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.
From our UK edition
The new £5.4 billion cash boost for NHS England is the easy bit of a very tricky situation for the health service and the politicians trying to work out how to deal with it. As Health Secretary Sajid Javid made clear on Monday, while the money will help deal with the backlog in treatment caused
From our UK edition
Boris Johnson took a strangely upbeat tone when he updated MPs on Afghanistan this afternoon. He argued that British planning for the US withdrawal had been months in the making and that the evacuation effort had exceeded expectations with twice the number of people getting out than had been expected. He even made some big
From our UK edition
11 min listen
With the vaccine secretary Nadhim Zahawi declaring on the radio that the Conservatives were a ‘party of fair taxation’, could the government be looking at rebellion from its right with its new plans for tackling the social care crisis? Katy Balls in conversation with James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
14 min listen
New data from Israel shows that the Delta variant is getting through the protection offered by double jabs, even though the vaccines do lessen symptoms. But the study, of more than 800,000 cases, suggests those who have recovered from Covid have stronger protection than those who have not: jabbed or unjabbed. Will this make it
From our UK edition
11 min listen
After the attack on Kabul’s airport by Isis-K, President Biden addressed the world last night and mourned for the 13 US marines who were killed. But with this grim event already being politicised by the Republicans, what will the lasting damage to the president legacy be? Isobel Hardman in conversation with Kate Andrews and Fraser
From our UK edition
13 min listen
Chaos surrounds the Hamid Karzai airport today as two explosions and a potential knife attack has left at least 13 dead. The attacks are suspected to be suicide bombers from ISIS-K, as the American and British military had feared. What does this mean for the evacuation in its last days? Cindy Yu talks to Isabel
From our UK edition
Conservative MPs are still worried about the removal of the £20-a-week uplift to Universal Credit this coming October. Two of them — Peter Aldous and John Stevenson — have written to Boris Johnson to urge him not to press ahead with the cut, which will restore the benefit back to its pre-pandemic levels. The pair
From our UK edition
The Afghan evacuation is feared to be entering its final hours, and with it a new desperation is building among people trying to get out of the country and those helping them. On the ground, troops are warning that Kabul airport could be overrun by people who are ineligible to leave but desperate to do
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12 min listen
In his first broadcast round since coming back from Crete, Raab’s handling of the questions surrounding his holiday have only managed to fuel the conversation further, with choice quotes such as ‘the sea was closed that day’. Cindy Yu talks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls about what went wrong with the Foreign Secretary’s handling
From our UK edition
Is Dominic Raab’s summer holiday really still an issue as the evacuation of Afghanistan enters its final few hours? According to the Foreign Secretary, it still is. Despite everyone else in Westminster seeming to move on from the fury that accompanied Raab’s decision to stay in Crete as the Taliban swept back to power, the
From our UK edition
As expected, the emergency G7 leaders’ summit on Afghanistan has broken up without agreeing an extension to the 31 August deadline for evacuations from Kabul. Boris Johnson tried to put a positive spin on the virtual meeting, which he had convened, when he gave a pool clip after, saying the group had set a condition
From our UK edition
13 min listen
As many had expected, President Biden has not agreed to extend the August 31 deadline despite pleas from Nato allies in today’s G7 call. Meanwhile, there are signs that the veneer of the new and reformed Taliban is already beginning to crack in Afghanistan. Katy Balls talks to Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
The Prime Minister has requested Washington to extend the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Kabul. But will Joe Biden acquiesce, amidst warnings from the Taliban that there will be ‘consequences’ if the US stays longer? Isabel Hardman talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.
From our UK edition
14 min listen
With Dominic Raab in the firing line for his £40,000 Crete holiday, the Coffee House Shots team reflects: can ministers ever go on holiday? And if they do, should they be sticking to the domestic ones, and at what point of a political crisis does one decide to turn back? Isabel Hardman talks to Fraser
From our UK edition
14 min listen
While Dominic Raab continues to weather charges of incompetence and call for resignation, it is the Health Secretary Sajid Javid who might not have any time for a holiday come autumn. Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, is seeing a rush of new Covid cases. Could mean a wave of Covid
From our UK edition
Dominic Raab is not budging in his conviction that he did everything he could for Afghanistan while he was on his Cretan holiday. The Foreign Secretary has issued a statement in which he argues that the recommendation from his civil servants to call the Afghan foreign minister was ‘quickly overtaken by events’ and that he
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Pressure on the Foreign Secretary is piling up after the Daily Mail revealed today that Raab had rejected the strong advice of Foreign Office civil servants to call his counterpart in the Afghan government before the weekend, to ensure the safe departure of interpreters from the country. Instead, his junior minister Zac Goldsmith took the
From our UK edition
Today’s Commons debate on Afghanistan was unusually and surprisingly good. It had the benefit of speeches from many MPs who had themselves served tours of duty in the country, or were veterans of military action elsewhere. It had the advantage of a former Prime Minister speaking with all the authority of someone who knows just
From our UK edition
Dominic Raab’s speech closing the Commons debate on Afghanistan provided a neat summary of the government’s response to the crisis: defensive, sketchy on detail and irritated by valid criticism. The Foreign Secretary’s name had cropped up repeatedly today in the chamber as opposition MPs slammed his decision to stay on holiday as the Taliban surged
From our UK edition
12 min listen
This morning was the first time that we saw the chamber of the House of Commons full since the pandemic began. MPs were called back from recess to discuss the worsening situation in Afghanistan. Emotions and tensions ran high on both sides, some directed at the government, some at the Prime Minister and some at