Tickets go live for Electoral Dysfunction live show in London
Get ready for an unforgettable evening with Sky News' chart-topping weekly politics podcast Electoral Dysfunction as it hosts a special live show at the prestigious Cadogan Hall in London on Tuesday 20 May.
Following a series of sold-out performances across the UK last September, featuring high-profile guests including government minister Jess Phillips and former politician Michael Gove, this one-off event promises to be a highlight of the political calendar.
The podcast, fronted by Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby, former deputy leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman, and former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, has had nearly five million downloads since its launch in 2024.
On 20 May, join the trio... and special guests... for a behind-the-scenes look at government workings, with sharp dissections of the latest spin from Westminster and beyond.
Expect plenty of live discussions and insights into significant political moments in the UK and globally in 2025, including the ongoing rollercoaster of global trade tariffs. The team will analyse which politicians are thriving and which are at risk of facing an electoral dysfunction.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Reform UK surges to highest-ever rating in polls, new survey suggests
Nigel Farage 's Reform UK party has taken a dramatic nine-point lead over Labour, a new poll has revealed. The Ipsos survey showed Reform had 34 per cent of the vote share, compared to Labour's dwindling 25 per cent. This could mean that if a general election were held tomorrow, Mr Farage could be elected prime minister - but the next election is not expected to be until 2028 at the earliest. Meanwhile, the Conservatives had only 15 per cent of the estimated vote share in the lowest result ever recorded by Ipsos, and the highest ever for Reform. The figures from the polling of 1,180 Brits show Labour's plunging popularity, after winning the 2024 general election with the biggest majority since Tony Blair. Only 19 per cent say they are satisfied with the work he is doing, while 73 per cent were dissatisfied, according to the poll. The figures showed that 54 per cent of Labour voters and 48 per cent of Tory voters have changed their support, with a high proportion of defectors from both going to Reform. If that played out, there would be just 10 Conservative seats while Labour would be reduced from 403 to 140. Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, said: 'The disappointment with Labour is clear, even among those who voted for the party in 2024. 'We know from Ipsos research how difficult it has been to shift entrenched public pessimism over the cost of living, immigration, and the state of public services. 'So far, Britons do not think Labour is delivering the tangible change they were hoping for in 2024.' Earlier this month, Reform was hit with chaos after the man brought in by Nigel Farage to professionalise the party quit following a row with their newest MP. Zia Yusuf, a Muslim businessman, described new Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin as 'dumb' after she challenged Keir Starmer over the legality of women wearing the burqa in the UK during Prime Minister's Questions. After fury broke out about his comment, Mr Yusuf, who had been the target of anger by many activists over several months, announced his resignation. He wrote on X: '11 months ago, I became chairman of Reform. I've worked full time as a volunteer to take the party from 14 to 30 per cent, quadrupled its membership and delivered historic electoral results. 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Labour rebels could jump ship to form Left-wing 'real socialist' party amid anger over proposed welfare cuts
Sir Keir Starmer faces the threat of a new left-wing 'real socialist' party amid mounting anger from Labour backbenchers over controversial welfare cuts. The Mail on Sunday has learnt that disaffected Labour backbenchers are already being approached to consider joining a new 'radical Left' political movement. Sources said that to inflict maximum damage on Sir Keir, the proposed new party – master-minded by supporters of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - could be launched during Labour's national conference this Autumn. The plans emerged amid forecasts that so angry are Labour backbenchers at their Government's plan to slash disability benefits, that scores of MPs could refuse to back it at next month's crucial Commons vote. Talk of the new party also comes just days after Mr Corbyn – who now sits as an Independent MP – said he was 'determined there will be, in short time, a strong alternative democratic socialist, left-wing voice that brings people together'. However, it is understood that Mr Corbyn himself may not himself lead the new party, with sources suggesting that role should go to a younger figure such as Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, currently suspended from the Parliamentary part for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap. The spectre of a break-away left-wing movement comes with Sir Keir potentially facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership so far over plans which could mean cutting personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability payment in England and Wales, for about 800,000 people. So worried is Sir Keir that Labour whips have reportedly threatened that anyone who simply abstained would never get a ministerial job while MPs voting against would lose the Party whip. Last night, one senior Labour MP said those reports were 'rubbish' and cautioned that if the revolt was huge, it would not be possible to suspend '100 or so MPs'. Even moderate backbenchers have privately vented their anger at the cuts while Left-winger Andy McDonald has branded the proposals 'a huge attack on the incomes of disabled people'. However, the Daily Mail highlighted last week how spending on sickness benefits was on course to rocket by £18 billion a year to reach £70 billion by the next general election if nothing was done to trim the bill. