The Week in Westminster

After the Prime Minister opened the door to a formal apology for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade, Caroline speaks to Labour MP and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Jack Straw, who served as Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair.To discuss the Home Secretary's revised migration plans Caroline brings together the Conservative MP and chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Dame Karen Bradley, and the Labour MP, Preet Gill, who also sits on that committee.The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, talks about his role in Parliament's Remembrance commemorations, the restoration and renewal of Parliament and MPs' security.And, following a dismal set of mid-term elections for Donald Trump's Republicans, Caroline is joined by former UK ambassador to the US, Lord Darroch, and Sarah Elliott of the Prosperity Institute and Republicans Overseas UK.

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.

This week the government gave the go-ahead for developing Jackdaw, the North Sea gas field. To discuss this approval, Sonia is joined by Torcuil Crichton, Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, and Green MP Ellie Chowns, who is the party leader in Westminster. Sonia looks ahead to next week's budget with Labour peer Kitty Ussher who was a Treasury Minister in Gordon Brown’s government and Rupert Harrison, who worked alongside George Osborne at the Treasury, and is now a senior adviser at the investment management company Pimco.In the summer the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology was abolished and its responsibilities were placed in different departments across Whitehall. To discuss why, Sonia is joined by Conservative MP George Freeman, who is a former Science Minister, and is deputy chair of the Science and Technology Committee and Rowena Mason who is the Whitehall editor of the Guardian.And, this month marks the 90th anniversary of the Jarrow march, when two hundred men walked from Tyneside to London to petition the British government to bring back industry to their town. Kate Osborne is the Labour MP Jarrow and Gateshead East and Helen Antrobus is a curator and historian who works with the People’s History Museum in Manchester. They joined Sonia to discuss the legacy of the Jarrow march.

Isabel debates the upcoming Budget with the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Labour's Dame Meg Hillier and the former Conservative Treasury minister Dame Harriett Baldwin. Two veterans of previous attempts to reform the benefits system debate how it should be done now: the former Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith and Alex Zatman, who was a special adviser to Labour's Liz Kendall when she was Work and Pensions Secretary. How prepared is the UK for a crisis that could cause food shortages? The Labour peer and chairman of Iceland Foods, Richard Walker discusses this with the chief executive of the Soil Association, Helen Browning, who has a farm in Wiltshire. And Andy Burnham is getting a reputation for thinking out loud in public. Former Downing Street Director of Communications for Boris Johnson, Guto Harri and Claire Ainsley, the former policy director for Keir Starmer and now at the Progressive Policy Institute discuss whether this is a good thing.