31/01/2026
The Week in Westminster
BBC
4.0 • 258 Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sonia Sodha assesses the latest developments at Westminster.
This week Sir Keir Starmer became the first Prime Minister in eight years to visit China. To discuss the visit Sonia is joined by Labour MP and Chair of the Business and Trade Select Committee Liam Byrne, and the Conservative MP Sir Andrew Mitchell, who served as Deputy Foreign Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government.
Following the Home Secretary's announcement of reforms to the police services in England and Wales Sonia spoke to two MPs, both former police officers, to discuss the proposals. Labour's Jonathan Hinder served in London for nine years, reaching the rank of inspector. He was also the head of the Police Now training academy and the Liberal Democrat Wendy Chamberlain, worked for the Scottish Police College as well as the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.
To discuss the issue of loneliness in young men, Sonia is joined by MP Mims Davies, who is a former Conservative Minister for Loneliness and now co-chairs the parliamentary group on Men and Boys' Issues and Chris Hemmings, the Founder of Men’s Therapy Hub, who is also a psychotherapist who specialises in working with men and boys.
And, this week saw the launch of a new Conservative group for, what it calls, the 'politically homeless' on the centre right. So what role do political movements play in political parties? To discuss this Sonia speaks to Amber Rudd, a former Conservative Cabinet Minister and vice chair of Prosper UK, and Labour peer Stewart Wood, who is a former adviser to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. He is also a signatory to Mainstream, which says it is the home for 'Labour's radical realists'.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | This is Sonia Soda with The Week in Westminster. |
| 0:09.7 | Psychodrama in Westminster. |
| 0:12.3 | That's how the week kicked off, |
| 0:14.1 | with the Labour backbenchers buzzing in the wake of the party's decision |
| 0:17.8 | to block the Greater Manchester Mayor and leadership hopeful, |
| 0:21.8 | Andy Burnham from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election. |
| 0:26.2 | Secure Stama left that behind when he got on a plane to China on Tuesday |
| 0:30.8 | for the first Prime Ministerial visit there in eight years. |
| 0:35.0 | His objective? |
| 0:36.7 | Securing Britain a slice of the trade opportunities afforded by one of the |
| 0:40.8 | world's fastest growing economies. A lot of the discussion was about how we open up access for |
| 0:46.6 | those opportunities, focusing, as I always do on, how is this going to be delivered back in the |
| 0:52.5 | United Kingdom? How does it benefit people back at home? |
| 0:55.8 | And we made some really good progress. |
| 0:58.3 | Back at Westminster, there was criticism. |
| 1:01.7 | Kemi Badenok accused the Prime Minister of kowtowing to China. |
| 1:06.3 | And the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, |
| 1:09.8 | raised the specter of China's human rights record. |
| 1:13.1 | Whilst the Chinese regime still holds British citizen Jimmy Lai captive in prison, |
| 1:20.3 | and whilst the Chinese regime continues to hunt down pro-democracy protesters |
| 1:24.8 | on the streets of Britain with bounties on their heads. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

