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
Prime Minister’s Questions is usually a session where the PM defends his handling of one issue or another, under attack from the leader of the Opposition. But today’s session involved an attempt by Sir Keir Starmer to defend his approach to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Labour knows it has an exposed flank
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11 min listen
Starting ‘a new Cold War on China’ would be ‘a mistake’, Boris Johnson said today as he set out the government’s integrated defence review. The military reassessment – the biggest in decades – also outlined plans to lift the UK’s cap on the number of nuclear warheads from 180 to 260. Why does the review
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The row over the NHS pay rise is taking up most of the political attention when it comes to the health service at the moment. But it’s not the only – or indeed the biggest – problem facing the politicians and officials involved. This morning Matt Hancock appeared before the Health Select Committee, and after
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MPs will continue debating the second reading of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill today, with a vote later. Last night’s debate gave us a pretty good idea of what the legislation’s progress through the Commons is going to look like: it is going to be far more partisan and noisy than anything Parliament
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12 min listen
Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick is facing calls to resign after women were forcibly removed from Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard. It comes as a bill that gives police more powers to crack down on protests will soon come before Parliament. How big will the backbench rebellion be? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and
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Labour has decided today that it will be opposing the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill when it has its second reading in the Commons tomorrow. Some of the party’s MPs say they had been told they would be whipped to abstain on this stage of the Bill, but following the scenes on Clapham Common
From our UK edition
Late last night, politicians started scrambling to express their concern about the policing of a vigil held on Clapham Common in the memory of Sarah Everard. After images of police officers arresting women on the ground emerged, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she found some of the footage ‘upsetting’ and would be asking the Metropolitan
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Forget statues: the latest victims of the colonialism culture war are racist plants. Ah yes, those menacing snowdrops with their overly white petals and dangerous daffodils. As Mr Steerpike reports, Kew Gardens has entered the fray with a promise to ‘decolonise’ its collections. Presumably the next step is for its sister site in Sussex to
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Sir Keir Starmer has launched Labour’s local elections campaign today, focusing on the need for a ‘proper pay rise’ for NHS staff. Of course, local government has nothing to do with the way NHS pay is set in England, but that’s by the by if you’re an opposition trying to turn every poll into a
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10 min listen
Keir Starmer pushed the PM on the 1 per cent pay rise for nurses at PMQS today. Did shorter, snappier questions bring results for the Labour leader? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
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14 min listen
NHS chief Simon Stevens today confirmed that the health service budgeted for a 2.1 per cent pay rise this year (rather than the 1 per cent being recommended by the government), putting pressure on the Treasury to stump up more cash. What are their options, how are Tory backbenchers reacting, and can Starmer turn the
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Things are starting to get more awkward for Rishi Sunak — something the Chancellor has long been prepared for. He knew that the early months of the pandemic, in which he gave out billions in taxpayers’ cash, would fade to the rather more difficult landscape he now faces: trying to rein that spending in —
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What better way to get shoppers back into London’s West End than by, er, building a large hill in the middle of it? That’s the latest plan from Westminster City Council, who hope that the Marble Arch Hill will lure people back to the area with the promise of stunning views around the city from
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Schools in England have gone back today, with pupils taking lateral flow tests and being asked to wear masks in order to keep the risk of infections as low as possible. Today Boris Johnson held a special press conference to mark what he described as an ’emotional’ moment in the exit from lockdown. He said
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The government has so far kept quiet about Harry and Meghan’s shocking interview with Oprah, in which – among other revelations – the couple claimed that a member of the royal family made racist comments about their son Archie’s skin colour. But with Boris Johnson set to host a government press conference at 4pm today,
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Is the row over the government’s plan to award only a 1 per cent pay rise to NHS workers as politically toxic as some suggest? Labour has certainly seized on it, with Sir Keir Starmer saying ‘Covid heroes’ deserve a pay rise. But Boris Johnson today defended the raise, saying: ‘What we’ve done is try
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If Daniel Defoe had been writing about modern budgets, he would have adapted his famous saying to include the certainty of death, taxes and an absence of a long-term plan for adult social care. Once again, the statement from the Chancellor had a yawning gap where the settlement for funding the beleaguered sector should be. There
From our UK edition
Sir Keir Starmer will have spent far more time preparing his response to today’s Budget which comes after Prime Minister’s Questions, but he did also manage to highlight a problem that isn’t going away for the government in his questions to Boris Johnson. The Labour leader chose to focus his stint on Yemen, criticising the
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13 min listen
Rishi Sunak has been a popular Chancellor, mainly because he’s responsible for pandemic giveaway after giveaway. But with tomorrow’s Budget, the tone will begin to change. Can he get through it unscathed? Katy Balls talks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.
From our UK edition
There are just days until all pupils return to English schools, and Conservative MPs are becoming increasingly concerned about what state many of these students will be in when they arrive back in the classroom after the best part of a year trying to learn from home. At today’s Education Questions in the House of
