Keir Starmer has pledged to "prove the doubters wrong" as he tries to head off a leadership challenge after the disastrous local election results last week.

Fighting for his political life, the PM announced plans for stronger ties with the EU, powers to nationalise British steel and a scheme to help young people find work. But will it be enough?

Many of his own party don't seem to think so, with his former Deputy PM Angela Rayner calling for Andy Burnham to come back to Parliament.

Backbench MP Catherine West even threatened to mount a leadership challenge against Starmer, but has now backed down and called on him to go by September.

Spies - and stories about spies - are one of Britain's greatest cultural exports. From Ian Fleming's James Bond, to the works of John le Carré and Graham Greene, it seems that in the world's eyes there is something quintessentially English about the double agent and his, or her, deadly deceptions.

Novelist and screenwriter William Boyd shares this fascination. He first explored the theme of espionage in his 2002 novel Any Human Heart and went on to pen a James Bond continuation novel called Solo.

His latest trilogy explores what happens when a travel writer becomes entangled in Cold War Espionage.

He joins culture editor Tanjil Rashid.

Results from the local and devolved are coming in. It has been, as many expected, a disappointing result for the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, the insurgent parties, the Green Party to an extent, but especially Reform, have delivered on their promise of snowballing momentum.

Anoosh Chakelian is joined by senior data journalist Ben Walker, political editor Ailbhe Rea and editor-in-chief Tom McTague.

READ: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/may-2026/2026/05/live-results-map-wales-scotland-and-local-elections

The UK is gearing up for local and devolved elections on Thursday.

As Keir Starmer looks increasingly isolated as Prime Minister, much is being made of a potentially disastrous few days for the Labour Party. If results go as badly for Labour as some are predicting, this could be the end for the PM.

Meanwhile, the insurgent Reform and Green parties are looking to continue their surging momentum.

Rather than a relic of the past, Mary Beard sees the classical world as a powerful tool for understanding the present.

It's an idea she has explored in over twenty books on ancient history and numerous documentaries on the BBC and elsewhere, all of which have made her Britain's best known classicist.

She joins culture editor Tanjil Rashid in the studio.

Crowds of young people chant his name but the Green leader is "nervous", says Ailbhe Rea.

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A year ago, Zack Polanksi was relatively unknown. Now, he's leading an "eco-populist" movement that has revitalised the Green Party and looks likely to propel a left-wing surge in the May local elections.

Ailbhe Rea profiled the Green leader for the New Statesman, meeting him shortly after he'd been addressing young activists. She found a "sweet, slightly nervous" man who admits he still has much to learn about running a political party.

Here Ailbhe speaks to Anoosh Chakelian about Zack Polanski's political position, his unusual background, and the lessons he might learn from Jeremy Corbyn.

LISTEN NEXT:

Attacks on Jews are an indictment of Keir Starmer's Britain

READ:

Zack Polanski is still learning

Parliament boozers, Morgan McSweeney vs Emily Thornberry, and King Charles' stand-up routine.

Will and Anoosh discuss another big week.

For decades, James Baldwin has stood as one of the most piercing moral voices of the 20th century, But Baldwin himself has remained, in his own words, elusive.

A new biography by Nicholas Boggs - Baldwin: A Love Story - sets out to change that.

Drawing on newly uncovered archives and decades of research, Boggs reframes Baldwin's life through an intimate and sometimes unsettling lens: love.

Luke O'Reilly sits down with Nicholas Boggs to discuss Baldwin's loves and contradictions, the relationship between intimacy and politics, and why Baldwin's insistence that "love is the only reality" might matter more now than ever.

"It makes me furious," says New Statesman editor Tom McTague.

An attack in Golders Green, London, yet again exposes the rise of antisemitism in Britain. Anoosh Chakelian has been reporting from the borough, where local Jews fear for their safety, volunteer security guards patrol the streets and Jewish children have to pass through heavy security cordons to get to school. She tells editor Tom McTague about what she found.

Meanwhile, the rise of anti-Jewish hate is putting more pressure on a government still mired in the Peter Mandelson scandal. The Prime Minister has become deeply unpopular, the Iran War continues, and local elections loom.

Westminster has concluded Keir Starmer has two options: fight or flight. The New Statesman's political editor, Ailbhe Rea, says the Prime Minister has made a decision and raised his fists.

READ:

Terror in Golders Green, by Anoosh Chakelian https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2026/04/terror-in-suburbia

We are under attack, by Rachel Cunliffe https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2026/04/we-are-under-attack

In 2011, Ben Lerner stormed onto the scene with his debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, a winning blend of low comedy and high art. He has since firmly established himself as one of America's most acclaimed novelists and is a leading voice in so-called autofiction. Now he returns with his fourth novel, and it may be his most profound yet.

In Transcription, Lerner turns his mind to the nature of art, and of ageing. It's a novel about generations, of growing children, and dying forebears, and the way the secrets and gifts of life and art move from one era to the next.

It's also a novel about technology, and our increasing reliance on it, the way it shapes our speech, our thoughts, our memories and even our conceptions of ourselves.

In this episode, Tanjil Rashid sits down with Ben Lerner to talk about how we record our conversations, why novels may matter even more in the age of AI, and - in his words - the bankruptcy of political speech.