Welcome to F.T. Politics, a podcast on all things British politics from the Financial Times.

I'm Sebastian Payne and in this week's episode we'll be discussing a better week for the Conservatives and Theresa May and a not so good one for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn.

I'm delighted to be joined by George Parker, the FT's political editor, Whitehall editor James

Blitz, political commentator Miranda Green, and former laboured advisor Aisha Hazarika.

Thank you all for joining.

So Theresa May has survived another week and is actually

doing a little better as Prime Minister. She sealed a confidence and supply deal

with the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland, got through her first PMQs and passed a Queen's speech,

so she can now get on with governing, but now she has more support from the backbench of her

party, how long will it last?

Sir George Parker, Theresa May began this week in a fairly weak position.

She didn't have a working majority.

She didn't have a Queen's speech past and all those things changed by the end of the week

and obviously been a bitty bumpy time for the

Prime Minister but she seems to be a little bit stronger now and MPs and ministers are now talking of

her lasting months as opposed to weeks.

Yeah I think the position of the Prime Minister has stabilized a bit during the course of the week.

I was speaking to one Tory MP who said that the probability of reaching the age of 100 when you're 99 is quite high, let's say 95%.

And they were making the point that every day she survived,

her longevity seemed to improve.

And so I think you're right, I mean the DUP deal at the start of the week obviously gave her the

Commons majority she needed to pass the Queen's... At the cost of a billion pounds.

...