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.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Boris’s resignation speech will trouble Tory MPs

Boris Johnson has just given a bitter resignation speech that makes clear he is not going anywhere until a new leader is in place. He has set up a betrayal narrative, pointedly thanking the British public – but not his own party – for his time in office and saying it would be ‘eccentric’ to change leader when the Conservative party is only a few points behind Labour in the polls. There was no space to thank colleagues in government when he listed the work he was proud of and the projects he had hoped to see through to their conclusion. It was centred around him, not the collective effort, or indeed the Conservative party.

Isabel Hardman

Boris resigns. What next?

15 min listen

After fighting words briefed out to the papers overnight, this morning, the Prime Minister has finally decided to resign. A statement is expected today. On the episode, Katy Balls discusses with Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson whether he should have gone sooner (and the implications for the post-politics speaking circuit) and the leadership race that is about to start.Produced by Cindy Yu.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Boris refuses to resign – what next?

8 min listen

Despite mass resignations and calls from newly appointed ministers to resign, Boris has dug his heels in and refused to leave. What will be his next moves? And are the rumours of a snap general election really on the cards?Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth.

Isabel Hardman

Boris isn’t ready to go

Boris Johnson's final hours as Prime Minister have been undignified. We do not yet know quite how this will end, but we know he will eventually have to quit. There is a delegation of cabinet ministers in Downing Street waiting for him – more here. Johnson found out about this group while he was in the liaison committee hearing, and was confronted about it by Darren Jones. His response shows that he is not going to accept the first plea from this cabinet delegation. He burbled on about the cost of living and how he wasn't going to 'give you a running commentary' on political issues. This underlines the point made to me earlier by senior Tories that Johnson is not yet psychologically ready to accept that it is over.

Isabel Hardman

Who will tell Boris it’s over?

In the past couple of minutes, five ministers have resigned as a co-ordinated group and Michael Gove is reported to have told Boris Johnson in private that it’s time to go. Kemi Badenoch, Lee Rowley, Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien and Julia Lopez have quit in a joint letter in which they call for Boris Johnson to step aside ‘for the good of the party, and the country’.  https://twitter.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1544673839363268616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw They are bright, ambitious MPs who could form the future of the party. They also make the government look as though it is not functioning, and is at risk of being populated with anyone Boris Johnson can find who wants to be a minister for five minutes, regardless of their suitability.

Isabel Hardman

The most brutal line in Sajid Javid’s resignation speech

Sajid Javid's resignation in the Commons just now was coldly brutal. He's had some practice, which he acknowledged, given this is the second time he has resigned in protest from Boris Johnson's government. The first personal statement he gave was critical, but this one was terminal. He said 'treading the tightrope between loyalty and integrity has become impossible in recent months' and that as Health Secretary he had repeatedly given Johnson the benefit of the doubt over partygate and other scandals. The theme of his statement was the damage that Boris Johnson continuing as Prime Minister is doing to the Conservative party.

Isabel Hardman

PMQs will only encourage further rebellion

At one point in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the Speaker called MPs to order and told them: ‘We’ve got to get through Prime Minister’s Questions.’ This was an instruction to backbenchers who were shouting at one another across the chamber. But it sounded like an ambitious goal for Boris Johnson. He barely got through the truly brutal, angry session. He barely got through the truly brutal, angry session Sir Keir Starmer led on the allegations of sexual assault against Chris Pincher, and on why the Prime Minister had made him deputy chief whip when he knew about Pincher’s behaviour. His questions and lines were strong, Johnson’s were exhausted and irrelevant.

Isabel Hardman

The most damning accusation against Boris Johnson

In the blizzard of letters by Tory MPs who want Boris Johnson to go, one stands out. Chris Skidmore has called for the rules of the 1922 Committee to be changed so that another vote of no confidence. His argument is particularly forceful: ‘This is an extremely grave situation, that is tantamount to an effective cover-up of sexual abuse that would never be tolerated in any normal, functioning, workplace.’ All other letters have talked about a loss of trust, integrity and standards. They haven't come close to making the point about the Chris Pincher scandal as forcefully as Skidmore does. It is the most serious accusation that has been levelled against the Prime Minister so far.

Isabel Hardman

The ministerial resignations keep on coming

More ministerial resignations are underway and the day has barely begun in Westminster. Will Quince, who had the humiliating job of answering questions about what Johnson knew and when on the Monday broadcast round, has quit. He’s an education minister and writes in his letter that the Prime Minister last night apologised to him for ‘the briefings I received from No. 10 ahead of Monday’s media round, which we now know to be inaccurate.’ The timing meant that Nadhim Zahawi had to spend his first interview in the job reacting to more bits falling off the government Quince had tried to distance himself as much as possible from those briefings, telling each broadcaster that he had asked No.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Boris appoints Steve Barclay as Health Secretary

Steve Barclay is the new Health Secretary. This is a fascinating move for both political and policy reasons. The first is that it is an admission by the Prime Minister that his current Downing Street operation is not working: Barclay was the chief of staff brought in to 'get a grip', and there has manifestly not been much of that. The second is that Barclay is, to put it mildly, a hawk on health spending. He was a Health Minister before becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and formed an extremely sceptical view of the health service and its ability to waste money while in that position.

