Guest: Megan Kenyon

Guest: Rachel Cunliffe

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The experimental novelist on finding God, being "a misfit" and her return to writing.

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Nicola Barker is "has broken the mould so many times it's almost beyond repair".

She's a post-punk literary anarchist who writes from the peripheries of the UK.

Her experiments with narrative form have won her many plaudits, including the Goldsmith's Prize for literary fiction, which the New Statesman partners with.

Barker joins Tanjil Rashid on the New Statesman culture podcast to discuss her latest novel, Tony Interrupter: a comedy about art, virality, chaos, and the surprising impact of freak events in Kent.

“⁠Do you think the English flag has been so easily co-opted by by the far right because there is no English government that is proudly flying the flag and building a better narrative around English national pride?”

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Harry Clarke-Ezzidio and George Eaton to answer listener quesitons.

It was foreseen for months, as Israel cut off all aid, but this month the UN declared that more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine.

By the end of September, more than 640 000 people will face Catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Leading to preventable deaths on a devastating scale.

For Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader, the horrors facing the people of Gaza for the past two years are deeply personal. His wife Nadia has relatives in Gaza - the family has described the experience as a “living nightmare”.

Last October, the government published the Employment Rights Bill, a slate of reforms set to change workers' rights in the UK - from banning “fire and rehire” tactics, to ending exploitative zero-hours contracts, to giving workers employment protection from day one.

The bill has passed through the Commons and is currently on its third reading in the House of Lords - the first changes are expected to be enacted in 2026.

But what does this bill really mean for workers, businesses, and the economy? And could there be unintended consequences that even its biggest supporters are worried about?

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, one of the UK’s leading trade unions representing over 150,000 professionals across science, engineering, and technology.

Ahead of this autumn’s budget there has been a reshuffle in Rachel Reeves’ treasury team. What’s at play? And what might it tell us about the trajectory of Britain’s finances?

Will Dunn, the New Statesman's business editor, is joined by George Eaton.

Read: Torsten Bell rises as Rachel Reeves reshuffles her team; Rachel Reeves will never get serious on tax