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.
Jeremy Hunt’s most important Budget announcement today won’t be something that’ll take effect in the next few hours or weeks. What Tory MPs are looking for above everything else is a commitment to reducing the tax burden and to the Conservative party going into the next election as a low-tax party. They have largely accepted
Rishi Sunak is in a hurry to fulfil his ‘five priorities’, especially on small boats. He’s in a hurry because there isn’t much time before the public use the general election to judge how well the Tories are doing. So legislation that promises to ‘stop the boats’ is moving through parliament swiftly. Most people agree
The tougher language on China in today’s refreshed Integrated Review hasn’t been enough for a number of Conservative MPs, who used the Commons statement on the matter to complain. When Foreign Secretary James Cleverly unveiled the updated security and foreign policy strategy to MPs, he described the ‘increasingly aggressive military and economic behaviour of the
Junior doctors have begun their 72-hour strike today, with tens of thousands of NHS appointments cancelled. NHS chiefs are more worried about the impact of this industrial action than they were about strikes by nurses or ambulance workers. This is not least because doctors who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the
Keir Starmer decided that attack was the best form of defence at Prime Minister’s Questions. He tackled Rishi Sunak’s flagship ‘stop the boats’ policy on the basis that it simply won’t work. The Labour leader started his attack by linking International Women’s Day with what he claimed was the government driving a ‘coach and horses’
Rishi Sunak has just finished a press conference on his flagship legislation to curb illegal crossings in the Channel. The Prime Minister said the legislation would enable him to ‘keep my promise’ to the public to stop the boats and that it would ‘break the business model of the people smugglers’. He said ‘this is
Labour was the party under pressure in an urgent question in the Commons. This is not normally the order of things: it is usually the opposition or a disgruntled backbencher who tables the question, and an irritated-looking junior minister who is sent out to bat defensively on behalf of their beleaguered seniors. But today, the
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Tomorrow the government is set to deliver its plan the tackle small boats, legislation Rishi Sunak has been promising since before Christmas. Is Rishi about to get tough on immigration? Also on the podcast, what is the latest in the Sue Gray scandal? Will this – alongside continuing questions over Simon Case – start a
Helen Whately, the care minister, gave a moving speech this week. It was personal and emotional, but it won’t get much attention. Whately told a health conference organised by the Nuffield Trust about the final months of her grandmother’s life. Her grandmother had reached the age of 100 and was living independently, enjoying walks in
Rishi Sunak bowled up to Prime Minister’s Questions in an excellent mood, clearly still on a high from his Windsor Framework. The PM was greeted by a huge cheer from Tory backbenchers on arrival, but then had six eclectic and not-particularly-effective questions from Keir Starmer to wade through. The most important of those questions came
The Telegraph’s splash of leaked WhatsApp messages about Matt Hancock and care home testing is a devastating reminder of the cost of those early decisions taken in Covid. The plight of care homes in lockdown is one of the worst aspects of the pandemic. The sheer scale of the deaths among this vulnerable population and
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James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls about some of the key points in the Windsor Framework. Having reached an agreement with the EU, can Rishi Sunak do the same with both the Tories and the DUP?
Rishi Sunak’s sell to the Commons this evening was that his Windsor Framework has ‘taken back control’ and that MPs need to ‘seize the opportunity of this moment’. In other words, Brexit is done and history will judge you if you don’t back what’s just been agreed. The Prime Minister was keen to pay tribute
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Today Rishi Sunak has reached a revised agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland, and hailed it a ‘turning point’ for the people of Northern Ireland. But how will the DUP and – more importantly – Tory MPs, react? Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and Sam Lowe. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
A lot of the grand choreography around today’s Northern Ireland Protocol deal is designed to make it much harder for critics to cause chaos. There’s the meeting in Windsor between the King and Ursula von der Leyen, which Downing Street is insisting was something the Palace wanted, rather than being requested by Rishi Sunak. The
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Isabel Hardman hosts the highlights from Sunday morning’s political shows. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says there’s ‘quiet confidence’ about the Northern Ireland Protocol deal. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Labour would act in the ‘national interest’, and expects to support the deal. SNP leadership hopeful Humza Yousaf said that with sustained public support, ‘independence
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This week: Isabel Hardman asks whether politics and religion can mix (00:58), Christopher Howse discusses the transformative power of folk costume (08:06), and Lucy Dunn reads her notes on meal deals (19:18).
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This week: In his cover piece for the magazine, Andrew Roberts says that the British Army has been hollowed out by years of underfunding and a lack of foresight when it comes to replacing the munitions we have sent to Ukraine. Historian Antony Beevor and author Simon Jenkins join the podcast to discuss Britain’s depleted
Somewhat inevitably, Kate Forbes has issued a lengthy apology for her rather forthright comments on moral issues in the early days of the SNP leadership contest. The Scottish Finance Secretary put out a lengthy post on Facebook in which she said: Every leader’s identity is multifaceted – I am a woman, I am a Highlander,
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Keir Starmer has set out Labour’s five missions for government in a speech today, but was there anything Labour about them? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about where this speech leaves the Labour party’s chances to win the next election. Also on the podcast: the government’s plan to cut the asylum