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.
David Cameron was in such a hurry to tell everyone about how well last night’s talks with EU leaders had gone that the crest hadn’t been properly stuck on his lectern when he gave his press conference. It wobbled off and hung at an angle as the Prime Minister reported ‘a lot of goodwill’ and
The Strathclyde Review into the power of peers to block legislation sent up by the Commons reports today, and it is expected to strip the House of Lords of its ability to kill off secondary legislation. And the way the government will bring in this reform, which will enshrine the primacy of the Commons, is
Today at Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron quoted Gary Porter, the Tory chair of the Local Government Association, praising reforms in the spending review that will allow councils to raise money for the cost of social care using council tax. The Tory leader was using the quote to prove Jeremy Corbyn wrong in his warnings
George Osborne has been busily signing more devolution deals today, with five pilot schemes moving power over health policy and spending from Whitehall to London boroughs. It’s part of the Chancellor’s devolution revolution that he is making a key part of his brand. It’s also – as is always the case with Osborne – a
David Cameron will be relived that his European Referendum Bill is finally on its way to Royal Assent, after weeks of threats from Labour peers. But Europe being Europe, there are a whole heap of other problems that the Prime Minister needs to contend with too. It’s not just the specific question of whether David
Few really expected Jeremy Corbyn to pull out of the Stop the War fundraising dinner, which he attended last night. He used to chair the coalition, and hasn’t made any comment since becoming leader to suggest that he now disagrees with its aims and objectives. This, as Freddy wrote recently, simply shows that the new
‘This is a government that delivers,’ declared David Cameron in a speech on Monday. It’s a good thing he wasn’t announcing the launch of a pizza delivery firm, as tonight’s announcement on airport expansion suggests that the food would be stone cold by the time it finally arrived. After initially saying they’d make a decision
Remember food banks? They were a hot political issue about a year ago, with Labour MPs raising them again and again to wrong foot Tory ministers, but seem to have dropped off the political agenda, even though many of them are still seeing more people coming to them for emergency food help. Well, some politicians
Though he had a reasonably good Prime Minister’s Questions for someone who hasn’t done much of it, George Osborne did stumble quite badly on one question. He ended up telling SNP MP Alison Thewliss about the importance of welfare reform – in response to a question about women who had given birth to a third child
How do you unite the Labour party and cheer them up? Today the party’s MPs were cheering happily and laughing along at the jokes offered from their Dispatch Box for the first time in months. And on Monday, they managed to have a cheerful meeting of the parliamentary Labour party. One thing that was missing
What do politicians find it harder to admit to doing in Britain today: smoking weed or praying? Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb thinks it’s the latter, and that this is part of a ‘creeping intolerance’ in Britain that makes our society less able to resist religious extremists. In a lecture last night to the Conservative Christian
What if David Cameron does win his fight – staged or otherwise – with European leaders to block benefits for EU migrants for four years? In terms of his pitch to the British public that voting to stay in the bloc is a good idea, this win would be very handy indeed. But would it
The government will today try to overturn a Lords’ vote that introduces votes at 16 for the EU Referendum Bill. Under other circumstances, the Conservatives could find this difficult, as there is a group of Tory MPs roughly the same size as the government’s majority who support the principle, but who do not want to
Donald Tusk’s letter to European Council members highlights the choice that David Cameron faces in his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe. Either he insists that EU leaders meet his demand of a four year block on benefits for new migrants, thereby delaying the process, or he drops the demand in order to get consensus
After Corbynite group Momentum allowed leaflets from other parties campaigning for the deselection of Labour MPs to be distributed at one of its events last week, those opposed to the new organisation are starting to hit back. Labour First, which represents the Old Right of the Labour party, is encouraging constituency Labour parties to vote
There is some irony in David Cameron giving a speech claiming that ‘this is a government that delivers’ on the day that Number 10 effectively concedes that he will not be delivering his decision on airport expansion as planned by the end of this year. At the lobby briefing this morning, the Prime Minister’s official
The striking thing about the Leytonstone attack is that a man wielding what witnesses described as ‘maybe a hobby knife’ could be suspected of a ‘terrorist incident’. The Metropolitan Police were quick to describe the stabbing, in which the knifeman reportedly shouted ‘this is for Syria’, as such last night. That they did shows the
It’s not a great surprise that Ken Livingstone is a member of Momentum, the Corbynite grassroots organisation that is definitely not at all like Militant, and definitely not going to campaign for de-selections in constituencies. He revealed his membership on BBC News, saying ‘I mean, I’m a member of Momentum. Our task, the first thing
Whichever way you look at it, the Oldham West and Royton by-election result is a boost to Jeremy Corbyn. His opponents in the party might not quite have gone so far as to hope the seat would be lost to Ukip (though those around the leader think that some MPs would have found a loss
David Cameron has dropped his plans to sign off his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe at the December European Council summit, accepting that he’s not going to get the deal he wants within the next few weeks. In a call today with Angela Merkel, the Prime Minister ‘noted that the scale of what we
