Happy New Year, Keir?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tricky poll ratings, gloomy economic news, and Elon Musk's online onslaught have made for a tricky start to 2025 for Keir Starmer, but how much should No10 be worrying? Theo Bertram, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown joins the pod team to give his verdict. Musk's X attacks have placed the child grooming scandal on the front pages, but are the Conservatives right to call for a new inquiry? The government would rather we were talking about its announcements on NHS and social care reform: our resident IfG health expert plans all? Plus: What will Mark Zuckerberg's Meta's fact-checking shift really mean? Hannah White presents. With Emma Norris and Stuart Hoddinott. Produced by Candice McKenzie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, happy new year and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.6	I'm Hannah White. The holidays, remember them? It feels a long time ago now, I think. But we're back with a bang in Westminster
0:23.2	with Elon Musk at war with Kirstama. In fact, Donald Trump's sidekick, who also seems to have
0:29.3	fallen out with Nigel Farage, seems to be making the political weather in the UK right now.
0:34.3	We'll look at how the government should handle its transatlantic tensions.
0:38.6	Musk's interventions have seen the deeply controversial topic of grooming gangs continue to
0:43.0	dominate the political agenda, with opposition politicians calling for a new inquiry into child
0:47.5	abuse. A previous inquiry reported in 2022, so is another one the right course of action? We will take a look. The PM would much
0:56.1	rather be talking about his own agenda, which this week meant setting out some big announcements
1:00.0	on health policy. So what's been said and will it make a difference? So we've got an awful
1:04.5	lot to discuss. I'm delighted that joining me throughout are the RFGs Deputy Director and Inquiries
1:10.5	expert, Emma Norris,
1:12.1	and Stuart Hoddonaut, a senior researcher on our public services team. Hi, Bays. Hi, Hannah.
1:17.4	Hi. Did you have good holiday breaks? Yeah, it was lovely, thanks. Yeah. Very relaxing.
1:23.6	I tried not to pay too much attention to Elon Musk, but it was difficult to do.
1:28.2	I didn't look at my emails for two weeks. It was dreaming. Excellent. And I'm delighted that we are
1:34.9	joined by Theo Bertram, director of the Social Market Foundation think tank, former number 10
1:40.2	advisor to both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and more recently at Google and TikTok. Hi, Theo. How are you?
1:46.3	Hi, Hannah. I've got a classic Christmas cold, but otherwise I'm very well, thanks.
1:50.8	Okay, well, hopefully you've got some lemm sip or something to get you through the pod.
1:55.2	Yeah, lempship and chocolate. Excellent. Okay, Theo, to begin with, can you give us a sense of what you think the mood will be in number 10 right now?
2:04.3	The poll ratings aren't great. In fact, they've plummeted since the general election.
	...

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