In 2018, a man named Gyula Remes died just metres from the buildings that govern Britain, on a street surrounded by unimaginable wealth and rows of vacant properties. His death should have been impossible. Instead, it was treated as inevitable.
How could this happen on Parliament’s doorstep, at the centre of one of the richest cities on the planet?
In this podcast, Kojo Koram – author of Uncommon Wealth – traces Gyula’s story, asking how someone could die of homelessness in the shadow of British power, while so many nearby homes stood empty and untouched. But asking that question quickly takes him far beyond Westminster’s pavements.
Death in Westminster is a four-part investigative series that begins with one life lost but soon spirals outward – from a tube station tragedy to offshore tax havens, from imperial history to modern finance.
It’s a story about secrecy, stolen wealth, and how Britain’s imperial afterlife has turned its capital into a global money laundering machine – leaving people like Gyula in its wake.
Kojo returns to the tunnel at Westminster tube station. Above ground, property prices are soaring and thousands of homes sit empty, all while homelessness worsens. Hearing from charities on the frontline and campaigners fighting a hidden system, he understands that Gyula’s death is not an anomaly, but a warning.
The final episode asks what it would take to build a city that values human life over hidden wealth – and what happens if we don’t.