Downtown Den Archives - Downtown in Business

EP.129 | Defections, Invasions, and a Very Blue Monday

19/01/2026

With political defections and American invasions, there is not much to cheer you up on this bluest of Blue Mondays, but we will do our best…

EP.128 | Global Tensions Ignite the New Year

12/01/2026

Happy belated New Year and welcome back to the Downtown Den Politics Podcast. We barely stepped away and the world went straight back to chaos with international tensions involving Iran Venezuela and Ukraine.

EP.125 | Can Keir Hold On?

15/12/2025

With the Sunday papers predicting a return to Westminster for Andy Burnham, Shabana Mahmood doing the keynote interview at the annual Tony Blair Christmas gig, and Wes Streeting featuring as the main interview in the New Statesman’s final issue of the year, what can Keir Starmer do to stop the speculation about his leadership?

EP.124 | Donations, Defections, Drama

08/12/2025

It’s been a mixed week for Nigel Farage and Reform: a record-busting £9 million donation, plus defections from the Conservative Party. But that, combined with some controversial comments Nigel Farage was allegedly making back in his days at Dulwich College, has perhaps made it a more tetchy week for the Reform leader than he has had in the past.

EP.122 | Chaos Within: Budget Week Begins

24/11/2025

After an interminable wait, we finally get the Chancellor’s budget this week. We will also be talking about Shabana Mahmood’s new immigration proposals, a possible Ukraine peace deal, and the results of the COVID-19 Inquiry.

EP.121 | Pre-Budget Shambles

17/11/2025

Jim, Jo and Kevin discuss the shambolic run-up to the Budget, with persistent challenges to the Prime Minister’s leadership still far from over – forming the main agenda items for this week’s Downtown Den podcast.

EP.118 | Powell’s Win and Pochin’s Woes

27/10/2025

This week, Lucy Powell was elected as the new deputy leader of the Labour Party, there was a big investment summit that took place in Birmingham, and Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP in Runcorn, got herself into some difficulties over some unfortunate comments.