Tinker, Tailor, Starmer, Spies

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the prime ministers facing awkward questions over the collapse of the Chinese spy case, the Guardian’s Gaby Hinsliff joins the podcast team to explore the row and what it says about the UK’s relations with Beijing. Local authorities provide services that everybody relies on, but the findings of a new IfG report into the state of local government finances and services makes for some eye-watering reading. We dig into the detail. Plus: A big week for the government’s standards and ethics regime! Goodbye ACOBA, and hello Ethics and Integrity Commission. So how will this all work? Hannah White presents, with Stuart Hoddinott, Amber Dellar and Tim Durrant. Produced by Milo Hynes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Party conferences are over.
0:11.6	Parliament is back.
0:12.6	Kirstama is under pressure and facing awkward questions from his political opponents,
0:17.2	the press and some people in his own party.
0:20.0	So far, so familiar. I'm Hannah White and this is
0:23.7	Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. So, Kirstama has had quite a week
0:29.5	from joining Donald Trump's victory parade in Egypt to facing awkward questions in Westminster
0:35.0	about the collapse of the Chinese spy case. So how difficult could
0:39.4	this spy Rao get? What does it say about the UK's relationships with Beijing? We will take a look.
0:45.7	Diplomatic Raos are making the headlines, but it's the bread and butter issues,
0:49.2	a day-to-day local services that people across the country rely on that end up winning elections. Well,
0:55.1	a new IFG report has dug very deep into the state of local government finances, withhold your
1:00.6	excitement and public services. Take a deep breath, everyone. It's not good news. And then to an area
1:07.6	where the government will claim success, but will anybody be listening? The ethics
1:11.1	and standards regime has been overhauled. A new body is up and running. So what difference will
1:16.0	it make? We will speak to our resident expert. I'm delighted to say that we are joined throughout
1:21.2	by Guardian columnist Gabby Hinsliff, who is making her inside briefing debut. Hi, Gabby.
1:26.7	Hello. I'm very excited to be making my debut, obviously.
1:29.7	I think the last time I saw you, Gabby, was listening in to Zach Polanski's speech at the
1:34.7	Green Party conference. What did you make of that conference? Yeah, another debut. It's clearly
1:38.7	been an autumn, a big first for me. I don't normally go to Green Party conference, but this year it
1:43.1	did feel important to go, I think.
	...

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