Isabel Hardman

What next for Nadhim Zahawi?

One by one, cabinet ministers are confirming that they are not resigning this evening, leaving a very small group of ministers who have said nothing. One of the most conspicuous silences comes from Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary. He has been mooted as a potential leadership contender, and has refused to rule out a bid. Tonight, he is not answering calls from colleagues. He is reading messages on WhatsApp but not replying to them. It has now been too long for him just to be a bit busy. Zahawi has one of those things that Westminster types are obsessed with: a backstory Currently we have two cabinet resignations and a number of more junior ministers and PPSs out too. It is reaching the point where silence is a tactic.

Isabel Hardman

Sunak and Javid resign. Now what?

11 min listen

Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid have resigned from government. In letters to the Prime Minister this evening, Sunak said the government 'cannot continue like this', while Javid told the PM that 'the situation will not change under your leadership.' Will more ministers now resign? And is this the end of Boris Johnson's premiership?Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Isabel Hardman

Boris remains ‘bullish’ as his cabinet implodes

Shortly after he received the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson addressed around 70 Tory MPs who are still sort-of loyal to him. I’m told by one loyal colleague – who sounded rather bewildered by the whole thing – that Johnson was ‘remarkably bullish’, claiming he is going to appoint a new Chancellor and Health Secretary tonight, and that now there might be a chance of delivering some tax cuts.  ‘No one has survived this kind of thing before,’ says one Tory MP That last comment was him lashing out at Sunak for repeatedly blocking what Tory MPs have been calling for as a means of getting the economy going.

Isabel Hardman

Boris’s desperate tearoom tour

This afternoon, a text message went out to certain Tory MPs telling them that the Prime Minister was going to be in the tearoom from 4 p.m. with the plea ‘please come to support’. This tells us so many things about the mood in the Conservative party at the moment.  The first is that Johnson feels under sufficiently imminent threat to bother going over to the Commons tearoom this afternoon. And he’s right to do so: everyone I have spoken to today, including those who have been Boris loyalists all the way and have been working extremely hard to try to help him recover, say the mood of the party – and their own – has changed significantly in the past 24 hours.

Isabel Hardman

Boris ‘forgot’ about Pincher allegations, claims minister

The government's line yesterday on what Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher's behaviour kept changing. Today, it's quite hard to find anything that could reasonably be described as a 'line'. More of a messy scribble. After Simon McDonald's explosive intervention this morning, the 'line' had to change from Boris Johnson not being informed of any specific complaints, because now there was a report of an official complaint which McDonald alleges the Prime Minister was indeed briefed on. So what did it change to? As ever in these circumstances, Michael Ellis, the minister for defending the indefensible and holding lines even as they change, made his way into the chamber to answer an urgent question on the matter.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Starmer’s cautious five-point plan to ‘make Brexit work’

Keir Starmer is delivering his latest instalment of Things Labour Would Just Do Better. In a speech to the Centre for European Reform this evening, the Labour leader is complaining that the government 'have missed Brexit opportunities time and time again'. He will also set out his party's 'five point plan to make Brexit work'. His memorable lines are that Brexit has become the 'wet wipe island' that was found in the Thames and that Labour will 'break that barrier down' - which frankly sounds like a disgusting job for anyone to do. Now, all of this initially seems to run along the general theme of Labour's policymaking, which is to hope that saying you wouldn't make the same mistakes as the government is a sufficient substitute for an actual policy position.

Isabel Hardman

What did Boris know about Chris Pincher?

12 min listen

Boris Johnson knew of media reports about Chris Pincher's conduct when he invited him to join the government, it emerged today. How serious a crisis is this for the government? And as the Prime Minister today returned from three international summits, was he able to put his domestic problems behind him in the Commons? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers are getting more reluctant to defend Boris

It's long been the case that No. 10 has struggled to find ministers willing to go on the morning broadcast rounds to defend the latest government meltdown. Most of them leave their phones on 'do not disturb' or outright refuse to go out and defend the indefensible. That there are so many indefensible incidents that a minister might be asked about makes every interview feel like an obstacle course.  But now the ministers who do end up on the airwaves are making clear that they aren't even going to do much defending. The new formulation that figures like Therese Coffey and Will Quince (who was on the round this morning) have resorted to is to say that the No. 10 press office told them to say something, without showing much faith in or enthusiasm for that line.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Will Nicola Sturgeon get her way?

11 min listen

Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about Nicola Sturgeon’s latest plans to hold a referendum on Scottish independence on 19th October 2023, and whether they will even get off the ground.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Chris Pincher loses the whip

In the last few minutes, Chris Pincher has had the Conservative whip suspended after he resigned this morning over allegations he groped two men earlier this week. The Tory chief whip has announced that the former deputy chief whip will now lose the whip while an investigation into his behaviour takes place. A spokesman said:  Having heard that a formal complaint has been made to the ICGS [the Independent Complaints and Grievence Scheme], the Prime Minister has agreed with the Chief Whip that the whip should be suspended from Chris Pincher while the investigation is ongoing. We will not prejudge that investigation.