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

How radical will Labour really be with the health service?

The last day of Labour conference can be a bit of a graveyard slot, given the leader’s speech has already happened. Not so this morning, which contained the two public services that the the party is keenest to talk about: education and the NHS. The NHS has long been a comfort blanket for the party that founded it but often lacks the volition to reform it. Anyone hoping for a cosy, snuggly we-love-the-NHS speech today will have been jolted awake by Wes Streeting, who built on his theme that the health service is ‘no longer the envy of the world’ and is in an ‘existential’ crisis.

Isabel Hardman

Labour is in a weirdly disciplined state

The phrase you overhear the most at Labour conference is: ‘this is a good one to come to’. Most delegates assume this is the last conference before a general election, and both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have made comments to that effect in their speeches. The latter said she hoped to be standing before the next conference as the first ever female Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Labour MPs want to be loyal, they really, really go for it It has been a very long time since the party has realistically had these expectations: the pre-election conference in 2014, for instance, was so markedly muted and depressed that it became very clear to those attending that Labour’s frontbenchers did not think they were on the brink of an election win.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

If not the Tories, why Labour?

14 min listen

Keir Starmer's leadership speech today in Liverpool didn't get off to the best start after a protestor ran onto the stage and dumped glitter all over him. But after dusting himself down and rolling up his sleeves, the leader of the opposition set about addressing the question that many prospective voters have wanted answering: If not them, why us? He made big promises on the NHS and pledged to 'bulldoze through' the obstacles to growth caused by the planning system, including with a new generation of new towns. It was one of his best speeches yet, but can they deliver?  Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman discuss.

Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer looks ready for an election

The stage invasion at the start of Keir Starmer’s speech was a total failure for the protestor who carried it out, and a huge success for the Labour leader. It wasn’t clear what he was shouting about as he dumped a load of glitter over Starmer and was then carried out of the hall. Starmer, though, had the chance to react calmly, make the point about his party being about power not protest, and roll up his sleeves as though he was ready to get going with rebuilding Britain. He joked to the conference that if the protestor thought that would bother him, ‘he doesn’t know me’. Aside from a Labour colleague appearing on stage to say ‘we’re going to take the jacket off’, Starmer barely skipped a beat and went on to deliver one of his best speeches so far.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves goes for growth

12 min listen

It was Rachel Reeves's moment on day two of Labour party conference. Addressing the hall she detailed her ambitious plans for growth and vowed to stick to 'iron-clad fiscal rules' if in power. She also received a surprise endorsement from former governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney. Once branded 'boring snoring' by a BBC editor, Reeves doesn't look boring anymore. Will she be the first female chancellor of the exchequer?  Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.

Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves is no longer ‘boring’

Rachel Reeves was once branded ‘boring snoring’ by a BBC editor. Today, she was more of a Scary Mary in her speech to conference, repeatedly casting herself as an Iron Lady whose iron discipline would make it difficult for any of her colleagues to get any money for their pet spending projects. In the decade since she was dissed as being dull, Reeves has grown in confidence and stature, and the speech she gave today was really very good: energetic and forceful to the extent that many of those shadow cabinet colleagues watching on the conference floor looking a little scared of her.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak’s conference speech gamble

17 min listen

After spending most of his conference refusing to say much at all, Rishi Sunak used his speech to make three big policy announcements on HS2, smoking and A-levels. Will these gambles pay off?  Fraser Nelson speaks to Katy Balls, Isabel Hardman, Kate Andrews and John Connolly.

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak vows to end the ‘30-year status quo’ in Tory conference speech

Rishi Sunak pitched himself as the change candidate at the next election in his speech to Conservative party conference this afternoon. It was a bold move after 13 years, to argue that ‘if this country is to change, it can only be us who do it’, and to complain that ‘politics doesn’t work the way it should’. He didn’t go so far as to repudiate his predecessors: in fact, he said he didn’t want to ‘waste time’ going over the past and the ‘difficult circumstances’ in which he came into office. But he did refer to a ‘30-year status quo I am here to end’ – at that point in the speech it was in connection to Keir Starmer as the ‘walking definition’ of that status quo, but the past 13 years of status quo have been Tory, not Labour.

Isabel Hardman

Penny Mordaunt reveals the Tory attack lines against Keir Starmer

'What I have to say to you today is not for the faint-hearted,' Penny Mordaunt said as she opened the final session of the Conservative conference. She didn't have a sword as a prop, but the leader of the House of Commons spent much of her address calling on activists to 'stand up and fight' in the face of the polling, the 'sneering' from the commentators and the Labour party. The theme of the speech was standing up to bullies, taking in her own personal experience of watching the Falklands Taskforce leaving Portsmouth, and Britain's identity in fighting the Nazis and being part of ending the Cold War. The tone of it was classic Mordaunt: well-delivered, funny and easily written-up as a leadership pitch.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Sunak set to scrap HS2 from Birmingham to Manchester

Rishi Sunak will tomorrow confirm he is scrapping the HS2 link between Manchester and Birmingham, Coffee House understands. The prime minister will make the announcement in his conference speech as part of an argument about responsible government. He will, though, try to soften the political blow by detailing alternative rail projects in the north of England using the money.  The row about HS2 has dominated the Conservative party conference, with Sunak insisting only today that he wouldn't be rushed into making a 'premature' decision about the future of the line. It seems he has now made that decision – or he has managed to stick to his own media grid which planned to announce the decision tomorrow, rather than rush it out when the news started to leak early.

