What are the Usual Channels? A short history of Westminster whipping

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What are the Usual Channels? A short history of Westminster whipping - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 108

26 Sep 2025

In this episode, we talk to political journalist Seb Whale about his new book, The Usual Channels, which reveals the hidden world of Westminster’s whips. Seb charts how party discipline has evolved – from the stormy politics of the 1970s and the Maastricht battles of the 1990s to the legendary “black book,” the Brexit showdowns and the short-lived Liz Truss premiership. He explains how the whips’ office has adapted to a modern Parliament – especially with the influx of women MPs – and why, even today, whips still wield decisive influence over MPs’ careers and remain indispensable despite the pressures of contemporary politics.

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Political journalist Seb Whale's new book, The Usual Channels: Inside the Mysterious World of Political Whips, takes us inside the famously secretive world of Westminster’s whips. It lifts the lid on how these behind-the-scenes powerbrokers have shaped British politics for decades.

Seb shares how he interviewed dozens of current and former whips to piece together the real story – tracking their evolution from the days of Humphrey Atkins, Walter Harrison and Jack Weatherill in the stormy 1974–79 Parliament, through the Maastricht battles of the 1990s, the Brexit upheavals under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, and the dramatic downfall of Liz Truss.

We explore how the arrival of many more women MPs under New Labour, the rise of social media, and a more independently minded generation of backbenchers have forced whips to adapt their tactics – without losing their grip on ministerial careers or party discipline. Seb also reveals the truth behind the legendary “black book” of MPs’ secrets and the enduring mix of “carrot and stick”.

The conversation highlights why the relationship between the Government whips’ office and Number 10 has been decisive – from Margaret Thatcher’s exit to Liz Truss’s collapse – and looks ahead to the whips’ future in a Commons marked by high turnover, a commanding majority and ever-fractious politics. Despite these pressures, Seb argues, the whips remain the unseen grease that keeps the machinery of Parliament running.

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Our guest

Seb Whale

Seb Whale

Sebastian Whale is a journalist and author. He has worked at Politico, The House magazine and PoliticsHome. Born in 1991, he went to school in Derbyshire and studied at King’s College London. He now works as a freelance writer. His first book, Call to Order, a biography of John Bercow, was published in 2020. His latest work, The Usual Channels, is published this month and explores the world of political whips.

Resources

Seb Whale, The Usual Channels Inside the Mysterious World of Political Whips (Biteback Publishing)
Hansard Society, Opening Up The Usual Channels (December 2002)

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There may consequently be minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above.

Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.

Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.

Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. And in this special episode, black books, half Nelson's and the darkest of political arts.

Ruth Fox: We talk to political journalist Seb Whale about his new book on the secret world of the Westminster whips.

Mark D'Arcy: Tell us, first of all, Seb, how easy is it to get former whips to talk about the, kind of, the inner secrets of what really goes on in that whole complex of offices in Parliament?

Seb Whale: It's difficult and I was fortunate in a way in that I'd already had experience with this because I wrote about Whips for the House magazine about [00:01:00] five years ago, and though I managed to speak to maybe five to 10 whips at the time, including a couple of former chief whips, I also had a lot of rejections.

And so when I approached this project, I was thinking, oh God, what if there's like a WhatsApp group for former whips and a message goes out not to speak to that Whale bloke about his book. So I thought one way of getting round that would be, well, every MP who's still alive and who served in parliament is able to speak, has dealt with whips to some degree. So my initial approach was to literally...

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