The News Agents

Sir Keir Starmer wants private schools to pay more tax. He's also talking about removing their charitable status. Today at PMQ's he asked the PM why Winchester deserved 6 million pounds to spend on rowing clubs and rifle clubs which could be going to fund the state sector instead. Is the country where Starmer is now - or does this policy represent a polemic talking point which creates more class warfare than cash? And what do head teachers think about it? Today, we hear from the state sector, the private sector , a former advisor to the government on education and a staunch progressive. Warning: there is nuance.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Social Media: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

12 Tory MPs have already announced they're standing down at the next election. That includes some young politicians who would once have represented the party's future.

Today, we look at how many more are likely to follow - with a looming December 5th deadline by which they need to submit their names. We speak to Seb Payne - author of Broken Heartlands - and the Tory Peer and Pollster Robert Haywood .

And also to China - where police are now checking the apps on people's phones to learn of planned protests. Rishi Sunak has called for a 'robust pragmatism 'in relations with China. Honestly? There's nothing that new in that - we go back through the decades - to Tiananmen and John Major - to look at how the West has tried to deal with China.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Social Media: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

Sir Tony Blair speaks exclusively with The News Agents.

He has words that may surprise Matt Hancock and Liz Truss, and a gentle message for Keir Starmer to go further.

He talks about gesture politics over the banning of Qatar state advertising - and he tells us he thinks he's kissed at least one Tory.

Watch the full interview with Tony Blair exclusively on Global Player.

https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/2JsSYUgsZkC/?category=the-news-agents/

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Social Media: Georgia Foxwell

Production: Sophie Snelling & Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

There are thousands of homes in Britain not fit for purpose with people living in neglected and dangerous conditions - with damp, mould and vermin.

Lewis talks to social housing campaigner, Kwajo Tweneboa, former Levelling Up and Housing Secretary, Simon Clarke to get to the heart of what needs to change.

And playwright James Graham talks to us about the art of bringing to life political events.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

Bird Flu is bringing Britain's farmers to their knees. The disease has killed nearly a hundred million birds world wide - nearly 4 million of them in the UK - and it poses a serious threat to our food supply.

So today we're on a farm talking to a twitcher, a farmer and erm a motoring journalist. And it's all the same bloke. Jeremy Clarkson talks about the dearth of birds, the cost of feed and how hard it is to get pigs to make other pigs. We also hear from a poultry farmer who's had to slaughter thousands of his own birds after avian flu hit his farm -which has been in the family for generations.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Day Editor: Ellie Clifford

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

The Supreme Court has ruled against the Scottish Parliament holding a new independence referendum without approval from Westminster. Is this the end of the fight for Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party?

Lewis is joined by SNP MP Stewart Hosie and Wendy Chamberlain, Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife, to pick apart both sides of the debate.

He's also joined by Financial Times’ journalist Sebastian Payne to discuss PMQs, as well as his new book ‘The Fall of Boris Johnson: The Full Story’, about the former PM’s final days in office.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Production: Ellie Clifford and Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

Dominic Raab is facing renewed allegations of bullying behaviour. In this episode we turn the clock back to the time he took out a 'confidentiality agreement' -which lawyers tell us is EXACTLY the same as an NDA; a non-disclosure agreement.

In 2011 he refused to release the woman who signed it from being able to tell her side of the story. We hear from Mark Stephens, a solicitor, who shows us how NDAs are being used and abused in the corridors of power. And from Zelda Perkins - former personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein - who was herself silenced by an NDA for 23 years and is now campaigning to change the law to stop NDAs being used to cover up abusive or criminal behaviour.

Her campaign is Can't Buy My Silence. You can find them here: https://www.cantbuymysilence.com/

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

Qatar has gone from being a quietly successful, enormously rich, largely anonymous speck on the world map to being a pariah of the Middle East.

It had hoped hosting the World Cup would bring fame and more fortune - not the unedifying stink of corruption and rows about workers, women and LGBTQ+ rights.

Are they wondering if it was all worth it? And will a gratifyingly rampant England victory finally stir the relatively subdued fans watching back home?

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

Poverty in Britain is bad and it’s getting worse. And yet, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has set out plans to tax the British public more than ever before.

Lewis travels back to Birmingham to visit a community centre which provides food and warmth for the local community, and he’s joined back in News Agents HQ by Torsten Bell, of the Resolution Foundation, and Duncan Robinson from The Economist to unpick the structural reasons of how it can be that the government is taxing more than ever before, yet public services are as bad as they are right now. This all comes with poverty becoming increasingly normalised in British society.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Day Editor: Ellie Clifford

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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

The highest tax burden in decades. The biggest drop in living standards on record. The UK and its economy is stuttering into a second recession in a decade. The news today delivered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was not good.

Emily, Jon and Lewis unpack the Autumn Statement on today's episode.

Planning: Melissa Tutesigensi

Socials: Georgia Foxwell

Video: Will Gibson-Smith

Production: Gabriel Radus

Deputy Editor: Tom Hughes

Executive Producer: Dino Sofos

For exclusive daily videos from The News Agents visit Global Player: https://www.globalplayer.com/videos/brands/news-agents/the-news-agents/

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