The Week: How Much Danger Is Keir Starmer In?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Adam and Chris look back and assess how much danger Keir Starmer is in after another week of the Peter Mandelson saga?
They are joined by Lara Spirit, deputy political editor of The Sunday Times and former civil servant Helen MacNamara who served as the deputy cabinet secretary.
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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 Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack MacLaren. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was . 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. |
| 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. |
| 0:24.2 | America. |
| 0:25.1 | Listen on BBC Sound. |
| 0:28.0 | Hello, here is your regular look back at the big stories of the week with me, Chris and Friends of the Pod, which was originally broadcast on BBC on Thursday night and recorded on Thursday evening. |
| 0:38.5 | Newscast. |
| 0:39.1 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:40.8 | Humanity's next great voyage begins. |
| 0:43.2 | We are in the midst of a rupture. |
| 0:45.2 | Nostalgia will not bring back the old order. |
| 0:47.9 | Six-seven. |
| 0:49.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:49.9 | It's supposed to be me as a doctor. |
| 0:51.7 | Daddy has also a special connotation. |
| 0:53.8 | Ooh-la-law. Thinking about it like a special connotation. Ooh, la, la, la. |
| 0:54.5 | Thinking about it like a pantor, helped. Do we play music now? What do we do? Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. And Chris in the newscast studio. I'm we're joined by some new friends of the podcast. Lara Spirit is the deputy political editor at the Sunday Times. Hello. Hello. Just in your, I'm imagine this is kind of getting peak Sunday journalism time, isn't it? Thursday. |
| 1:13.1 | Thank you so much for asking. |
| 1:14.2 | It is. It is the period of the week where you start to feel a mounting sense of dread. Yeah, I'm learning. And also, presumably, if something is in the newspaper on a Friday that you were trying to do for Sunday, you're like, oh, great. Yeah, that's it. That's it. So, yeah, exactly. So either you have something good and you're in a horrible state of anticipation and nervousness, or if you don't, then you're also in a horrible state. Well, we'll try and help you relax over the next 26 minutes. And also here to help us out is Helen McNamara, who was the Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the olden days, |
| 1:44.7 | and now you are a fellow podcaster. I am, yeah, in the room with my very good friend, Cleo Watson, |
... |
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