Isabel Hardman

The great Tory dilemma: try to win or prepare for defeat?

What are the Conservatives putting the most effort into: winning the next election, or life after defeat? While Rishi Sunak and some of his top team, including the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, still sincerely believe that there is a good chance that they could win the election, other Conservatives have switched their focus to what happens afterwards. That’s why Liz Truss has been on the fringe, why senior cabinet ministers have been making comments that they know will be viewed as a tilt at a future leadership contest, and why this does not feel like a pre-election party conference. Kemi Badenoch’s speech to the hall yesterday received the first sincerely warm round of applause that I’ve seen at this conference.

Isabel Hardman

Sunak stays quiet on HS2

Rishi Sunak is still refusing to offer any detail on what he plans to do with HS2, suggesting in a round of broadcast interviews this lunchtime that he hasn’t yet made the final decision. He told Sky that: ‘I think it’s right that I'm not going to get forced into making premature decisions. Not on something that’s so important that costs this country tens of billions of pounds.’ Instead, he told the BBC, he would ‘approach this the same way I approach everything: thoughtfully, carefully, across the detail and making what I believe is the right decision in the long term for our country.

Isabel Hardman

What’s going on with HS2?

14 min listen

It's day three at Tory conference and the story that won't go away is HS2. Rishi Sunak insisted in his media round this morning that a decision has not been made, meanwhile Downing Street sources are reporting that a decision has been made. Standing outside the Midland hotel, Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street urged the prime minister not to abandon HS2. Can we expect an announcement in Rishi's speech tomorrow?  Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Heale.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Why won’t Jeremy Hunt talk about HS2?

Despite the excitement outside the Tory conference hall in Manchester about Rishi Sunak deciding he would indeed scrap the Manchester leg of HS2, Jeremy Hunt didn’t mention it in his speech. He talked about the need to reduce costs long-term and said that public spending needed to come down. But the contribution of the high speed rail line to that public spending bill wasn’t something he covered at all. So the mystery and leaks continue. What Hunt did want to say, and very early on in his rather short speech, was that ‘the level of tax is too high’. This was the line he needed to offer to rebellious Tory MPs and members, many of whom had just mobbed Liz Truss at her own ‘rally’ on the conference fringe.

Isabel Hardman

Mark Harper wants you to know how much he loves cars

Mark Harper is rebranding himself as the Secretary of State for Cars, rather than Transport. He didn’t even mention HS2 in his speech to Tory conference this morning: in fact, he barely talked about rail at all. He opened by congratulating his department on ending some of the industrial action on the railways, and linking the ongoing strikes from RMT and ASLEF to the Labour party. He had a brief line about being ‘proud to support our railways’ and the risk of following ‘Labour’s lazy, ideological approach of forking out yet more money from the public purse with no benefit to passengers’, but that was that for trains. Harper moved onto the car, which the Conservative party is now ‘proudly’ in favour of.

Isabel Hardman

Coutinho’s election warm-up speech slams ‘short-term Starmer’

Claire Coutinho spent a lot of her conference speech as Energy Secretary attacking Labour and 'short-term Starmer', and the rest of it explaining why Rishi Sunak's policy changes on net zero meant Britain could stay committed to its climate targets. The 'short-term Starmer' line is one we will hear a lot at this conference from ministers standing in front of a conference set bearing the slogan 'long-term decisions for a brighter future'. Coutinho was as keen to talk about a former Labour leader who she said had 'clearly radicalised' Starmer: Ed Miliband. Miliband's influence over the current leader has been a topic of debate in his own party for a while, and the Tories are keen to exploit those tensions. They also want to remind the public of a Labour party that it rejected in 2015.

Isabel Hardman

How long will the Tories allow HS2 rumours to swirl?

Are the Tories going to spend all week in Manchester talking but not talking about HS2? Speculation that Rishi Sunak might chop a leg off the line has now been swirling for more than a week, but the Prime Minister and his ministers are refusing to offer any further details. Yesterday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he wanted to be asked about something else at a fringe, while Sunak himself said he wouldn’t comment on ‘speculation’. This never makes the questions go away, and they know it.

Isabel Hardman

How’s the mood at Tory conference?

9 min listen

It's day two at Tory conference and the mood seems muted and lacking in energy. This is in direct contrast to Rishi Sunak who appeared to have fire in his belly in a tetchy interview over the weekend with Laura Kuenssberg. He will be hoping to use this conference as his reset moment, but will he be undermined by those in the cabinet with an eye on the leadership? In Manchester, Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman discuss.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Is Sunak helping Starmer on HS2?

13 min listen

Rishi Sunak is on his tour of hard truths, saying the unsayable on areas of policy where he believes his predecessors didn't want to be honest with the public. First we had the net zero pivot – scaling back the government's environmental commitments – and over the weekend there has been speculation that HS2 could be the next victim of tough talking Rishi Sunak. What's the latest? Is Rishi gifting Starmer an easy ride by clearing the weeds on this controversial project?  Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.