Delighted to see the latest episode of Since Attlee & Churchill mentioned in Politico. Richard and I discuss a former Labour MP's attempt to return to the House of Commons - not in 2026, but in 1984, when Tony Benn fought the Chesterfield by-election. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

🚨NEW PODCAST: Is Makerfield the new Chesterfield? In the latest Since Attlee & Churchill, @richardmarcj and I discuss a former Labour MP's attempt to return to Parliament in a by-election. But the candidate isn't Andy Burnham - it's Tony Benn, in Chesterfield, in 1984. 1/2

On our podcast, Since Attlee & Churchill, Richard and I have been looking at three of the most dramatic strikes of the last century. It's a story of changing trade union power; competent and inept governments; and the collapse of the coal-mining industry. 🧵A mini thread.

Richard and I are delighted to be taking 'Since Attlee & Churchill' to @mcrhistories.bsky.social. We'll be there on 6th June, in Manchester Central Library, speaking about Manchester's underlooked political figures. Tickets are free and can be booked at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mhf-2026-f...

Just spotted that you are the #1 'hot new release' for political leadership books on amazon - congratulations! (though annoyingly they are still displaying an old version of the cover) www.amazon.co.uk/gp/new-relea...

I'm pleased to say my book on the Tory leadership, 'Coronations & Defenestrations', will be out next month with @agendapub.bsky.social (part of @edinburghup.bsky.social). It looks back to when leaders simply emerged and charts the path to the flurry of leaders the party has endured in recent years.

🚨 NEW PODCAST: The General Strike (Part 2) In our second episode on the General Strike, Richard and I pick up the story after the strike got underway and debate the role of Stanley Baldwin, the terms of the 'surrender' and the long-term consequences of the strike. 1/2

Pleased to write for @telegraph.co.uk on Labour's battering in Wales - a once-in-a-century rupture between the Labour Party and what was one of its most steadfast heartlands. Available here. 👇 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05...

One of the recurring themes of leadership challenges is the difference between technical survival and retaining the authority to govern. For anything more than a few months’ reprieve, it’s the latter that really matters. And Keir Starmer is clearly losing it.

‘An almost forgotten character walked back onto the stage of British politics this weekend. After decades in the wilderness, the “stalking horse” was revived by Labour MP Catherine West…’ I’ve written for @unherd.com on the remarkable return of the stalking horse.👇🏻 unherd.com/newsroom/wil...

🚨NEW PODCAST: The General Strike (Part 1) Richard and I kick off a new miniseries on strikes by looking back 100 years to the only General Strike in British history (so far). When a slump in the profitability of coal met with the demands of the mineworkers, few could see a peaceful way out. 1/4

The interpretation of these results for the Conservatives depends almost entirely on if you’re comparing with 2021/22 (effectively pre-Reform) or 2025. Obviously these are worse for the Tories than before the right was split. But they’re much better than the 2025 results.

As we learn more about how the country has voted, I’ve put the results so far into some historical context over on @capx.co. Free to read here. 👇 capx.co/the-old-poli...

To the average voter, this will come across as it is: horrible, vile, spiteful politics. It may motivate some of their existing vote, but few new people will want to support a party that threatens to punish you, even if you vote for it, because a plurality of your neighbours vote for someone else.

I’m delighted this is now our fastest downloaded episode ever - out of 100+ eps! Hear about how Labour got smashed in the 1968 local elections; plotters tried to end Harold Wilson’s premiership; and yet he survived until the next election (and beyond)… Links below.

🚨NEW PODCAST: Labour's 1968 Battering at the Polls In 1968, an unpopular Labour PM was on the brink as voters went to the polls in local elections. When the votes were counted, Labour suffered a wipe-out in large parts of London, with similarly grim results across the rest of the country. 1/2

🚨 NEW PODCAST: How political was Elizabeth II? To mark the centenary of her birth, Richard and I discuss - and debate - the political role(s) of Elizabeth II. I argue that there are 7 legitimate ways in which a monarch can, and sometimes must, act politically - but that each comes with... 1/2

Wonderful news that Lord Hennessy has been made a Knight of the Order of the Garter. If you haven't done so already, take this as a prompt to listen to his utterly charming appearance of Desert Island Discs in 2023.

It's an underrated part of British culture that we tend to believe other Brits are generally good people. There's such a huge gulf in the Anglosphere between those who believe it (UK, Australia, Canada) and the US

The problem isn't that a democratically elected PM got his way. It's that having made a political decision, and got his way, Keir Starmer now tries to blame other people and hide behind bureaucracy and process. Politicians exercising power is fine - so long as it comes with accountability.

This is the reason I struggle to imagine an actual Labour leadership contest being what removes Starmer. It would need 20% of MPs willing to publicly rebel against him AND get behind the same alternative. Imho, intolerable pressure, including resignations from govt, more likely to remove the PM.

How close were we to Thatcher vs Callaghan TV debates? In April 1979, Jim Callaghan became the first incumbent PM to call for TV debates with the Leader of the Opposition. At first, it seemed the Tory press were gearing up for it, with the Sun urging: "Take him on, Maggie".

🚨 NEW PODCAST: What's the point of TV debates? In 2010, Britain had its first ever Prime Ministerial debates. The idea had first been mooted as early as 1964, so why did it take so long for them to happen? What advantages and disadvantages do the debates bring? And…

🚨 NEW PODCAST: How did the 1922 Committee become so powerful? There was a time when you could barely tune into the news without the cryptically named ‘1922 Committee’ being in the headlines. But how did this group of Tory MPs, originally founded as a self-help group...

