31/10/2026

George discusses Chancellor John Healey's first Budget with Sir Mel Stride, who served as Shadow Chancellor until just a few months ago and is a former Work and Pensions Secretary and the former Labour government minister Seema Malhotra, who is now a member of the Treasury Select Committee. Andy Burnham said that he is willing to reopen the debate about free movement as part of a wider "national conversation" about Brexit. Labour's Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and Danny Kruger, who was previously a Conservative MP but defected to Reform UK a year ago debate whether this is a good idea. Professor Lucy Easthope, an expert on emergency planning and Helen MacNamara, who was deputy Cabinet Secretary during the covid pandemic speak to George about the government's Be Ready campaign which has already seen shoppers stocking up on beans, bottled water and wind-up radios. And George discusses pubs, pints and the Budget with Lord Macpherson, the former permanent secretary at the Treasury between 2005 and 2016 and an amateur historian on the Treasury.