The Standard

Even when they win, Tory party leaders should be wary of confidence votes.

Much of the process is done in secrecy. We don’t know the names of those who hand in their letters to the chair of the 1922 committee, calling for a vote.

Some of those who publicly support a Prime Minister could be privately plotting against them. Meanwhile, negotiations take place in quiet offices. Deals are made. Promises, too. And sometimes not just by the person in charge. Challengers can be negotiators as well.

The Evening Standard’s Political Editor, Nicholas Cecil, joins us from our Westminster office, to explain how it works, the significance of this one in particular and what this means for the future of the Conservatives.

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In this bonus episode we're giving you an interview with Fiona Cannon OBE from the Lloyds Banking Group.

Fiona is the Director for Sustainable Business at Lloyds and she's responsible for inclusion and diversity.

To hear the full episode from our business podcast How to be a CEO, click here.

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As Queen Elizabeth celebrates her Platinum Jubilee, becoming the first British monarch to mark 70 years on the throne, we are taking a look back at her reign, and exploring the significance of this jubilee.

We speak with Royal Historian and Author Dr Edward Owens about Queen Elizabeth’s history, significant moments during her reign, and what she’ll be remembered for.

Historian and Curator Charles Farris from Historic Royal Palaces takes us through the history of jubilees, and how this platinum event will compare to those throughout history.

Also, General Manager of Madame Tussauds Tim Waters discusses Her Majesty’s relationship with the attraction, and how her models were created.

And we hear from the CEO of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant Rosanna Machado about what is in store for the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London.

In this episode:

• A look back at the Queen's 70-year reign (1.13)
• Cultural changes over the last 70 years (2.17)
• Queen Elizabeth's role in keeping the Commonwealth going (5.21)
• The history of Jubilee celebrations (7.24)
• How will today's jubilee compare to those of the past? (9.28)

PART TWO

• Queen Elizabeth's relationship with Madame Tussauds (11.28)
• The process of modelling royalty (12.40)
• The royal family models coming together for the Jubilee (15.03)
• What's in store for the Platinum Jubilee Pageant? (15.58)
• How the pageant has been put together (16.48)

Remember to follow us on Twitter for more news @EveningStandard

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A group of teaching unions and other organisations are calling on the government to expand the free school meals scheme.

The group, claiming to represent one million school staff, have sent a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi asking for an “urgent” expansion, to include all children in families receiving universal credit or equivalent benefits.  

It’s as recent figures from the Office For National Statistics show the lowest priced items at UK supermarkets went up by around 6 or 7% in the year to April.

Richard Bettsworth from the Association of School and College Leaders explains why they're asking the government for an expansion of free school meals, why it would be a 'modest' investment, and how families, including those not on universal credit, are struggling.

In this episode:

• How the current free school meals scheme works (1.27)
• What’s prompted calls for an expansion of the free school meals scheme? (2.07)
• Levels of poverty in schools (3.28)
• Is there a case for all children to get free school meals? (4.43)

PART TWO

• Will the government bow to the pressure and expand the scheme? (6.15)
• Is the government’s current support enough? (7.19)
• Some families who don’t quality for universal credit are struggling (7.58)
• How free school meals can benefit children’s education (8.59)

Follow us on Twitter for more news and interviews @EveningStandard

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Ahead of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend there are fears holidayers will be hit with travel problems, after a series of delays and cancellations to flights and ferries abroad.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled in airports across the UK over the weekend, while passengers travelling abroad via Dover have reported being ‘stuck for hours’.

We speak with the Evening Standard’s Crime Correspondent Anthony France about what problems passengers have been facing, and why there have been so many issues.

Plus Travel Journalist Lisa Francesca Nand explains what compensation is available to travellers hit by disruption, and how to claim it.

Remember to follow us on Twitter for more news and interviews @EveningStandard

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Erik Torstensson, co-founder and creative director of denim designers FRAME, invites us to their brand new store in London.

To hear this episode in full click here.

In this episode we talk about FRAME's 'pure' range, the issue with making Jeans, producing sustainable and environmentally-friendly fashion, and behind the scenes of their flagship store.

