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The News Agents

If the adult porn director Stormy Daniels was the star witness of the Trump trial last week, this week it got even hotter. Trump's former fixer, friend and lawyer took the stand.

1 day ago • 24m 22s

"He should go to jail!" Michael Cohen tell's Donald Trump's trial

In an exclusive early interview we speak to the Government's Independent Advisor on Political Violence. 

John Woodcock, a cross party peer, has spent the last four years putting together recommendations to make public life safer.

2 days ago • 33m 43s

Do we need to crack down on 'extreme' protest groups?

If it had been a speech about defence, it might have made more sense. But Rishi Sunak had no new policy offerings in todays pronouncement - he warned of a scary future under Starmer.

4 days ago • 25m 58s

Can Rishi scare people into voting Tory?

Did the Labour Party screw up in welcoming Natalie Elphicke into its party? 

One former frontbencher tells us Keir Stamer got this wrong. 

They're calling on him to now re-admit Dianne Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn into the Labour fold. 

5 days ago • 38m 5s

Will Starmer now have to let Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn back into the Labour Party?

Very little political news is truly jaw dropping. But this morning's was. Natalie Elphicke, on the Conservative right of the party, and MP for Dover, has defected to Labour.

1 week ago • 35m 56s

Why has Labour welcomed a right wing Tory defector?

The government is determined not to let a little thing like a disastrous set of local elections put it off its stride. 

Over the course of the bank holiday we were told that 'the plan is working... it just needs a little more time'. 

1 week ago • 33m 26s

Is the government 'gaslighting' the British public?

In a surprise move, the sex worker and pornstar Stormy Daniels appeared as a witness yesterday in the trial of Donald Trump to reveal details of the night they spent together in a Nevada hotel room. 

1 week ago • 37m 29s

Stormy Daniels takes the stand against Donald Trump

The local election and mayoral results flood in. 

How bad are they for the Tories? How much of that is Reform? And how well have Labour actually done?



1 week ago • 33m 43s

Election special: How bad is it for Tories?

After several delays, Brexit checks finally came into force this week - adding cost and delay to how small businesses can get their goods into the UK. It'll see prices pushed up on the consumer's end too.

1 week ago • 41m 3s

The issue the political parties won't talk about

As of this week, Rishi Sunak can boast he has sent asylum seekers to Rwanda. 

Admittedly, it was just one guy. Admittedly he was paid £3k to go. Admittedly he'd already failed the asylum test to remain in Britain.

2 weeks ago • 36m 44s

So, one person has gone to Rwanda...

Is Trump above the law and should he have immunity from a case involving his actions around the January 6th insurrection? 

That's what the Supreme Court has spent the last week arguing about. 

2 weeks ago • 37m 7s

Should a president be able to "assassinate" his political opponents?

If the Palace of Westminster were a village - the Head of Counter Terrorism police tells us - NO one would dare to live there. 

2 weeks ago • 38m 25s

Why are so many of our MPs facing death threats?

On the stroke of midday, Humza Yousaf, Scotland's First Minister, made the announcement that just a week ago would have been unthinkable. 

2 weeks ago • 53m 27s

Humza Yousaf resigns. Is Scottish independence dead?

Lord Neil Kinnock - Labour leader from 1983 to 1992, Thatcher's biggest rival in her pomp, joins Lewis in the studio for a sit down chat to talk about his political life, from the 1950s to Harold Wilson, his interactions with Jeremy Corbyn.

2 weeks ago • 43m 4s

Neil Kinnock: The Prime Minister Labour never had

Scotland's First Minister is facing a confidence vote after he pulled the plug this morning on his coalition government by ejecting the two Green party members of his cabinet. 



2 weeks ago • 46m 15s

Is the SNP government hanging by a thread?

The Prime Minister is in Europe this week making the case for an increase in defence spending of £75 billion over the next six years - to deal with growing global threats in a turbulent world. 

3 weeks ago • 29m 2s

Wake up call or gimmick? The government's new defence plan

Australia’s PM is at war with Elon Musk - calling him an ‘arrogant billionaire’  - and worse. 

3 weeks ago • 41m 42s

Why is Elon Musk at war with Australia?

Rishi is making those naughty Lords stay in the chamber until they pass his Rwanda Bill without pesky amendments. That may come in the early hours of tomorrow morning. 

3 weeks ago • 35m 37s

Rwanda delayed: Will Sunak ever get planes off the ground?

The Middle East, the world, not for the first time in these long six months, has been holding its breath.

3 weeks ago • 34m 4s

Have Israel and Iran stepped back from the brink?

**Since publication, Savanta revised the polling data included in this episode to show the Labour candidate on a two point lead.

3 weeks ago • 44m 38s

Sleaze, campaign funds and a 3am phonecall: Another Westminster scandal

Yes, yes, yes. She crashed the economy, has blamed everyone else, made Britain a laughing stock, inflicted higher mortgage rates on millions of households, and was the shortest serving prime minister in our history.

4 weeks ago • 36m 22s

Does Liz Truss actually have a point?

It was a conference that few people here would have ever noticed. Suella, Nigel, Orban  - speakers deemed "far right" by the Brussels authorities - found their conference filled with Belgian police as they took to the stage for their NatCon gathering

1 month ago • 31m 21s

Should the police be shutting down Nigel Farage and the NatCons?

On Saturday night, Israel warned its citizens to go to a safe room and prepare to spend the night there. 

Two hours later, Iran began sending drones into Israeli territory - revenge for the killings of 7 men in the Iranian consulate two weeks ago.

1 month ago • 32m 16s

What is Iran's endgame?

On today's episode, we speak to Europe's first black leader - Vaughan Gething, the new First Minister of Wales. In an extended conversation, we talk his rise to the top of Welsh politics amidst experiences of racism.

