16/05/2026

Caroline speaks to the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who is also Minister for Equalities and Women, about the tumultous week for Sir Keir Starmer as almost 100 Labour MPs called on him to go. Claire Ainsley, who was policy director for Keir Starmer when he was in opposition and is now at the Progressive Policy Institute and Robert Colville, director of the centre right think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies assess whether Labour is doing enough to promote growth, in the week that the UK economy unexpectedly grew by 0.6% during the first three months of the year. Conservative peer Matthew Elliott, who was the Chief Executive of the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum ten years ago and the Liberal Democrats’ Business spokesperson Sarah Olney debate whether Europe is once again becoming a defining issue in British politics after the prime minister vowed to put “Britain at the heart of Europe”. And two long-term Westminster insiders discuss Labour's leadership challenge: the Labour peer, Ayesha Hazarika, who worked as an adviser to several senior Labour party politicians and LBC presenter and writer Iain Dale.

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16/05/2026 is an episode from The Week in Westminster by BBC.

This episode is 28:18 long.

This episode was published on May 16, 2026.

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