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
24 min listen
On this week’s episode, Fraser Nelson starts by reading our leading article: the Prime Minister promised ‘data, not dates’, so should we reopen before 21 June? (01:15) Fiona Mountford is on next, saying she’s had enough of corporate faux-friendliness. (07:20) Laurie Graham reads her piece afterwards, wondering what to put in her Covid time capsule.
From our UK edition
Sir Keir Starmer is planning a policy review as part of his plans to ‘change’ Labour after the dismal Super Thursday results. This sounds, to put it mildly, like a rather small response to a rather big problem. Talking to MPs and campaigners over the past 24 hours, I have noticed a shift in the
From our UK edition
Sir Keir Starmer has just accepted that Labour needs to ‘change’ and ‘reconnect’ with voters, following the Hartlepool by-election result. In a rather stressed and evasive TV interview, the Labour leader repeatedly said his party needed to change, but refused to say whether there would be a reshuffle, or indeed what the party’s message would
From our UK edition
14 min listen
The local election results are coming in over the weekend, but the bombshell came early with Hartlepool going to the tories in a massive 16-point swing. Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about how much the red wall has left to give.
From our UK edition
Labour has started bracing itself for a very unpleasant few days of results in elections across the country. As polls close in local, mayoral, devolved assembly and police and crime commissioner elections, as well as the Hartlepool by-election, a party source has said: These were always going to be tough elections for Labour. Keir has
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Once again it’s all about the fish – following protests from French fisherman over their rights in the waters surrounding Jersey, Boris Johnson has despatched Royal Navy boats to the Channel. Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about why tensions escalated so quickly.
From our UK edition
Has Anas Sarwar got what it takes to woo Scottish Labour’s lost voters? I joined the recently-elected leader of the party while on the campaign trail in Glasgow and you can read my interview with him in this week’s magazine. His analysis is that Labour was in danger of becoming part of the past for
From our UK edition
When the Scottish parliament was set up by Tony Blair in 1999, it seemed as if Labour would govern Holyrood for the foreseeable future. The Scottish Tories were a contradiction in terms. Devolution was sold as a device that would kill nationalism ‘stone dead’. Suffice to say, this plan did not quite work. The Scottish
From our UK edition
Dandelions are one of the cheeriest wild flowers. They are loved by children for their ‘clock’ seed heads, are entirely edible for humans and are a source of food for many insects and birds. And yet many gardeners go to great lengths to get rid of them. This year’s daffodils may have faded, but dandelions
From our UK edition
12 min listen
A poll last night gave the Tories a 17-point lead in Hartlepool. Tomorrow’s by-election in the red wall seat is to be one of the first barometers of Keir Starmer’s leadership so far. How serious would a Labour loss be? Isabel Hardman speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
From our UK edition
Campaigning in the Hartlepool by-election is reaching its feverish final hours as the Labour party tries to hold onto the seat. There has been sufficient talk of the party losing the constituency for such a result not to come as a shock if it does happen. Indeed, many in the party are already talking as
From our UK edition
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is being advised by a key figure behind ex-Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson’s political brand, Coffee House can reveal. Eddie Barnes, a former spinner for Davidson when she led the party, has been helping Scottish Labour during the Holyrood campaign with messaging and voter strategy. He helped craft Davidson’s cheery,
From our UK edition
18 min listen
One of the key aspects of the imminent G7 summit will be the return of face-to-face meetings between politicians. What will be on the agenda, and can the rest of us hope to follow suit and leave Zoom behind? Fraser Nelson talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has barely been seen in public without his chaperone, Ruth Davidson. She has accompanied him around the Holyrood elections campaign trail with such devotion that it’s unclear who is standing for election and who is the actual party leader. The pair are campaigning in Edinburgh today and have sent out
From our UK edition
Labour’s Liz Kendall is today calling for the government to treat social care in the same way as it treats physical infrastructure. In a speech this afternoon, the shadow care minister said that ‘in the century of ageing, social care is as much a part of our economic infrastructure as the roads and the railways’.
From our UK edition
Matt Hancock was in a rather sassy mood when he took tonight’s coronavirus briefing. It was obvious that he was not going to get as much attention for his announcement that the government has secured another 60 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine for an autumn booster programme, and he came armed with a strategy
From our UK edition
13 min listen
Arlene Foster has stepped down as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. What’s next for the party? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
From our UK edition
Boris Johnson did not have a good Prime Minister’s Questions. It was never going to be a comfortable session, given the multiple rows about the funding of the Downing Street flat revamp and his reported comments about letting bodies ‘pile up’. But the way the Prime Minister approached it ensured both that the story will
From our UK edition
14 min listen
Reports today suggest that the Conservative Party initially covered the costs of the Downing Street refurbishment. Will Conservative members, and the public at large, care? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
One of the reasons the row isn’t fading about Tory sleaze allegations and the Prime Minister’s conduct is that there are so many different facets to it. Each row has its own faction within the Conservative party and indeed within No. 10, and so far there is scant evidence that any of these factions are