Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman

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.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Ukip’s Mark Reckless begins his battle to hold his seat with local question

‘Oooooh!’ shouted MPs when Mark Reckless got to his feet today at Prime Minister’s Questions for his first chance as a Ukipper to grill David Cameron. The newly-re-elected MP had looked rather nervous for most of the session as he bobbed up and down trying to get the Speaker’s attention, but he probably didn’t need to be so anxious given Bercow is normally very happy to call new MPs, especially ones the Prime Minister doesn’t like. When his chance came, he asked the following question: ‘I’m grateful to the Prime Minister for spending so much time in Rochester and Strood. Dr Philip Barnes, acting chief executive of Medway Hospital, said this morning that what our hospital needs is a period of patience and stability.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers to unveil counter- terror laws

Today is the day ministers set out their new counter-terrorism legislation following Theresa May's revelations on Monday about the number of thwarted terror attacks and yesterday's publication of the ISC report into the murder of Lee Rigby. The new laws will include obligations for schools and universities to combat extremism but there is also a strong possibilities that internet companies will find legislation telling them what to do. Yesterday Facebook insisted it was taking tackling terrorism seriously but today Justice Minister Simon Hughes dropped a strong hint that these tech companies may find it set out for them quite clearly what the government considers to be a serious approach to terrorism. He said: 'My view is yes.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Are Tristram Hunt’s plans for private schools a class war or just a bit pointless?

Tristram Hunt has managed to get a great deal of attention for his proposals for private schools helping out state schools, with even his own (private but sufficiently stuffed with Socialist children to be OK) alma mater getting rather annoyed at what it calls a ‘tasteless’ policy which espouses ‘what some might deem an offensive bigotry’. In summary, the Shadow Education Secretary wants to make the £700 million worth of tax breaks that the private sector enjoys conditional on the schools helping those in the state sector by sharing facilities, deploying teachers to help out with lessons, and making sure that they participate in the same leagues for sports, debating and other activities where private schools often only compete amongst themselves.

Isabel Hardman

MPs to discuss legacy of Afghan conflict this week

Yesterday the final UK personnel left Kandahar airfield, with just a few hundred British defence workers left in Afghanistan to help train the country’s future officers. MPs have been assured that the country won’t end up the same way as Iraq, with the RAF returning to the skies above the country to combat Isis, but few of them are fully confident that these assurances will bear up. Defence Select Committee reports have cast further doubts on that and MPs have been pressing for a while to have a debate on the end of the conflict in the country. Yesterday Tory Julian Lewis received a nod from Defence Secretary Michael Fallon when he asked at Commons questions whether there would be a debate on this matter.

Isabel Hardman

Can Iain Duncan Smith force Labour to continue his welfare reforms?

Iain Duncan Smith is taking the fight to Labour today, accusing them of being the ‘party of welfare’ with their ‘heads in the sand’ as he marks the next ‘roll-out’ of Universal Credit. Families will be able to receive the benefit for the first time from now on, with the ‘roll-out’ starting in the north-west of England. The Work and Pensions Secretary was typically tetchy when confronted with the suggestion on the Today programme that his flagship reform had been beset by problems, saying: ‘Would you rather us take a gamble? Throw everything at it at once? Have a problem like tax credits where nobody got their money and it was a real disaster?

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Is Owen Paterson hoping to become leader of the ‘Out’ camp in the 2017 referendum?

There may well be a battle in Labour for the party’s soul, but the same is certainly true of the Tory party. Owen Paterson’s speech today to Business for Britain is proof of that, with the former Environment Secretary arguing that Britain should leave the European Union. Paterson is certainly applying pressure on David Cameron before the election, arguing that he ‘doubts Britain’s ability to represent itself on the world stage’, but he is also auditioning for another big job, that of the leader of the ‘Out’ camp in the 2017 referendum. There are a number of Conservative big beasts who already think that David Cameron will end up campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU no matter how good or bad the renegotiation settlement they get is.

Isabel Hardman

The fight for the soul of the Labour party

Fight! Two senior Labour MPs locked horns yesterday over the Scottish leadership contest. Ivan Lewis and Tom Watson scrapped after the latter wrote a piece endorsing left-leaning Neil Findlay for the leadership. Lewis tweeted shortly after Watson promoted his piece that ‘it’s essential that Scots decide best person to be leader of Scottish Labour. Others interfering not in the interests of the Labour Party’. Watson took this as it was clearly meant and dived straight in with a retort: ‘Presumably you’d rather they quietly elect your candidate whilst we all watch. Plus ça change.’ This is ostensibly a debate between the two men about rival candidates in the contest for Scottish Labour leader. But it’s also about a great deal more.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Will mainstream parties get the credit for turning up the volume on immigration?

