Payne's Politics Podcast
1) Quizmas special: Political Fix’s 2025 nerd-out!
Can you name all the Labour frontbenchers who resigned or were sacked during the past year? Why was Peter Mandelson delayed from returning to the UK after being sacked as US ambassador? And who will b...Show More
2) Political Fix Live: Labour’s year in review
It’s been another turbulent year in politics. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced down rebellions from within his own party, overseen scandals and sackings, and delivered a constant barrage of bad n...Show More
3) Deals, donations and damage limitation
Sir Keir Starmer started the week with not one but two speeches defending his party’s Budget decisions in the wake of claims that chancellor Rachel Reeves had misled the public and fellow MPs about th...Show More
4) Bonus: What does the 2025 Budget mean for your money?
It’s been a rollercoaster week for both UK politics and our personal finances, with chancellor Rachel Reeves setting out tens of billions of pounds of tax rises in the Budget. But how will these new t...Show More
5) Budget bonanza: tax highs and growth lows
After months of speculation, predictions and U-turns, Rachel Reeves finally announced her Budget this week. And, symptomatic of the chaos this Budget has wrought, there was one final twist: the entire...Show More
6) Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Defying death
Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing...Show More
7) Boats and the Budget: the battlelines are drawn
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a tough set of measures overhauling immigration policy this week, in a bid to deter illegal boat crossings and tackle the thorny issue of asylum seekers that d...Show More
8) Is Starmer’s leadership on the line?
It has been a whirlwind week in Westminster with the BBC in crisis and a supposed challenge to the prime minister’s leadership. So, was there a putative coup from within Keir Starmer’s own cabinet? Is...Show More
9) To tax, but who to tax, that is the question
With just three weeks to go until the Budget, Rachel Reeves gave a surprise speech to reset expectations on who she’s planning to hit with more taxes on November 26. This has fuelled further speculati...Show More
10) Reeves’ £30bn treasure hunt
With a month to go until the Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves needs to find a projected £30bn to balance the books. And the forecasts are not in her favour, with the OBR’s bigger than expected product...Show More