Ambitious Labour politicians are on manoeuvres. Number 10 isn't working well. The Prime Minister is on the defensive. Yes, here we go again. I'm Catherine Hadden and this is Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.

It's Wednesday afternoon. We've all spent the day digesting a flurry of breathless briefings

and some agenda-setting journalism. Where Streeting, the Health Secretary, is in the headlines

accused of plotting a leadership challenge against the Prime Minister. Streeting has dismissed

the attacks as

self-defeating nonsense and has urged Kirstama to sack whoever is briefing the media.

But beneath the drama, more serious charges are being leveled at number 10. It doesn't work.

The recent reset hasn't provided directions. The PM is losing the confidence of his party.

And as for the man of the moment, what Streeting really wants to be talking about are his

plans for turning around NHS performance. But our new report has some mixed news about how

that is going. All this to come. Joining me again are the IFG duo of Jill Rutter and Alex Thomas, obsessive watchers of

number 10 and former civil servants at the heart of government.

Hi, Jill.

Hi, Cass.

The ashes are nearly here.

So tell us, do you enjoy watching political psychodramas more than the cricket?

Well, the interesting thing with the ashes being in Australia is the time difference means

that you can do ashes at night and you can do the psychodrama during the day.

And I think there's some parallels because we've just seen sort of Ben Stokes rejecting some

deeply unhelpful comments by some former captains of England.

So I think Kirstama with Tony Blair telling him he doesn't like some of his policies, Gordon Brown telling him what to do with the budget, Ben Stokes being told off by in both and for inadequate preparation, I think there's some very distinct parallels between the two.

Brilliant. More to what. Alex, speaking of parallels, is the latest drama in politics helping you recover from

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