Westminster Insider

Customs union, single market, rejoin, second referendum. It's all feeling a little Ground Hog day in Westminster after Andy Burnham reopened the Europe question at Labour Party conference.

Hosts Sascha O'Sullivan and Pat Baker find out how the row over Europe will play out in the next few years, with Reform MP Danny Kruger and Labour MP Stella Creasy.

Sascha speaks to Cecilia Malmström, former EU Trade Commissioner during the Brexit negotiations, who says any new deal with the EU would need to be "Nigel Farage-proofed" in case Reform wound up in Downing Street.

UK-EU reporter Jon Stone explains what Burnham is hoping to gain from the EU summit next month, and whether Britain's friends in Brussels care about Westminster looking again at Britain's relationship with the trading bloc.

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00:00 Introduction

03:16 Return of the EU wars?

08:00 Stellar Creasy and Danny Kruger

18:58 Could there be a second referendum?

24:10 Does the EU care about the UK?

27:20 Former EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom

32:45 The 'Oddcast'

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On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool.

In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham’s conference speech, Craig opened up about what it’s really like taking over from her predecessor — and how she plans to make the job her own.

Fresh from a trip to New York, she revealed what she learned from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and what Greater Manchester might borrow from his playbook.

Craig told Westminster Insider about her plan for Donald Trump’s visit to Manchester next year. Plus, she faced Pat and Sascha’s quick-fire round.

Westminster Insider returns in full on October 16.

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With England through to the knockout stages of the World Cup and hopes rising that football might finally be coming home, Westminster is watching nervously — and closely.

The beautiful game shapes the national mood like little else. For politicians, that creates both huge opportunity and huge risk.

This week, Patrick Baker speaks to football and politics journalist Joey D’Urso about the deep historical links between football and political power, and why World Cup success has long shaped Britain’s political imagination.

Political commentator and former Labour adviser Scarlett McGwire explains why authenticity matters more in football than almost anywhere else in politics — and recalls the bizarre moment Gordon Brown’s advisers staged photos of him cheering on England to make him appear “less Scottish.”

In a late-night pub viewing of Scotland vs. Brazil, Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman offers a perspective from north of the border on the hardship of following the Tartan Army, England’s World Cup hopes and home nations rivalry.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater reflects on football’s power to bring people together across political divides, and why politicians should resist turning the game into another front in Britain’s culture wars.

And playwright James Graham, creator of the hit play and TV series Dear England, argues that football may be one of the last great communal experiences in British life — one of the few places where strangers still come together to feel something collectively.

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The Greater Manchester mayoralty made Andy Burnham famous. Now he's hoping he can take the approach he developed in the city to the whole country.

This week on Westminster Insider, host Sascha O'Sullivan speaks to four serving mayors — and one former one about whether the role will prepare Burnham for the highest office in the land.

Labour Mayor of the East Midlands Claire Ward, who was a minister in Gordon Brown's government, told Sascha that mayors have much more power than junior minister.

Oliver Coppard, the Labour Mayor of South Yorkshire, explains how the job requires you to manage different competing interests, albeit on a smaller scale than as a prime minister.

But former Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street warns that when it comes to financial responsibility and party management — two pitfalls of Keir Starmer's leadership — the job of mayor is "totally different".

Helen Godwin, West of England Mayor, and Kim McGuinness, Mayor of the North East, have graciously said they won't kick Burnham out of the Labour mayors' WhatsApp group if he becomes PM.

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Makerfield has proved to be the making of Andy Burnham’s bid for the top job, but could it also be the moment that Nigel Farage’s ambitions for Number 10 took a knock? 

While Reform UK continues to lead the national polls, it failed to capture the Greater Manchester seat last week and was beaten into third place by the Conservatives, the party it’s seeking to replace, in two Scottish by-elections. Is the wind going off Reform’s sails just as Labour hopes to revive its fortunes under a new prime minister, who is being dubbed the "Reform slayer" after his by-election victory? 