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This week, we’ve already taken you on the first passenger journey on Crossrail, but what else is going on beneath us in the capital?

London's new £4.2 billion Thames Tideway Tunnel, or ‘super sewer’, is due to open in 2025 to help cope with capital's overflowing waste water.

With the existing system, when there’s heavy rain, sewage overflows into the River Thames, polluting the water and killing marine life, which happens up to 60 times a year.

We take a trip down into one of the 70-metre deep project’s cavernous bores, at its Battersea riverside access shaft, to meet project manager Ignacio Tognaccini - and hear some surprising subterranean music.

In today’s episode we’ll also be looking at the challenges of digging through London’s damp clay while avoiding hundreds of years of other infrastructure projects, and making sure these huge bores don’t collapse in on themselves.

Plus we’ll look at the top secret stuff below the pavements, where maps show only a grey void and government telephone number.

The Leader speaks with Martin Knights, a tunnelling engineer who chairs construction firm London Bridge Associates, about modern digging processes and the challenges of avoided existing, centuries-old buried infrastructure.

We also meet infrastructure expert Liz Reynolds, an urban planner for Hackney-based studio called Tapestry and former town planning advisor for Crossrail’s central stations.

She discusses why it’s so tricky to find the best spot to dig and looks at early tunnels, such as the Brunel-built Thames Tunnel linking Wapping to Rotherhithe in the early 1800s.

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As America reels from yet another devastating school shooting, what can be done to convince politicians and the public to give up their deadly weapons?

Nineteen children aged seven to 11 years old and two adults are dead following the massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

It is the 20th US school shooting this year - one of the worst in the country’s history, and the deadliest attack since Sandy Hook in 2012. 

As a community mourns, investigators are trying to piece together events at Robb Elementary School after the gun rampage by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.  

Here in the UK it was two gun massacres, in Hungerford in 1987 and Dunblane in 1996, that sparked serious reform to our gun laws.

Subsequently, the UK’s Gun Control Network - a collective of campaigners and victims’ relatives - successfully lobbied to ban handguns in 1997. 

But still, such tragedies keep happening here, including last year in Plymouth and in Cumbria in 2010. 

Gill Marshall-Andrews, from Richmond, chairs the network and joins the Leader to discuss what more can be done to convince US authorities to get a grip on gun violence.

She discusses the network’s successful campaign, and shares her views on what strategies could help convince and cajole America to lay down its guns - a monumentally hard task given the right to bare arms enshrined in the US constitution.

We also talk about the continuing challenges of gun reform here in the UK and, following last year’s shotgun murders in Plymouth, whether the government is doing enough to improves safety around firearms ownership.

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Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street partying during Covid lockdowns has finally been published, and it’s left the Prime Minister battling for political survival.

We’d already seen that fuzzy shot of Boris Johnson with a glass held aloft, and now there’s more images featuring convivial drinks and food, one of which features Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

The top civil servant’s report criticises what’s described as an “excessive” drinking culture in Whitehall, which often broke lockdown rules when the rest of Britain was under house arrest, as well as other revealing shocking treatment of cleaning and security staff.

The report will make galling reading for many Britons, particularly those prevented from seeing sick relatives because of the rules.

At PMQs Mr Johnson repeated his apologies, and said he took responsibility, while Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford led calls for him to resign. 

The Evening Standard’s political reporter Rachael Burford has been covering developments as they happened.

She examines what the Gray report means for the PM’s political future and how Downing Street is trying to deflect attention away from the scandal.

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It was a huge day for improving the ease of travelling through London as the first passenger section of the Elizabeth Line, AKA Crossrail, opened for business.

While it wasn’t all plain railing - a fire alert sparked the evacuation of Paddington station - there were plenty of enthusiasts from London and beyond eager to try out the £20 billion purple line.

By 10am, 130,000 journeys had been clocked and the Standard was there from the very early start.

And what about those future fares?

Hear expert analysis, the thoughts of passengers travelling on the purple line for the first time on the open stretch from Paddington to Abbey Wood, and make sure you stay tuned until the end to hear Mayor Sadiq Khan discuss the project’s handover from previous City Hall incumbent Boris Johnson.

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