The Fourcast

It’s another febrile day in Westminster with Prime Minister Keir Starmer - for now - clinging on but he's far from safe as a succession of ministers have stepped down, with more expected to go. 
On top of that, the man who has become the PM's nemesis in the north, Andy Burnham, is apparently down in London. Shopping? Plotting? 
So it looks like Keir Starmer might just hit the current average tenure of British Prime Ministers - two years, but no more. Is this really the way to run a country in the middle of two wars and a cost-of-living crisis? And could anyone else really do any better? 
On this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by the Liverpool Echo's Political Editor Liam Thorp, who has co-authored a book with Andy Burnham on how to transform the country, and the Observer columnist Will Hutton.

Keir Starmer survives the day -  but the pressure on his leadership is growing. Today, he attempted to shore up his position with a speech focused on his vision for Labour, saying his government must go beyond “incremental change” and be the party of a “stronger and fairer” Britain. But despite this, at least 55 Labour MPs have called on Starmer to set out a timetable for a leadership election to take place.
And inside Labour, the conversation has already moved on to who would replace him and two names dominate - Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting. Burnham says he should never have been blocked from returning to Westminster, and Streeting is openly being discussed as a potential frontrunner. 
So with the party leadership in flux and the future of the Labour party once again up for debate - what happens now? In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Starmer biographer Tom Baldwin and Guardian columnist Zoe Williams about what today’s turmoil really means. Is Labour heading for a delayed but inevitable leadership contest, a Burnham ‘coronation’, or a messy fight over the party’s future?

Labour is reeling after bruising local election results - losing ground to the Greens on the left and Reform UK on the right - and questions are now swirling around Keir Starmer’s leadership. Is this just a difficult moment for Labour, or the start of something much bigger?
In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined by former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, former Keir Starmer Chief of Staff Sam White, and political strategist Scarlett Maguire to unpack what the results really mean. Is Labour facing a voter backlash, a messaging problem, or a full-blown leadership crisis?
And if pressure on Starmer continues to grow, what happens next? Could Labour really replace its leader - and who would even take over?

As Gulf leaders look to Beijing for guarantees Washington no longer seems able to give, China is suddenly at the centre of diplomacy around the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed and Iran’s foreign minister both arrived in Beijing within days of each other, seeking a way out of a blockade that has choked shipping routes, pushed tankers around the Cape of Good Hope, and rattled global markets.
So where does this leave Donald Trump’s efforts to revive a deal that could reopen the Strait, and what does the collapse of Project Freedom reveal about America’s standing with its allies in the Gulf and Europe?
In this episode of The Fourcast Indicators, Matt Frei and Mark Urban are joined by former Senior Director at the US National Security Council during Donald Trump’s first administration Fiona Hill to examine China’s growing leverage over Iran, the Gulf states’ deepening unease with Washington, and the diplomatic pressure building ahead of the delayed Trump-Xi summit.

It’s the dirty secret at the heart of England’s waterways. The water companies publicly insist they are cleaning up their act, but privately they have been allowed to avoid prosecution for years through a little-known mechanism which lets a company admit fault and pay money to a good cause instead of facing criminal charges. 
The Environment Agency says the payments are a “brilliant tool”, faster and simpler than taking a case through a lengthy court process. But Channel 4 News has uncovered how these payments have been used repeatedly by water companies accused of polluting rivers, allowing them to sidestep court, scrutiny, and conviction. Our investigation has also found that the Environment Agency has not completed a single prosecution of a water company for any pollution occurring in the last five years, despite almost two million sewage discharges. 
In this episode of The Fourcast, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson, who has been looking into this story, campaigner Fergal Sharkey, and whistleblower Robert Forrester, who has firsthand experience of how these cases are handled inside the system.