Alastair Campbell

The writer, satirist and broadcaster Armando Iannucci returns to the New Statesman Podcast to co-host our third series of Westminster Reimagined. In six special episodes Iannucci explores parts of British public life he believes to be broken, and is joined by guests from inside and outside of Westminster to work out how to fix them. In this final episode of the season Iannucci and Anoosh Chakelian, the New Statesman’s Britain editor, examine whether Britain’s leaders want to be too powerful. Boris Johnson spoke often of a personal mandate, and Tony Blair enforced more control from the centre. Have our leaders got too strong – and can anything be done about it? Our guests for the episode are Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s director of communications and now a diarist and podcaster, and Catherine Haddon, a resident historian at the Institute for Government. The panel discusses whether prime ministers have always wanted more power, how much Johnson tried to change the rules of the game and why prime ministers should make the most of their cabinets. [See also: The Tory exodus is a sign of a failing party – and system] How to listen to the New Statesman Podcast 1. In your browser You can use the player above to listen in your browser right now. The subscriber edition of the New Statesman Podcast is published here every Monday and Thursday. Why not bookmark this page? You can come back for new episodes twice a week. 2. In a podcast app The public feed of the New Statesman Podcast is available on all major podcast apps including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, Google Podcasts, and more. It publishes a day later than this subscriber edition. Search “New Statesman Podcast” in your favourite podcast app. 3. On your smart speaker If you have an Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod smart speaker, ask it to “play the latest episode of the New Statesman Podcast“. This will play the latest episode in the public feed. The same command also works with virtual assistants on mobile devices.