David Cameron is set to give his big immigration speech this coming week, according to the Sunday Times, while James reports that Labour is to turn up the volume on the subject too. Both party leaderships are under pressure from their backbenches to take the Ukip threat seriously and give voters a clear sense that they would crack down on immigration. Both parties do need to deal with their legacies. Labour’s one has been much-picked-over and apologised for. But the Tories are also realising that they won’t have as much to boast about come the election as they’d hoped. That’s why Theresa May today finally moved from using weird words such as ‘comment’ to describe the Tory net migration target and accepted that the party just won’t meet it.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Will there be more defections to Ukip?

Now that Ukip has bagged a seat that the Tories thought they could win, other would-be defectors may well be having a good long think about their chances. The fact that Mark Reckless only won Rochester with a 2,920 majority over the Conservatives may well lead wavering MPs to conclude that it isn't safe to go over as their seats will be vulnerable once again in 2015. But then again they might conclude that all bets are off anyway, given Reckless wasn't even supposed to win this seat. Michael Gove yesterday claimed he was 100% certain that there would be no more defections from his party to Nigel Farage's tribe. But he would say that, wouldn't he, even if it risks making him look a bit of a chump when someone does defect.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry apologises for Rochester tweet

Update: Emily Thornberry has stepped down as the Shadow Attorney General. More to follow... After being given a dressing-down by Ed Miliband, Islington MP Emily Thornberry has apologised for tweeting a picture from the Rochester by-election seen as a sneer at patriotic White Van Men: Ed Miliband's aides assure the Daily Mirror that he's livid. Jason Beattie, political editor of the paper, says:- Labour sources saying Ed Miliband "never been so angry" as when gave @EmilyThornberry dressing down over "that" tweet — Jason Beattie (@JBeattieMirror) November 20, 2014 She is now grovelling:- 'I apologise for any offence caused by the 3 flag picture. People should fly the England flag with pride.

Isabel Hardman

Mark Reckless already arranging return to Commons as Ukip MP

This story first went out in tonight's Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of the day's political developments. Sign up here. Mark Reckless seems pretty confident of a win in today's Rochester and Strood by-election – sources have told Coffee House that the Commons authorities have been asked whether he can be introduced as a Ukip MP tomorrow so that he can vote on Clive Efford’s NHS bill. When asked, Reckless told Coffee House: ‘In terms of the procedures, they are convoluted so I’ve asked other people to look at it in terms of what’s possible to do. Others are looking at those but I don’t know if they’ve reached a conclusion but I’m working on my speech for later.

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry exposes Labour’s agony in Rochester

The Tories expect to lose in Rochester tonight - and blame Labour. Had it not been imploding, they argue, the Ukip vote would not be so big. And why is it imploding? Enter Islington MP Emily Thornberry, who was't really helping any late efforts by tweeting this 'Image from Rochester.' Within no time, this was being taken as a Londoner's "snobby and derogatory" sneer at White Van Man: She has (sort of) explained herself to MailOnline here. But not to the satisfaction of Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale:- "Everyone will know exactly what she meant by that comment. I think she was being derogatory and dismissive of the people. We all know what she was trying to imply.

Isabel Hardman

The top students who are too lazy to argue

[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_20_Nov_2014_v4.mp3" title="Brendan O'Neill and Harriet Brown discuss the rise of the Stepford student" startat=41] Listen [/audioplayer] Don't be a Stepford student — subscribe to The Spectator's print and digital bundle for just £22 for 22 weeks.  Brendan O’Neill writes this week’s cover piece on his encounters with ‘Stepford Students’ - a censorious mob who try to shut down debates that they don’t like. His comes out this week after some Stepfords managed to shut down a debate about abortion at Christ Church by threatening to disrupt it with ‘instruments’.

