Why we secretly love party conferences

On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool. In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham’ ...  Show more

With England through to the knockout stages of the World Cup and hopes rising that football might finally be coming home, Westminster is watching nervously — and closely. The beautiful game shapes the national mood like little else. For politicians, that creates both huge opportu ...  Show more

Today we take you behind the scenes at Nat Con: the Conservative-ish conference taking place in London this week. It's a meeting of hard Brexiteers, nationalists, libertarians, and the 'anti woke'. With a smattering of Holocaust minimisers, homophobes and climate-deniers thrown i ...  Show more

Rachel Reeves takes to the Labour party conference stage today, but hopefully not before she has chance to listen to Ed Balls and George Osborne’s sage advice on how to give a great conference speech. We take a stroll down memory lane and reflect on some of the most rousing sp ...

Matt Chorley is joined by David Aaronovitch and Hugo Rifkind to discuss who are the members pulling the strings in the Labour and Tory parties.

Plus Catherine Philp, The Times’ diplomatic correspondent, on what on Earth is going on in the White House.

Matt Chorley meets Alan “Howling Laud” Hope, leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party and veteran of eight general elections, and asks: what’s the point?

PLUS: Esther Webber rounds up the week, including TV debates, manifesto muddles and an “impromptu rally”.