Are Foreign Countries Interfering in UK Politics?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the government has ordered an independent review into foreign financial interference in UK politics.
The government say this is in response to what it called the “shocking” case of Nathan Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales. Gill was jailed in November, after admitting to taking bribes for pro-Russian interviews and speeches when he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Announcing the review, Communities Secretary Steve Reed said the government must "learn the lessons" from the case so "this can never happen again". Responding to Reed's statement in the Commons, Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice said his party welcomed the review but called on the government to also make sure it looked into the influence of China on the Labour Party. Victoria and Chris discuss what the review could mean
Plus, President Trump has filed, what is being reported as, a $5 billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC. Caitríona Perry and the FT’s global media editor Daniel Thomas explain what’s in the lawsuit and why the BBC has said it plans to fight it.
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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 Victoria Derbyshire. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris and Jem Westgate. The social producer was Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hi, Chris. Hello. How are you? I'm all right. Nice to have you on newscast. Thank you for having me. Can I ask you to explain this to me? Oh, yeah. We've got Chris Mason coming in for our political surgery, which we like to do once a month. Just throw everything at him. He's very happy. Yeah, I know you're always nice about it. and he appreciates that, actually. |
| 0:23.5 | It's a great idea. |
| 0:24.7 | Well... surgery, which we like to do once a month. Just throw everything at him. He's very happy. Yeah, I know you're always nice about it. And he appreciates that, actually. It's a great idea. Well, so what's your key question for Chris? Because I always like to throw your question at him. If you've got anything on politics at the moment. Oh, politics? Yeah. I was going to, oh, you see, I was going to ask him whether he has a ham on the side during Christmas. Does he have a ham? It's not political. Well, it could be political if he went on the left side of the counter. I think I'll ask my political questions to Chris Offer. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. That's a good way of making the show work. Yeah. So does he have a ham? Right. |
| 1:04.7 | You see, the thing is, Vic, I was thinking this morning, you know, I'm expecting some curveball political questions from, you know, from folk from Greater Manchester and Bolton. |
| 1:08.4 | But I thought they'd be coming from you, but in came one from Vernon Kaye. |
| 1:08.7 | Yes. |
| 1:09.6 | About ham. |
| 1:11.0 | Well, I know Vernon. And it does not surprise me that he wanted to know if you have a ham about ham. Well, I know Vernon. |
| 1:14.6 | And it does not surprise me that he wanted to know if you have a ham at Christmas. |
| 1:28.4 | Well, you think it was absolutely kind of on point question. Well, do you? Yes, I do. Come on, put us out of our misery. So Jeremy asked me about this on the radio. And yes, I do. This is a thing that, so I didn't use to, but my, my parents-in-law are a big fan of these, |
| 1:35.3 | this giant hunk of ham that goes into a, goes into a pot and simmers away for about a fortnight with all sorts of herbs and bits of bobs that go in. I was paying more attention |
| 1:39.3 | to what goes into it, but anyway, I don't, but I love the end product. And then this thing |
| 1:43.0 | gets dredged out of the giant pot. |
| 1:47.5 | And then sliced up and you have it on crunchy toast with mustard and stuff. |
| 1:51.8 | It's absolutely fantastic. |
| 1:53.0 | Country toast. |
| 1:54.0 | No, no, crunchy, crunchy, crunchy. |
| 1:55.2 | Oh, crunchy toast, I was going to say. |
| 1:56.7 | It could be country toast, but it's crunchy toast. |
| 1:59.2 | You know, and it's absolutely fantastic. |
| 2:02.1 | It becomes my sort of culinary Christmas highlight over and above, you know, the turkey or the pigs in blankets or whatever, you know. |
| 2:09.4 | It's fantastic. |
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