The News Agents

Ten years on from the horse meat crisis, a new scandal has engulfed almost the entire food retail sector.

Huge quantities of foreign pork - sometimes tens of thousands of tonnes a week - has been passed off, fraudulently as British.

One meat processor - who can't be named for legal reasons - has been accused by former employees of 'washing' hams that are visibly rotten, or mixing bad meat with fresh produce.

They even allege paperwork - which would pick up infections like bacteria or E.coli - was being falsified. We talk to the Farmers Weekly journalist who broke the story Abi Kay. And we dip into the 'vagina-scented' ski slopes of Utah to visit the trial of the century - Gwyneth Paltrow v Terry Sanderson.

At the time of publication, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had not provided us with a comment after we approached them.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

[Two hours after the episode was published, the FSA provided us with this statement:

“We are continuing our criminal investigation into how a meat supplier allegedly provided products labelled as British when they were in fact sourced from other countries.   

This is a live investigation which means we are looking into all new lines of 

inquiry with the relevant local authorities, including investigating potential food hygiene breaches. This is alongside the work we are doing to investigate food fraud. 

Based on the investigation to date, there is no indication that food is unsafe or there is an increased risk to consumers.  

Criminal investigations take time and need to be done with due process and fairness. The FSA will work tirelessly on behalf of consumers to ensure that this criminal investigation is done to the highest possible standards.  

I do want to emphasise at a time when cost pressures and other challenges mean the risks of food fraud might be increasing, it is vital everyone involved in the food chain works to ensure that food is safe and what it says it is.” 

 Emily Miles, Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency]

THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS TO BE HOUSED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP screamed the headline in the Daily Express.

That was in February of 2016.

And it never happened.

The idea has been mooted in various ways about ten times in the last decades - including by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor in 2020.

Each time the idea is dropped for being unworkable, unaffordable or illegal. So why do we keep falling for it?

Also - should the descendants of slave owners be making reparations to the people or the places they have hurt? We talk to Laura Trevelyan who's family has decided to make amends for their own past.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Jeremy Corbyn will not be allowed to stand for Labour at the next election. That’s despite the fact he’s been an MP in Islington North since 1983 and led Labour at two general elections- nothing like it has ever happened before.

Jon and Lewis explain why Labour’s ruling body has made the move and why Labour’s left might not be as weak as you might think.

And the News Agents are joined by a secret agent, or at least someone, who was.

Sir Richard Dearlove was the head of MI6 during the Iraq War.

Twenty years on we talk to him about how he and his fellow intelligence officers got it so catastrophically wrong on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (or lack thereof), whether or not he regrets the invasion and how life is different for young spooks, today.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

More mass protests in the streets- this time in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the rest of Israel.

Millions of Israelis believe their democracy to be in jeopardy.

The airport is blocked, universities out of action, a general strike has been called.

Even the diplomats won’t go to work. With academic and expert Ayala Panievsky, we explain why so many - both within the Israeli state and in the population at large - believe Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to transform the country’s judicial system to be a gross violation of democracy.

We explore whether this could finally be the end for Bibi and what it could mean for the wider Middle East.

And we usher in a new SNP leader after a divisive race, and talk to the investigative journalist behind the new Led By Donkeys sting.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

In this special episode of The News Agents, Lewis travels to Paris to find out why the City of Lights is on fire.

Amidst the tear gas, the riot police, the stun grenades and the flames, The News Agents ask- what's happened? why is it this bad? And why could this riot be the start of a new, far-right, European order?

It all comes as huge protests have erupted across France after President Emmanuel Macron forced through a rise in the country’s pension age.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Keir Starmer spent the morning in Stoke-on-Trent. Not WOKE-on-Trent, as one hilarious Tory Red-wall-er reminded him.

But attempts to fire up the culture war are something Rishi Sunak wants no part in.

And recent polling suggests it's the right call. Today we look at the state of play of the two main political parties and what the numbers are currently telling us -with James Kanagasoorium of Focaldata.

And we ask whether we mind have a billionaire prime minister who pays a million pound tax bill. Lewis is on the streets of Paris where they are rioting. And not just because of something he said.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Boris Johnson told the parliamentary inquiry that he HAD misled parliament, but he hadn't meant to.

His repeated defence was that he hadn't been advised what he was saying might be wrong (he had). And that other people hadn't told him that rules might have been broken (they had). He insisted that the leaving parties he'd attended had been essential work and berated Downing Street itself for having too many corridors to make parties safer.

Sir Bernard Jenkin led the charge asking what he would have told a press conference if the rest of the country had wanted to hold leaving parties too. Now the committee goes away to consider its findings and its verdict. We dissect the afternoon and that Stormont Brake vote that briefly interrupted proceedings.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

The Met Police - so says the explosive Casey Review released today - is a bullying boys club in which predators flourish.

Rape evidence is thrown out - because of broken fridges.

Eye-watering force is used against Black people.

Gay officers are scared of their colleagues.

So what happens now? And will this diminish public trust in the force even further? The author of the review Baroness Louise Casey joins us.

Plus we get hold of Boris Johnson's defence dossier. He argues he didn't mean to mislead Parliament, only called it a party because the media did and doesn't understand why he's accused of breaking rules when everyone else did too. So yes. that one.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

Boris Johnson has submitted evidence to the Privileges Committee which will be judging whether he set out to mislead the House of Commons over Partygate.

He argues that 'he was advised he wasn't breaking any rules' - which might seem odd coming from the person who in fact made up those rules. We now await publication of his defence.

Also today - why the DUP won't vote for Sunak's latest Brexit deal: The Windsor Framework.

And - on Iranian New Year we speak to Anoosheh Ashoori and his daughter Elika. Anoosheh emerged from Evin prison a year ago after being falsely arrested. He tells us of his hunger strike, his suicide attempts and his torture - and why he's now feeling optimistic for Iran.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.

After nearly a decade of stability spearheaded by Nicola Sturgeon, why do the SNP look like they're imploding? The three candidates after her job are spending day after day taking lumps out of each other. Polling suggests that the only thing that they're hurting though is their common goal: Scottish independence.

We speak to one of the candidates who's attack on the independence of the leadership process has been called 'Trumpian'. And we speak to a senior SNP MP about what this is doing to the political party that, just seven weeks ago, resembled an immovable object in the way of both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

And for some weekend listening. We ask a Labour grandee and parliamentary history-maker what it was like to be the first female Black MP in the House of Commons.

You can watch our episodes in full at https://global-player.onelink.me/Br0x/Videos

The News Agents is a Global Player Original and a Persephonica Production.