Isabel Hardman

Labour tries to avoid Commons humiliation over the West Lothian question

MPs are preparing to debate devolution this afternoon, with a motion from Dominic Raab which includes a call for a review of the Barnett formula and a resolution to the West Lothian question. It’s a backbench business debate, so it is not binding on the government, but it is causing trouble for a number of reasons. The first is that Raab has managed to get an impressive sweep of the political spectrum on his list of supporters for the amendment. It includes senior Tories such as 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve (not someone who often agrees with Raab), and Andrew Mitchell. But it also has Frank Field as a co-signatory and a number of other Labour MPs such as Kate Hoey and John Cryer, Lib Dems and Ukip’s Douglas Carswell.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Poll for Unite says Labour will fail to take its seventh target seat from the Tories

Stockton South is seventh on Labour’s target seat list in terms of the swing needed to win yet a Survation poll in the constituency has put the current Tory MP James Wharton on track to hold it. When don't-knows are stripped out, poll (tables here) puts Wharton two points ahead of Labour’s candidate Louise Baldock on 39 per cent to 37 per cent. The Lib Dems are on 3 per cent, Ukip on 18 per cent, with others polling 3 per cent. This is interesting enough given Labour should expect to win its seventh target seat easily. This is a northern seat which Wharton currently holds with a 332 vote majority. It is the sort of constituency where Labour’s cost-of-living crisis message should hit home.

Isabel Hardman

Responding to Ukip shouldn’t just mean talking about immigration

Can you out-Ukip Ukip? Depending on which day of the week it is, both mainstream political parties think you can and you can't. Last week Ed Miliband said you couldn't and that he wouldn't, arguing that it was about time someone levelled with Nigel Farage's party. Yesterday Yvette Cooper announced tough immigration measures that some in her party thought suggested Labour was trying to chase Ukip. The Tories have the same struggle. One of the problems for both Tories and Labour is that it is unhealthy for them to allow Ukip to become in effect a think tank that sets policy for other parties by spooking their own MPs.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

The immigration arms race

Who is tougher on immigration? Neither the Tories nor Labour want to be left behind by Ukip, and have descended into an arms race over who can best crack down on EU migration. Today Ed Miliband's party launched a two-pronged attack on the subject, with Yvette Cooper speaking in the morning about her plans to hire 1,000 additional border guards by imposing a charge on visitors from certain countries including the US, and Rachel Reeves announcing plans for a clampdown on EU migrants claiming out-of-work benefits. Amusingly, Reeves gave her policy to the MailOnline as an exclusive, just a few days after Ed Miliband spoke about dark forces out to get the Labour party.

Isabel Hardman

Embarrassing (Han)cock-up in Commons as govt loses pub vote

How did an amendment brought by a Lib Dem backbencher to an uncontroversial bill wind up with the government sustaining its first proper defeat? Today Greg Mulholland's changes to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill which would allow pub landlords to buy beer from whatever company they liked rather than the company who owns their premises passed 284 votes to 269. The Times's Sam Coates reports that the minister responsible for the Bill, Matt Hancock, was seen grovelling to the Prime Minister for the defeat, which everyone involved regards as entirely unnecessary. This is the first proper defeat because it is the first time the government has lost a vote without collective responsibility being formally suspended.

Isabel Hardman

MPs push George Osborne to give Autumn Statement wings

This year's Autumn Statement isn't going to be full of a great deal of Christmas cheer. But as it'll take place just over five months before the General Election, Tory MPs are still pushing for small giveaways from the government to tempt voters to back their party. One such campaign comes from Andrew Bridgen, who has a track record of getting what he wants from the government by hook or by crook. He was a key figure in the rebellion which halted British intervention in Syria last year, and this year persuaded ministers to look at decriminalising non-payment of the TV licence fee. Now he wants the Treasury to abolish air passenger duty for children under 12.

Isabel Hardman

Myleene Klass attacks Ed Miliband’s ‘sexy’ mansion tax

Myleene Klass had a bit of a go at Ed Miliband last night when she appeared next to the Labour leader on The Agenda. She was very cross about what she described as a 'sexy tax that says let's take from the rich and give it to the poor', which is of course Labour's mansion tax. Apart from a rather awkward bit when she started pointing at a glass of water and said 'you can't just point at things and tax them!', Klass has a point about the 'sexy tax' (which would be a great Labour theme tune, adapted from Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy Back', in which the party could tell voters that they've 'got a sexy tax, them other parties don't know how to act' and then threaten to tax anyone who misbehaves and so on and so forth).