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
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
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Simon Case dodged questions from MPs about his lockdown leak inquiry at a select committee appearance this afternoon, and refused to go into details about how Boris Johnson paid for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, saying the PM would make the ‘relevant declarations’. Why did Case stonewall the committee? Katy Balls speaks to
From our UK edition
This afternoon’s urgent question on allegations of Tory sleaze could have been a rather explosive affair. Instead, it was used by members of all parties to produce a series of rather rubbish slogans for the local and devolved assembly elections next month. The Conservatives wanted to deflect attention from their problems by complaining about a
From our UK edition
Bluebell season is beginning. In the next few weeks, woodland floors will have a fine blue mist hovering above them. This flowering season is so sensuous: there’s the sound of bees buzzing in and out of the flowers, the smell of their blooms, the cool spring breeze in the woods where they grow, and that
From our UK edition
How could the subpostmaster scandal, in which hundreds of small business owners had their lives ruined after being wrongly accused of taking money from the Post Office, have gone on for so long? The subpostmasters were sucked into a nightmare when the Post Office installed a new accounting system called Horizon to replace old manual
From our UK edition
Downing Street has hit back in its war with Dominic Cummings, after the former aide published an explosive blog post about leaks and ‘possibly illegal’ plans to renovate the Prime Minister’s flat using donations. A No. 10 spokesperson this evening said: ‘This government is entirely focused on fighting coronavirus, delivering vaccines and building back better.’
From our UK edition
Michael Gove’s trip to Israel to study the country’s ‘green pass’ system isn’t diminishing the impression among Conservative MPs that the UK government has already made up its mind on vaccine passports. A number who I have spoken to are taking the lack of communication from their party whips as a sign that the policy
From our UK edition
10 min listen
Boris Johnson’s trip to India was today cancelled as the country battles a new coronavirus variant. The PM was expecting to push Modi to release AstraZeneca vaccines to Britain, but that now looks unlikely. What does this mean for the UK’s roadmap? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
9 min listen
The UK and EU are holding talks over how to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol and stop the continuing violence on the island. Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about whether there’s a way forward.
From our UK edition
When David Cameron started contemplating life after Downing Street, he settled quite quickly on a model of what it should look like. He would stay on the backbenches, providing advice and wisdom to whoever came after him, earn a little bit of extra money while still working as an MP, and continue in public service
From our UK edition
10 min listen
Boris Johnson today said that the fall in coronavirus hospitalisations and deaths ‘has not been achieved by the vaccination programme’. After pubs, restaurants and shops reopened yesterday, why is the PM talking down vaccines? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
The NHS vaccination programme has reached its latest big milestone of offering a jab to everyone in the top nine priority groups three days ahead of schedule. Everyone in government and the health service is celebrating. Boris Johnson has been busy thanking ‘everyone involved in the vaccine rollout which has already saved many thousands of
From our UK edition
11 min listen
David Cameron finally issued a statement over the weekend on the ongoing Greensill scandal. Gordon Brown also waded in this morning, telling the Today programme that there should be a five-year cooling-off period before former PMs can lobby. Will this but the issue to bed? Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman.
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer obviously regrets visiting Jesus House last week because of the furore it has caused in his own party. But he will likely come to regret his reaction even more. The Labour leader posted a full apology for the Pentecostal church visit, saying: ‘I completely disagree with Jesus House’s beliefs on LGBT+ rights, which
