The News Agents

Keir Starmer is historically unpopular. When he entered Downing Street, his approval rating stood around +10%. Now? The Prime Minister languishes around -50%. It's the steepest drop in support for any governing party still in its infancy. 8 out of 10 people say that Britain is getting worse as a place to live under Labour's watch. One poll conducted towards the end of last year suggested that even Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had more public confidence than Keir Starmer's government.
What on earth is going on? What explains such an instant - and decisive - turn in public mood away from a party and a Prime Minister elected in a landslide? As the Andy Burnham saga has illustrated this week, questions around Keir Starmer's authority seem a permanent feature of the news agenda. Was it always this way? Or is there something new, something unique, to Britain and British politics in 2026?
David Runciman is a professor, an author, and host of the Past Present Future podcast. He is one of Britain's leading thinkers on democracy, power and the state. His book, 'How Democracy Ends', observed the new threats to our political model and honed in on the very modern rot inside the representative democracy of the twenty first century.
Lewis paid him a visit - at his home in Cambridge - for a conversation about whether politics here is now ungovernable, whether political authority is now impossible to maintain, and whether democracy itself is indeed coming to an end.
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You’ve likely seen the viral video of Coco Gauff smashing her racket in a corridor at the Australian Open. She tried to go somewhere without cameras and failed. Now she's complaining the only private place is the locker room, Novak Djokovic says it's like "big brother", Iga Swiatek thinks they're "animals in a zoo".
Content is king but at what cost to player privacy? Isn’t this the kind of access we all wanted to drive sports broadcasting forward and grow the sport? The bigger the sport - the more financial reward for players, so why complain? Or are we in danger of forgetting they’re only human?
Jamie Murray, former world number one doubles player, and Molly McElwee, tennis journalist and author of "Building Champions", join Gabby and Mark.
Plus, we look back at the best bits of The Sports Agents from Manchester United to a very English embarrassment at Champions League success to two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath.
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Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides
Producer: Sophie Penney
Video Producer: Sam Trudgill
Social Media Editor: Calum Scotland
Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network
Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global
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The election offices of Fulton County were raided by FBI agents yesterday morning. Fulton, in the state of Georgia, was at the heart of Donald Trump's claims six years ago that he’d won the 2020 election (he didn’t). Why are ballot boxes of archived votes now being removed from the premises? Is this still about a six years ago old grudge? Or does it presage Trump's plan for the November midterm elections? We speak to the Commissioner on the premises who watched the action unfold before her eyes.
Later - offensive language warning - the Reform councillor on the Redcar ballot - who got through Nigel Farage's self-admittedly “piss poor“ vetting system.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Kemi Badenoch has told her party not to get in her way as she steers it further to the Right. Is this the correct assessment of what the Conservatives needs to attract voters back? Or is she way off?
Later, Trump has threatened Iran with his big beautiful armada. Does he have any concern for the protestors getting killed in their tens of thousands thousands? Or is this all about US interests?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

Donald Trump's tone on Minneapolis has changed in the last 24 hours. He’s now having conciliatory meetings and phone calls with State Governor Tim Walz and the city's Mayor Jacob Frey.
And it looks like he’s removed his Border Commander Gregory Bovino and put him out to pasture in California. What's behind the change of heart? Was it the polls? The murder of American citizens? Or the fact that his administration’s account of the killings has been flatly caught out by camera evidence. Is his ICE policy in meltdown? Or just on hold?
Later - how extremism is climbing in the UK pushed by social media algorithms - Andy Hughes from The Crime Agents joins us.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/