Today, Laura and Paddy have an exclusive first full length interview with Josh Simons, who recently quit as a government minister.

A think tank he used to run - Labour Together - commissioned a report that looked into the background of journalists after the Sunday Times ran a story about them.

He says he was ‘naive’ and he was ‘so sorry’.

He also worked at Facebook owners Meta for several years and gave evidence at the landmark social media addiction trial which the tech giant, along with YouTube, lost this week.

They discuss his resignation from government, online safety across the board and the current state of the Labour Party.

Apply for tickets to Castfest here https://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/castfest-2026

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing [email protected] or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd

Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. It was made by Chris Flynn with Chloe Scannapieco. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The technical producer was Stephen Bailey. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

And with thanks to our team in Salford for letting us use the BBC Breakfast studio; Stephen Maziere, Simon Plumb and Ronan Malloy.