Here’s Herbert Morrison climbing down a fire engine ladder at County Hall for the camera:

Clement Attlee sawing some wood whilst wearing a shirt and tie and smoking on a pipe. One of the photographs in Clement Attlee: A Pictorial Biography by Vincent Brome (1949).

🚨 BONUS PODCAST: The Faiths of Margaret Thatcher & Gordon Brown Following on from our Easter Sunday special, Richard and I look at two other prime ministers for whom their Christian faith was of foundational importance. Available now. www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-...

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Which post-war PMs were most influenced by Christianity? In a special Easter episode, Richard and I discuss two of the most religiously observant and theologically curious post-war PMs: Macmillan and Blair. What did faith mean to them? And how did it influence their politics? 1/2

'He is risen indeed. Alleluia!' Happy Easter! - from a gloriously packed St Faith’s Church in Shellingford, Oxfordshire.

My Easter weekend reading: I’ve followed the recommendation of the ‘Quite Right’ podcast and plumped for Trollope. The first Victorian novel I’ve read in a LONG time - and so far, I’m loving it.

🚨 BONUS PODCAST: Can the Tory Party be revived? In a special bonus episode, Richard and I discuss one of the major questions for British politics in the 2020s: can the Conservative Party, for so long the dominant force in British politics, be revived? Available now on Patreon. Link below.

Delighted that 'Since Attlee & Churchill' has climbed into the top 50 UK history podcasts on Apple!

We're a quarter of the way through 2026... ... and so far this year, Richard and I have published 26 episodes of our podcast Since Attlee & Churchill. These are the top five most listened to episodes of Q1 2026 - so, if you haven't yet given it a listen, these could be a good place to start! 1/2

On this day 60 years ago, Harold Wilson achieved his greatest electoral triumph: the 1966 general election. Labour's vote share was 48%, giving Wilson a landslide majority. It was the only time, between 1945 and 1997, that Labour won a decent working majority in Parliament.

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Was this the most talented Labour leadership election ever? In the second part of our miniseries on the 1976 transition of power, Richard and I discuss the remarkable field of candidates who sought the lease of Number 10 after Harold Wilson. Featuring... 1/2

Glad to speak on the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social panel on the Budget today. My headlines: a damp squib of a Budget, really, with only one memorable measure - scrapping the two-child benefit cap - which gave the Tories a big opportunity to carve out a unique space on the political map.

The Conservative analysis of the Budget - Labour is putting up taxes to pay for extra welfare - is smart politics that shows the party is v much alive. It (i) speaks to lots of voters (ii) is a coherent critique of Labour and (iii) puts a clear gap between Tories and Reform on the economy.

🚨 NEW PODCAST - and it's not on the Budget! In a break from wall-to-wall Budget coverage, Richard and I discuss how to remove a Labour leader and local elections. To kick us off, Richard delves into the Labour leadership rulebook, before I raise the extraordinary... www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qDC...

“Margaret would quite often… cite advice she had received from 'one of my people' or 'my people'. It seemed sometimes as though she was Joan of Arc invoking the authority of her voices.” - Geoffrey Howe on the No 10 / No 11 relationship

🚨 NEW PODCAST: How did Neil Kinnock defeat Militant? Neil Kinnock’s showdown with Militant Tendency is one of the standout moments in Labour history. But who were Militant? How did they threaten the Labour leadership? And how did Kinnock take them on? Richard and I...

I’d known Ted Heath had No.10 decorated, but I didn’t know he’d made it look like ‘a boudoir’. (Barbara Castle). Most entertaining. And a little reminiscent of Trump decorating the White House like a deranged Liberace.

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Refurbishing Number 10 & The Crisis of Reading In our latest podcast, Richard takes aim at the complaints made about the condition of Number 10 Downing Street… … and I make the case for books as the pinnacle of literacy. See next tweet.

Enjoyable podcast by my colleagues Richard Johnson, Lee Evans and Tom Chidwick on Dick Taverne, who recently died at 97. Deselected as Lincoln's Labour MP in 1972 for the unforgivable crime of pro-Europeanism, he won a by election as an independent: very rare then! open.spotify.com/episode/662g...

Great to see the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social's own Tom Chidwick on this week's episode of 'Since Attlee and Churchill' with @qmulsse.bsky.social's Richard Johnson and @leedavidevansuk.bsky.social! How did Dick Taverne overcome the full force of the Labour Party? Find out in this week's episode...

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Who achieved 'the most significant by-election success ever’? In this week's podcast, Richard and I are joined by Tom Chidwick of the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social to discuss Dick Taverne. When Taverne was deselected by his local party, he forced a dramatic by-election...

🚨 NEW PODCAST: How did war shape our politicians? In a special episode to mark Remembrance Sunday, Richard and I discuss four titanic politicians of the 20th century who were shaped by their experience of war. What was their contribution to the wars they fought... (1/2)

🚨NEW PODCAST: Politicians Changing Names & Funding Political Parties In our latest podcast, Richard discusses the staggering number of politicians who don't go by their given first name... ... and I raise the thorny issue of how we fund our political parties and what...

In the lead-up to the 2009 local and European elections, the MPs’ expenses scandal broke. It was the biggest political scandal in a generation. The outrage was so intense that the Conservatives scrapped their party political broadcast for a piece to camera from David Cameron.

🚨 NEW PODCAST: How did the MPs' expenses scandal unfold? In our latest podcast, Richard and I discuss the biggest political scandal of a generation: the publication of MPs' expenses in 2009. From duck houses to moat cleaning, phantom mortgages to packets of biscuits...

🚨 NEW PODCAST: The size of the Civil Service, Digital ID & Compulsory Voting In our latest podcast, Richard reflects on the historic size of the Civil Service... ... I think back to Blair's attempt to introduce ID cards... and we discuss - and disagree! - whether...