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This is Ben Wright, bringing you our special Christmas edition of The Week in Westminster

at the end of 2025.

The year that once again showed we live in tumultuous times.

A newish government with a mammoth majority might have expected a smoother ride. Instead,

it slalomed through Commons rebellions, resignations, a reshuffle and an avalanche of leadership

speculation. Labour's popularity sinking to levels only matched by the official opposition,

all against the backdrop of our splintered politics and the rise of

challenger parties. So what is going on and what might lie ahead? A lot to discuss with my

guests. George Parker, political editor of the Financial Times, Pippa Creer, political editor of

The Guardian and Sebastian Payne, columnist and leader writer for The Times. Welcome all. And I just

want to begin by asking you briefly, what was your political moment of the year? Pippa.

Well, my moment, we'd have to go back to February when Kier-Starmer met Donald Trump for the

first time since he'd become president in the White House, in the Oval Office.

I've been to a few of these bilateral meetings before in the normally very well-manored affairs,

but this was like something else. It was chaotic. And I actually felt quite sorry for Kirstarmer

because he came in presumably thinking he was going to do a quick handshake and then move on to the issues of substance.

And instead, Donald Trump ushered in about 40 or 50 journalists, including myself, who all started shouting out questions and

it quickly descended into a bit of a scrum. George, what about you? I think we'll go back to July.

And the moment you felt the government's economic policy and indeed party discipline had collapsed.

It was the moment of the welfare

rebellion. You'll remember that. The government was trying to push three five billion pounds

...