Week in Westminster

Week in Westminster is a weekly political radio programme, which is broadcast on Saturdays on BBC Radio 4.

It is often called The Week in Westminster. It is the fifth longest-running radio broadcast on British radio, between Daily Service (2 January 1928) and Sunday Half Hour (14 July 1940) It claims to be the world's longest-running radio show.

It was first broadcast on 6 November 1929 on the BBC Home Service.Ramsay MacDonald was the Prime Minister at the time, after the 1929 General Election on 30 May 1929, when the Labour Party had won the most seats (287) in a general election for the first time. The 1929 general election was known as the Flapper Election because it was the first general election in which women over 21 had been allowed to vote. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 had been given Royal Assent on 2 July 1928. Men were also allowed to vote when over the age of 21. Only in the Representation of the People Act 1969 would the age be lowered to 18, but people aged under 21 could not stand as MPs.

Women's broadcasting on the Home Service had been initiated by Hilda Matheson OBE (7 June 1888- 30 October 1940). The programme was at 10.45am on each Wednesday and first known as The Week in Parliament.

As parliament, and its affairs, was thought to be a new institution to most women by the patriarchal-run BBC, it was decided to create a radio programme whereby female MPs would broadcast short talks to the nation's women, to help them familiarise the parliamentary processes and significances. The first presenter was Scottish. Margaret Bondfield was the first British female cabinet minister, when she became Minister of Labour in June 1929. Lord Reith approved of the programme, and wrote of it, "it is chiefly for the benefit of housewives but covering also a large mixed audience of shift-workers, unemployed, invalids, etcetera".

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