I am ringing the alarm bell. If government does not act swiftly to gear up to counter

these threats, there is a real risk they will run away from us. So says a new report into foreign

interference in British politics. So what happens next? My name is Alex Thomas

and this is Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. When former Reform

UK politician Nathan Gill was convicted for accepting bribes from Russia-linked sources, the government

commissioned a review into overseas election funding. That review has now been published, so what does

it say and what might

it mean for British elections? We are going to be joined by its author Philip Wycroft.

From election funding to funding public services. Labor came into power with a promise to reform

the way public services are delivered, but what has actually been done and is it working? The

IFG has issued our verdict. And finally, energy bills.

Rachel Reeves has been issuing frequent updates on what the government would or wouldn't do to support people.

We all take a look at her plans. With me for all of that is Senior Fellow, Kath Haddon.

I am today in Birmingham, the Venice of the Midlands, but Kath is just back from actual Venice.

A gondrel is the way to travel if the price of petrol is going up? Not in London. Having been on a boat that lost power and we

nearly crashed into HMS Belfast when I was on the Thames once, I would say I wouldn't want to be on a

gondler on the Thames, but they're lovely in Venice. I did enjoy not having to take any other transport

other than boats for a few days. And was some Georgia Maloney's referendum lost, the talk of the

canals? It was certainly discussed by me and others, but no, it wasn't necessarily brought up to

us by any waiters or any such. And I'm delighted to be joined by Philip Rycroft, former permanent secretary, amongst many

other things in government and the author of that new government review into foreign interference.

Philip, you're joining us from a busy conference centre, but thank you so much for making time to join us today.

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