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has warned that the country's benefits system faced collapse if costs continued to escalate. Long-mooted plans for the new party are understood to have accelerated in the last few weeks amid mounting anger among Labour backbenchers over government policy, including the now-abandoned decision to scrap Winter Fuel payments for many pensioners and the proposed disability benefit cuts. And last weekend, Mr Corbyn, already part of a five-strong 'Independent Alliance' group at Westminster, appeared to acknowledge that people's frustration that 'we didn't found a new political party' would soon be answered. Sources close to the ex-Labour leader also told this newspaper that there were now 'very, very active discussions' about setting up the new movement. However, they dismissed reports that the party would be called 'Arise' after a former Corbyn aide registered such a party with the Electoral Commission just over a week ago. Last night, Starmer allies played down any threat from such a new party, suggesting 'a couple of ' current Labour MPs were more likely to defect to the Greens than join a Corbynsta-style group. But one longstanding Labour MP said: 'It's all very well for Starmer's acolytes to dismiss the threat of a proper socialist party but the PM is playing with fire. 'After the winter fuel fiasco and now this attack on disability benefits, he's leaving a vacuum on the Left of British politics and someone's going to fill it.' OK? Mr Corbyn was originally suspended from Labour in 2020 after claiming the scale of antisemitism in the party had been overstated and later expelled for standing as an Independent against an official Labour candidate.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Ex-education secretary Michael Gove warns schoolchildren need more traditional classroom teaching to fend off dangers of AI 'cheating'
Former education secretary Michael Gove has said children don't need to be taught digital skills but need a proper academic education to help them combat the rise of AI. And he has argued that with 'an epidemic of cheating' triggered by AI, a handwritten essay is the surest test of ability. The Tory grandee, now Lord Gove, said he is more convinced than he ever was about the importance of a traditional education as AI tools like Chat GPT become commonplace. 'AI has created a huge potential for corruption and a huge opportunity for people to present themselves as knowledgeable when they don't actually have those skills. The way to demonstrate you have those skills is through that traditional knowledge. 'It is precisely because AI is going to change our lives so much that I believe we need to be armed with the knowledge that traditional education provides.' In his battle against what he saw as schools dumbing down, Lord Gove's tenure as Education Secretary in the coalition Cabinet from 2010 to 2014 was marked by his run-ins with education unions. Speaking to education leaders and pupils at an education conference at the Princess of Wales' former school Downe House in Newbury last week, he said children had got 'all the digital skills they could ever need'. And he told them it was 'better to live in the world of Pythagoras than Pokémon'. 'One of the in vogue buzz phrases of our era is "we want schools to teach digital skills". Nonsense! Young people today are digital natives – it's what they get outside school - arguably to excess.' Instead he said 'access to an academic education' would give children 'skills such as critical thinking, social confidence and the ability to understand what is true and false'. 'The future of education is going back to tradition. AI is already changing what is happening in education and we are already seeing its impact in higher education. 'An increasing amount of the work submitted is work that is not the product of scholarship or time spent in dusty libraries or at the thoughtful analysis of lecture notes but it's taken direct from chat GPT or other AI tools. 'There is an epidemic of cheating in higher education and the same thing could spread throughout the whole education ecosystem.' He said coursework could easily 'be downloaded or synthesised by AI' and delivering exam work through a digital platform was 'a retrograde step because those tools make it easier to cheat'. The former cabinet minister, now the editor of The Spectator magazine said the 'surest test in higher education and also in schools of what you can do and the ability to pass on to the next stage of life is actually a handwritten pencil and paper essay or an oral exam conversation'. He argued that young people needed 'the patient practice of skills and the cumulative acquisition of knowledge' to acquire the 'mastery' in a subject which would help them to use AI to their advantage. 'Who would have thought that this whole technological revolution would have reminded us that the traditional ways to teach are actually the best,' he said. Hitting out at 'the progressive educational argument' that 'because all that information is online or available online that you don't need to know as much as previous generations'. He said: 'The opposite is true – because there is so much information out there – you need to know more. You need more in order to be able to discern the bogus from the honest. 'A well-stocked mind is the best guide and the most effective guide for making your way through this forest of knowledge which is there for you.'