In this bonus interview edition of Westminster Insider, Anne McElvoy talks to Robert Jenrick, Reform’s Treasury Spokesman, about how Reform will respond to a Burnham-led government. The former Conservative minister and leadership candidate left his party earlier this year, claiming that he wanted to “unite the Right”. Following a dispute with Reform's Zia Yusuf over the party's policy on the deportation of migrants, Jenrick is trying to carve out a distinctive position on economic policy, including a new "big bang" for the City of London.

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Andy Burnham is the new Labour MP for Makerfield, heading for parliament and, likely, Number 10.

But what does his momentous win here on the outskirts of Wigan tell us about his chances of masterminding a wider Labour revival as prime minister?

Host Patrick Baker has been in the constituency over the past few weeks, speaking to people who live and work in this curiously normal part of the country about the prospect of a Burnham premiership.

On the campaign trail, Labour MP Peter Dowd reveals what kind of reaction he has been getting on the doorstep and shares his enthusiasm for Burnham's economic agenda.

Reform voters at the Bryn Community Centre in Ashton explain why they feel Labour has abandoned them, but hint they might look again at voting Labour if Burnham can deliver for their area as prime minister.

Patrick speaks to locals supporting Rupert Lowe's hardline anti-immigration party Restore Britain, as well as those concerned that two insurgent parties on the right could provide a boost to Labour's electoral chances.

And Rob Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester, explains why being a popular mayor may not so easily translate into being a successful PM.

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In a bonus episode of Westminster Insider, host Sascha O’Sullivan sits down with Jack Blanchard to find out who is the real Andy Burnham.

Jack talks through the journey Burnham has made from loyal minister in the new Labour years to the man he is today — and the most pivotal moments that have shaped him as the politician who is now hoping to win the Makerfield by-election and, eventually, the keys to No10 Downing Street.

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Climate change, Palestine, Brexit, the Iraq War. Westminster has seen it all when it comes to protests, and the inhabitants of Parliament are largely desensitised to the angry cries at the gates. This week on Westminster Insider host Sascha O'Sullivan asks: what's the point of marching on Whitehall?

Peter Tatchell, career protestor famous for his involvement in the gay rights movement, explains how the LGBT marches in the 1990s and early 2000s helped move the needle.

But former Conservative MP and gay rights campaigner Edwina Currie takes Sascha inside the back-room lobbying, which she insists was more effective than any protest.

Sascha speaks to Sophie Cowen, who spent years working for both Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain, about what the attention-grabbing stunts of the climate protests achieved.

And Dr Maria Stephan, political scientist and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, explains why the No Kings marches have been so successful.

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Ten years — and six prime ministers — ago Britain was on the brink of voting to leave the European Union.

Host Patrick Baker was in his first job as a TV news producer during the referendum campaign. A decade on, he’s gone back to the people who lived through its biggest moments to find out what was really happening behind the scenes, and how those events changed British politics forever.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave, recounts the brutal battle with rival group Leave.EU to become the official Brexit campaign, and how his colleague Dominic Cummings used new techniques to persuade swing voters to vote for Brexit.

Kate Fall, David Cameron’s then deputy chief of staff, remembers sitting in the front row when Barack Obama delivered his infamous “back of the queue” warning — and provides her theory on whether Downing Street planted the phrase.

Broadcaster Rachel Johnson relives the chaos of boarding a boat on the Thames with Bob Geldof to confront a flotilla of pro-Brexit fishermen, before the rockstar began lambasting Nigel Farage.

And former Labour MP Gisela Stuart recalls what it was like to participate in the BBC's live TV debate at Wembley, and remembers what it was like at the Vote Leave headquarters on the morning of Brexit.

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At the local elections, the Conservative Party lost hundreds of councillors and dozens of seats across England, Scotland and Wales, but Kemi Badenoch declared a comeback.

So this week, Sascha O'Sullivan goes inside the Conservative Party's hopes for a renewal. She speaks to Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride in Solihull and James Cowling of Next Gen Tories about why they think the Tories can make a revival.

Henry Hill, political editor at The Critic, who has spent years covering Conservative politics, and pollster Scarlett Maguire tell Sascha about the flaws in the Tories' plan.

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