1 month ago • 32m 2s

Europe's first black leader

TW: This episode includes discussions around suicide. If you need someone to talk to, Samaritans listen. Call them on 116 123.

Last week, The National Union of Education voted overwhelmingly at their conference to 'abolish Ofsted'

1 month ago • 53m 40s

Should Ofsted be scrapped?

William Wragg, the MP who found himself blackmailed by a person to whom he'd sent explicit photographs - last night resigned the Conservative party whip.

1 month ago • 30m 47s

Westminster sexting and the honeytrap

It is a truth near-universally acknowledged (amongst pollsters at least) that Labour will be the largest party at the next election. 

But how would they actually differ from the Tories in terms of what they do once in power?

1 month ago • 36m 18s

Will Labour just be another version of the Tories?

Police are re-examining claims Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner may have broken electoral law more than a decade ago by failing to pay a capital gains tax worth around £2000. Is there a real story here? Is it about impropriety? Class?

1 month ago • 39m 22s

Is Angela Rayner really in trouble?

In the early hours of Thursday morning Layla Moran - the only British MP of Palestinian heritage- received news she’d been longing to hear for months. 

Her family had finally escape from Gaza.

1 month ago • 31m 4s

Why is David Cameron being reported to the ethics adviser?

Ian Hislop, editor of The Private Eye and team captain on Have I Got News For You sits down with Lewis for an extended conversation about political satire in the modern era of the Westminster psychodrama.

1 month ago • 28m 40s

Ian Hislop on Boris Johnson, Piers Morgan and political satire in the age of the absurd

The Prime Minister has called the Israeli Prime Minister's actions in Gaza 'increasingly intolerable' in a phone call with Netanyahu after the deaths of three British aid workers in an Israeli airstrike.

The words are tougher than we've seen before.

1 month ago • 29m 29s

Why is the UK still selling arms to Israel?

A new law has Police Scotland saying that they'd investigate every online hate crime. 

But what they've categorised as a hate crime has caused controversy. Why? And should the state decide what is and isn't a protected characteristic?

1 month ago • 45m 54s

Why did JK Rowling want to be arrested?

Forget everything you know about an exploding world population. 

The sad truth is, our birthrate is plummeting globally to the point where there soon won't be enough young workers to take care of the aging population. 

1 month ago • 37m 20s

Is the world running out of babies?

Once you have revealed that China is hacking British citizens on a major and global scale, the next question is - well, what are you going to do about it? 

1 month ago • 34m 2s

Is Rishi Sunak prepared to pick a fight with China?

The bombing of a Moscow concert hall left at least 137 dead and even more wounded. 

The regrouped ISIS - now ISIS K- have claimed responsibility even though Putin is insisting on blaming Ukraine. 

1 month ago • 29m 45s

The Moscow terror attacks: Are ISIS back?

Influential left-wing commentator Owen Jones is in News Agents HQ a day after he quit the Labour Party - despite being a member since he was 15 - on account of what he perceived to be Keir Starmer's fundamental 'dishonesty'.

1 month ago • 34m 11s

Owen Jones on why he's left the Labour Party

There's only one poll that counts and that's the actual election and that's not today. We know that, we get it, but the latest numbers from YouGov are worth looking at to see a direction of travel that might be staring us in the face. 

1 month ago • 33m 40s

Could the Reform party overtake the Tories?

Margaret Thatcher has been out of power for thirty years but this week it's started to feel like she's back in the room. 



1 month ago • 38m 8s

Why is Thatcher back in fashion?

At 6pm on Friday the Princess of Wales released a video statement. In it, she discusses her cancer diagnosis for the first time. 

1 month ago • 21m 25s

Kate Middleton reveals she has cancer

Even after Kate Middleton appeared IRL at a local Windsor farm shop, the Tiktok conspiracy theories continued. Was it really Kate? Was the photo staged? Why did the video look different to the still image? On and on.

1 month ago • 32m 9s

How should the Royals respond to TikTok conspiracies?

The weekend has been awash with talk of yet another leadership putsch. Is Penny Mordaunt on manoeuvres? Is Kemi Badenoch scheming?

1 month ago • 29m 23s

Are the Tories really ready to replace Rishi Sunak?

British politics has been dominated by race this week. The big picture is that certain ideas which would once have been unsayable are now commonplace within the Conservative Party.

2 months ago • 36m 25s

Sayeeda Warsi on her "arsonist" Tory colleagues

Michael Gove has announced today that the government is redefining extremism. But given they've taken up to 15 million pounds worth of donations from a man who said Diane Abbott should be shot, do they really have any credibility doing so this week?


2 months ago • 31m 56s

Do the Tories have any credibility on extremism?

The PM has belatedly conceded that the comments in which a Tory donor expressed his urge to 'shoot all black women' WAS actually racist. 

He's still not giving the money back. No, that would be a step too far. 

2 months ago • 29m 21s

Has Rishi lost control of his party?

Today's Tory 'was it racist?' row centres a donor who's given the Conservatives more than ten million pounds. 

2 months ago • 36m 32s

Another day, another Tory racism row

Lee Anderson has defected to the Reform Party, saying he’d done a lot of soul-searching on his political journey, and wants his country back. 

2 months ago • 37m 59s

Lee Anderson wants his country back

Michelle Donelan is Rishi Sunak’s Science Secretary. She has accepted that she libelled an academic. That’s unusual. It’s even more unusual that the taxpayer is paying her libel bill. 

2 months ago • 30m 45s

Why are we paying for a cabinet minister's libel bill?

In an exclusive interview the former president of CNN claims Andrew Neil wanted a prominent role on the board of The Telegraph and The Spectator. When this was rejected, he turned against the Abu-Dhabi-backed bid.