James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
It was a badly kept secret in Westminster that very senior figures in the UK government wanted Francois Fillon to win the French presidential election. He was regarded as being the best candidate for Britain, and the one most likely to be pragmatic on Brexit. But with Fillon out, attention switches to Macron—the overwhelming favourite.
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The latest polling marmalade dropper comes from Wales. Labour have won a majority of Welsh seats in every general election for the past eighty-odd years. But the latest Welsh Political Barometer, the most respected poll there, has the Tories on 40 per cent and on course to win 21 seats to Labour’s 15. This poll
From our UK edition
Everything you need to know about the current state of the polls is summed up by the fact that one which puts the Tories at 40 per cent, a level that they haven’t hit in a general election for a quarter of a century, and 11 points clear is presented as a blow to them.
From our UK edition
Theresa May has long been clear about what sets her apart from other politicians: she doesn’t play political games. When she launched her bid for the top job last year, she was clear that — unlike her rivals — she hadn’t succumbed to the temptations of Westminster. She told us that she didn’t drink in
From our UK edition
Theresa May is over the first hurdle of the election campaign, I say in The Sun today. There has been no public backlash to her going back on her word and opting for an early election after all. It has not done the damage to the May brand that I thought it risked. This is
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Just days before the first round of voting in the French presidential election, there has been a terrorist attack on the Champs Elysees. A gunman opened fire on police officers, killing one and wounding two others. The terrorist was shot dead at the scene. Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the attack.The claim says that the
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Two days into the election campaign, and the polls are already jaw-dropping. The latest You Gov has the Tories on 48 percent, 24 points ahead of Labour—and that’s before the Tory attack machine has gone to work on Jeremy Corbyn. Now, there is a chance that the Tory lead is being exaggerated by the methodological changes
From our UK edition
Theresa May has long been clear about what sets her apart from other politicians: she doesn’t play political games. When she launched her bid for the top job last year, she was clear that — unlike her rivals — she hadn’t succumbed to the temptations of Westminster. She told us that she didn’t drink in
From our UK edition
George Osborne’s decision to stand down as an MP is a sign of how impregnable Theresa May’s position is perceived to be. Osborne is the most politically formidable of the Tory sceptics of May’s Brexit plan, and his decision to quit the Commons suggests that he doesn’t think she’ll come unstuck in the next parliament.
From our UK edition
Theresa May has just announced that she’ll move a motion in the Commons tomorrow calling for a general election on 8 June. This is despite May and her team having repeatedly ruled out going to the country early. Much of the May brand, and her appeal, is built on the idea that she is a grown-up
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‘Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role’. Fifty-five years on, Dean Acheson’s remark has not lost its sting. British statecraft is, even now, an attempt to lay claim to a place in the post-imperial world. The events of the past few months — Brexit, the election of the most unlikely
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Boris Johnson has received a bit of a kicking this week. There have been no shortage of people wanting to say he has been humiliated by the G7’s refusal to back his call for further sanctions on Russia and Syria after the chemical weapons attack. But I argue in The Sun today, that the real
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Steve Bannon fast became the most powerful person in the world you’ve never heard of. The man behind the Breitbart website became Donald Trump’s chief strategist and was credited with both Trump’s presidential victory and his wholehearted embrace of an America First, nationalist position in his first month in office. But Bannon’s influence has been
From our UK edition
‘Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role’. Fifty-five years on, Dean Acheson’s remark has not lost its sting. British statecraft is, even now, an attempt to lay claim to a place in the post-imperial world. The events of the past few months — Brexit, the election of the most unlikely
From our UK edition
The G7 has failed to agree on any new sanctions on Russia following the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons last week. This is a blow to Boris Johnson, who has been pushing hard for targeted sanctions on Russian and Syrian military figures thought to be linked to last week’s attacks. But it is worth
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On several foreign policy issues, Donald Trump has toned down the campaign rhetoric now that he is in office. His administration still has concerns about the Iran nuclear deal, but it is backing away from the idea of simply ripping it up or unilaterally rewriting it. On the European Union, he is calming down too;
From our UK edition
The UK government has been ‘reassured’ by how Donald Trump has handled Assad’s use of chemical weapons, I write in The Sun this morning. The government is right to be reassured. Trump does appear to have done what he said he would do, and listened to his generals. Given that his National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster
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On Donald Trump’s orders, US forces have struck the airfield from which the Syrian military launched Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack. The strikes were limited, only 59 Tomahawk missiles were involved, and the US says that ‘every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield’. So, what was Trump
From our UK edition
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, has been in Downing Street this afternoon meeting with Theresa May. The official readout of their talk is much as you would expect. Warm words about the hopes for a ‘deep and special partnership’, an attempt to calm things down over Gibraltar but nothing major as the
From our UK edition
On several foreign policy issues, Donald Trump has toned down the campaign rhetoric now that he is in office. His administration still has concerns about the Iran nuclear deal, but it is backing away from the idea of simply ripping it up or unilaterally rewriting it. On the European Union, he is calming down too;