Setting the highest of standards in public life is not just about better behaviour or decision-making,

though it will improve both. It is also central to restoring trust between the public and politics.

So said the Labour Manifesto in 2024. So how is that promise working out in 2006?

My name is Alex Thomas and this is Inside Briefing, the podcast

from the Institute for Government. Ethics, standards, rules, trust, all buzzwords in the run-up

to the 2024 general election and all at the forefront of Labour's campaign for power

and the party's attacks on the then-ruling Conservative Party.

But since winning that election, we've seen resignations, apologies, suspensions and, of course,

the latest resignation of Peter Mandelson. And while we can't hold the Prime Minister responsible for Andrew Mountbatten-Winzer's behaviour, what can Kier-Starma do to show that his government

really is different from the last. Some senior Labour figures have

blamed the government's problems on what has seemed until now to be an overly male team around

the Prime Minister, with the party's former deputy leader Harriet Harmon leading calls for a complete

culture change at number 10. So what does this row say about the way Stama has governed? And then we'll

turn to another bad story for the government. Pesponed local elections are now

unpersponed and need to be held in just over three months' time. So how did the government end up

taking such a chaotic approach? We will ask our experts. All that is to come. Joining me today

is a birthday duo, the first of whom Tim Durrant leads our work on ministers and our work on ethics

and standards in government.

Happy birthday, Tim.

Thank you, Alex. And also in the studio is senior researcher Rebecca McKee, also from our ministers team, and also an expert on inquiries and the government's efforts to bring in duty of Canada requirements following the Hillsborough inquiry. Happy birthday, Rebecca. Thank you very much, Alex. They didn't know I was going to mention their birthdays. And I'm delighted we're joined by an extremely special guest, Hannah White, the IFG, CEO and director. We've turned the tables on Hannah today. And she's made something of a speciality of ethics and standards, especially in Parliament. She's literally written the book on it. And in a former life, was secretary to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, the body set up in the aftermath of major ethical scandals during John Major's premiership. But before we start, we're recording this on Thursday, and the day started with two major news stories. We're not going to spend time on Mr. Mountbatten Windsor, but we must talk about the news that Dame Antonio Romeo has been appointed as Cabinet Secretary. She's the first woman to hold the role and that of head of the civil service. She was appointed after more than a week of her candidacy

for the role playing out in the media and with allegations about her fitness for the job put

forward by one former senior civil service colleague in particular. Hannah, I suppose I should

...