Did China hack the British government?
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If Chinese hackers accessed the government's private messages, maybe they could share the missing 5,000 text messages the Covid inquiry was looking for.
Will Dunn and Anoosh Chakelian discuss their stories of the week, including:
- Border breach of the week: China accused of hacking Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss aides.
- Lee Anderson can't find the right constituency to campaign in.
- Do the Fabians secretly run the world? (spoiler: no.)
- Planning objection of the week: Greens and Reform unite in an unlikely alliance to block new homes.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman |
| 0:02.1 | Hello, I'm Anoushekelian and I'm here with Will Dunn and you're listening to Daily Politics from The New Statesman. |
| 0:11.2 | Will, it's time for our rundown of the week because it's Saturday. |
| 0:14.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:14.6 | How's your week been? |
| 0:15.5 | It's been great. |
| 0:16.4 | Yeah. |
| 0:16.7 | Yeah, lots of fun. |
| 0:18.0 | Good. |
| 0:18.5 | Well, let's hope that you saved some fun for the next half hour of recording. |
| 0:21.9 | I'm afraid I didn't. |
| 0:23.1 | It's just facts. |
| 0:23.8 | Just dull grey facts all the way through. |
| 0:26.2 | Quantitive easing. |
| 0:28.7 | That is my weekend, actually. |
| 0:30.7 | It's just QE chat. |
| 0:32.4 | Well, let's get into our first category, border breach of the week. |
| 0:36.5 | Will, what's your choice for this? |
| 0:37.9 | So I have chosen the revelation that China is alleged to have hacked Downing Street phones for years. |
| 0:47.7 | And hacked into the phones of senior officials, the operation is believed to compromise |
| 0:53.5 | senior members of the government, state-sponsored |
| 0:56.2 | hackers, targeted some of the closest aides to Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and, most frightening |
... |
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