Tom Goodenough

The EU referendum rumbles ever closer but after a bad week for the leave campaign following Barack Obama's controversial intervention can those calling for Brexit fight back? And is Nicky Morgan staging a climbdown over Tory plans for academies? Spectator editor Fraser Nelson speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about what this week holds. Speaking on today's Coffee House podcast, Isabel says those calling for Brexit must now find a way of calming peoples' fears about what life outside the EU would look like. She says: 'I think it was definitely a much better week for remain than for leave because you had the most powerful man in the world making an intervention on the remain side.

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. Is Barack Obama’s intervention in the Brexit debate a welcome one or should he keep his nose out of our business? Tim Montgomerie says in his Spectator cover piece that such overreach is typical of the US President’s arrogance. But Anne Applebaum disagrees and says that Obama speaks on behalf of many Americans when he calls on Britain to stay engaged in European politics. So should we listen to Obama? Joining Isabel Hardman to discuss is Spectator deputy editor Freddy Gray and the Telegraph’s Janet Daley.

Barack Obama has waded into the Brexit debate but should he be lecturing us about the EU referendum? On this special edition of the Coffee House podcast, Spectator editor Fraser Nelson is joined by Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth to discuss whether the President's intervention is a welcome one and whether it will actually work. On the podcast, Isabel Hardman says: 'I think the out campaign is certainly hoping that Barack Obama will be seen to be patronising British voters and patronising Britain suggesting that it is a sort of weak nation. And I think also the idea of foreign governments lecturing voters on what they should do in their referendum is certainly something the out campaign will look to exploit.

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. Is Barack Obama's intervention in the Brexit debate a welcome one or should he keep his nose out of our business? Tim Montgomerie says in his Spectator cover piece that such overreach is typical of the US President's arrogance. But Anne Applebaum disagrees and says that Obama speaks on behalf of many Americans when he calls on Britain to stay engaged in European politics. So should we listen to Obama? Joining Isabel Hardman to discuss is Spectator deputy editor Freddy Gray and the Telegraph's Janet Daley. Speaking on the podcast, Janet Daley says: 'He is perfectly entitled to have a view and he should express it at home.

Whatever might be said about the Governor of the Bank of England, it's hard to fault his persistence. Mark Carney has made a habit of wading into the debate surrounding the EU referendum. And based on his appearance in front of the Lords Economic Affairs Committee this afternoon, he isn't planning on stopping any time soon. Carney repeated the MPC's warnings about the 'threats' from the forthcoming referendum being 'the most significant near-term domestic risk to financial stability'.

George Osborne's warning over what Brexit will cost the UK economy has dominated the headlines for much of the day. But how have the Treasury figures gone down in Westminster? Based on the number of Tory MPs queuing up to slam the Chancellor's claims, it would seem not very well at all: Kwasi Kwarteng said he thought the figures were 'absurd'. He attacked the Treasury as an organisation not qualified to make predictions about economic outcomes following its failure to predict the 2008 credit crunch: John Redwood also used the same word to describe his disdain for the warning that Brexit would cost British families £4,300. He said the predictions for what will happen in 2030 were 'completely worthless'.

If you've never watched ‘Citizen Khan’, then count yourself lucky. It’s a sitcom in the loosest sense of the word and a prime example of a comedy show which would only ever appear on the BBC: achingly unfunny, contrived and featuring entirely unbelievable characters. Crucially, though, if the show is one thing, it’s politically correct, in that it centres around a family of Muslims living in a deprived part of Birmingham. But Labour's Rupa Huq has decided otherwise.

The IMF has published one of the starkest warnings so far against Brexit from an organisation based outside of Britain. The latest set of figures from the International Monetary Fund predict that there will be a 0.3 percentage point dip in Britain’s growth forecast this year, as a result of the referendum. And the IMF warned that if Britain did vote to leave the EU, it could lead to ‘severe regional and global damage’. Both sides have used the statement to exchange in the latest round of tit-for-tat. George Osborne has said ‘for the first time, we’re seeing the direct impact on our economy of the risks of leaving the EU.

David Cameron has been defending himself in the Commons following the publication of his tax return. He said he found some of the comments about his father 'deeply hurtful'. He also held his hands up for not responding to criticism sooner following last week's Panama papers controversy: One of the more personal jibes thrown at him in the chamber came from Dennis Skinner, who branded the PM 'dodgy Dave' in a remark which got him booted out of the Commons: Jeremy Corbyn was more measured in his response to David Cameron, but he still used the debate to say there was 'one rule for the super-rich and another for the rest': Whilst George Osborne - who along with the Labour leader also released his tax return today - took the opportunity to lash out at the opposition.

This morning's newspapers were never going to make enjoyable reading for the Prime Minister following his admission yesterday that he owned shares in an offshore trust. But David Cameron may still not have been quite prepared for the focus with which the headlines go after him. He has experienced bad newspaper headlines before, of course, but this is the first time the attacks have focused so specifically on him, rather than on a policy introduced by the Government. It's hard to feel sorry for Cameron, though. By dragging the story out with statements that raised more questions than they answered, he only has himself to blame for whipping this up into the media storm which we see on today's front pages.