Keir Starmer v The Civil Service
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Keir Starmer has sent a "real chill throughout the civil service." That’s according to a senior union official following his decision to sack the lead civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins.
James and Chris are joined by Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government, Catherine Haddon, to discuss the recent turbulence in the relationship between the government and the Civil Service over the appointment of Peter Mandelson and whats next for the institution.
And, economics editor Faisal also joins us to discuss why the inflation rate has increased 3.3% in March.
You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by James Cook. It was made by Chris Gray with Jem Westgate. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second. |
| 0:11.9 | Yeah, sometimes the news does a full 180 while we're recording the podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | It can be a difficult job, but we stay up to date on your behalf. |
| 0:19.9 | Makes sense of what's happening in the US. with new podcast episodes throughout the week. America. Listen on BBC Sound. Hello, it's James in for Adam today. And Chris, you know how we're doing election cast once a week at the moment? And we've brought back remoter voter. We have. We have. I think we had a trip to Japan |
| 0:39.2 | a few days ago. Yeah, that's right. And we've got a couple |
| 0:41.8 | that we thought you would enjoy. So, cue the music. |
| 0:52.9 | It's our usual undercited self, James. |
| 0:56.0 | Yes, that's right. |
| 0:57.2 | And here are the remoter voters. |
| 0:59.0 | Hi there. |
| 0:59.7 | We live in Cardiff, Wales. |
| 1:01.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:02.3 | But me, my husband and son, will be remoter voters. |
| 1:05.4 | Voting via a postal vote on the 7th of May. |
| 1:07.6 | We'll be at our daughter's graduation at the University of Miami. Oh, congratulations. |
| 1:12.1 | That sounds great. And it says here, something in Welsh Crest that perhaps foolishly I will now attempt. |
| 1:18.4 | Go for it. Which I think is Huilvaour. And I'm very, very sorry if you're Welsh. And I think it means |
| 1:24.8 | essentially farewell because I've looked it up. |
| 1:28.3 | That's from Kate, Math and Sam. Thank you so much. I'm sorry if I've butchered your lovely language. |
| 1:33.3 | And it says, P.S., more importantly, I'm also having to work out a way of watching Eurovision |
| 1:37.3 | whilst we're 4,300 miles away from the UK. Yes, priorities. Eurovision first, election, second. |
... |
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