Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
12 min listen
The new cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, has published a list of objectives setting out her vision for what the civil service will look like under her. Many have interpreted it as her tightening control over government … especially since Darren Jones stepped back from his Downing Street role. The path is clear for her to
Britain’s response to the conflict in Iran is dominating Westminster – but is Keir Starmer really keeping the country out of war? After a tense Liaison Committee appearance exposed divisions over defence spending, pressure is also mounting on the government’s economic strategy. With energy prices rising, mortgage products disappearing and fears of inflation returning, how
One of the key rites of passage for all modern prime ministers is losing their temper a little during an exchange with Bernard Jenkin at the liaison committee. It happened to David Cameron, who would go rather pink and say ‘the thing is, BERNARD’ while trying to explain why he hadn’t implemented Jenkin’s committee’s plan
The Covid inquiry has published the third of its ten (ten!) modules today, this time focused on how the healthcare systems of the UK coped with the pandemic. Its key finding is that they only just managed to do so, and ‘on a number of occasions, they teetered on the brink of collapse’. That they
11 min listen
Angela Rayner has entered the chat. Last night she gave a speech to Labour members which many are reading as the soft launch of her leadership bid. She told the room that Labour needs to be more ‘bold’ – echoing Gordon Brown as she called for a more left-wing direction. She took aim specifically at
Keir Starmer had an appalling performance at Prime Minister’s Questions today. It was summarised very well later in the session by Conservative MP Andrew Snowden, who told the chamber: Every week the Prime Minister comes here and reads out this pre-scripted nonsense that bears no resemblance to the questions he’s actually asked. The leader of
23 min listen
The government’s plan to restrict jury trials passed its first parliamentary hurdle this week. It is one measure, amongst many, in a Bill designed to reduce the huge backlog currently facing the Courts. Labour MP Karl Turner and Danny Shaw, a former adviser, join Isabel Hardman to discuss why they have each come to their
15 min listen
This afternoon we have had the first tranche of documents released by the government relating to the process by which Peter Mandelson was chosen to be US ambassador. Whilst we have got a clearer picture on the big question – how much Starmer and the government knew about Mandelson’s association with Epstein – Labour are
Prime Minister’s Questions today saw a leader under repeated attack for a ‘screeching U-turn’ and their suitability to be Prime Minister called into question. Unusually, though, Keir Starmer was the one making that accusation, rather than being on the receiving end of it. He came to the chamber determined to tell Kemi Badenoch that she had made
19 min listen
Tim Shipman is joined by Isabel Hardman to discuss the domestic fallout from the conflict in Iran – from oil prices surging past $100 a barrel to renewed pressure on Britain’s cost-of-living crisis. They examine how the rising price of energy could derail Labour’s economic plans, why Rachel Reeves may face difficult choices on fuel
12 min listen
It was a bad tempered PMQs today – Kemi Badenoch attacked Starmer over his involvement, or lack thereof with the Iran conflict. And Starmer hit back at Badenoch over her questions. Not the type of unity you’d want to see on the major foreign policy issue of the day. Also today, three more arrests have
Kemi Badenoch used Prime Minister’s Questions to accuse the government of being flat-footed in its response to the war in the Middle East. The Tory leader had plenty of material to use, and she did a good job with it: running through why the UK wasn’t allowing the RAF to attack Iranian missile sites, defence
NHS maternity services are in crisis: everyone knows that. In fact, everyone has known a lot more than that for at least a decade. There have been so many reports highlighting the precise nature of this crisis that the health service and government now have 748 recommendations that they could implement to improve care. Instead
17 min listen
Megan McElroy unpacks a rowdy PMQs with Tim Shipman and Isabel Hardman. Kemi Badenoch made Keir Starmer uncomfortable over student loans but – at a time when trust in the Conservative brand is low – could some of her rhetoric backfire? Plus, what did they make of the revelation that it was the Speaker of
Kemi Badenoch was on savage form at Prime Minister’s Questions. The leader of the opposition has generally improved her performance in this session, but she has always been particularly good at verbally kicking politicians when they are down. Today, she came out with some brutal lines, including that Labour MPs were saying they were being
This afternoon’s Commons debate on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was unusual for all kinds of reasons. It was not just that the Speaker had decided that MPs could directly criticise the former Duke of York even though parliamentary convention normally prevents them from discussing the monarchy in the Chamber. It was not even that the government accepted
10 min listen
Bridget Phillipson has unveiled Labour’s long-awaited overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities system – a £4 billion reform designed to rein in spiralling costs and bring order to what MPs across the House describe as a broken model. Ministers insist this is reform, not retrenchment – but with councils under intense financial pressure
Today’s unemployment figures aren’t just a reminder of the mess the government has made of the jobs market with its national insurance hikes. They also underline the futility of the government more generally. It has moved into survival mode and cannot pursue the welfare reforms that are clearly necessary. As Ben Miller sets out here,
15 min listen
PMQs today and – as predicted – Keir Starmer came out worst in a pretty unpleasant session. Kemi Badenoch pinned the Prime Minister on the continued Mandelson fallout and now the scandal over Matthew Doyle, the former No. 10 comms chief who – just four weeks after his ennoblement – Labour have already been forced
What is the point of Keir Starmer’s government now? Morgan McSweeney’s departure may have been an attempt by the Prime Minister to buy some extra time, like a patient bargaining for expensive life-extending drugs, but it doesn’t change the diagnosis: this is a government that no longer works. Ministers who had previously been very loyal
