James Forsyth

Now entering its second week, the foray around members of parliament holding second jobs shows no sign of dying down. And, unfortunately, it seems whatever Boris Johnson tries to do to get himself out of this situation, he appears to just be digging himself and his party a deeper and deeper hole. 'Boris Johnson hadn't thought these proposals through, which has really upset Conservative MPs on both sides of this divide.' - Isabel HardmanCindy Yu talks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth about just how long this political hurricane will blow.

The Prime Minister has written to the Commons Speaker to propose new lobbying rules for MPs. While some may welcome the measure, like former PM Theresa May, who gave a blistering critique of the way the Owen Paterson affair was handled, others in his party might not be so happy. ‘The challenge for him is that it is going to worsen relations with a bit of the Parliamentary party that he already finds it difficult to deal with.’ – James Forsyth Max Jeffery sits down with James Forsyth and Katy Balls to discuss these possible changes and what they could mean for parliament. As well as looking at the issues of racism in cricket and the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Since the cabinet met on Thursday to map out their levelling up agenda, we take another look at what this ambiguous slogan really means and how important it is for a Tory majority in the next election. Can we compare the UK levelling up to other places? Gove recently referenced 15th century Florence. But what about German reunification? As James Forsyth says in the episode ’I think on levelling up and on reducing regional inequality, it is very hard to find a successful playbook to go after’. Max Jeffery talks to James Forsyth and Andrew Carter, the CEO of Centre for Cities.

After the government abandoned plans to overhaul the Commons standards rules, Rishi Sunak has said the government needs to 'do better'. Will the PM show some contrition soon? Max Jeffery talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. On the podcast, James Forsyth says: 'He really doesn't like apologies, never has done. So when he doesn't apologise he gives the story legs.

Boris Johnson today has said that Britain is not a corrupt country, but what does it mean that he felt the need to say that? On today's Coffee House Shots, Fraser Nelson points out that there is no clear firebreak to the present string of sleaze stories; and James Forsyth estimates that around a quarter of MPs have some kind of external earnings. So what more will come out of the woodworks? Cindy Yu talks to Fraser, James and Katy Balls.

The Owen Paterson affair has is shining a light on the extra cash MPs earn on top of their £80,000 salary. One MP, Geoffrey Cox, earned nearly £1 million from outside legal work. But is there an argument to be made for allowing elected officials to receive a second income? Max Jeffery is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth. On the podcast, James says: 'On principle, I think MPs continuing to earn money from their former professions or former trades is acceptable. They're not trading on the fact that they are an MP.

Over the weekend most media tore into the Owen Paterson affair, with a lot of talk about MPs' second jobs like those of Geoffrey Cox... ‘I think if you go down this route of essentially banning all these outside interests, we’re going to end up with far more people of inherited wealth in the House of Commons, who don’t need to earn any other money, and I think you will lose some knowledge and expertise.’ - James Forsyth ...How Conservatives pick their peers, and even Lords reform. But how did it come to this? Who should have told Boris that last week's actions and reactions were bad politics? 'I know some MPs who think the way that they voted last week will be held against them at the next election. They can imagine Labour running an anti-sleaze ticket.

Fraser Nelson talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about how MPs should clean up their act in the wake of Parliament's latest lobbying scandal.

Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP after being embroiled in a lobbying row. Allies of the Prime Minister have blamed the Chief Whip, Mark Spencer, for the fiasco, while other Tory MPs are fuming at the Prime Minister's miscalculation. How did Boris not realise the potential backlash? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.On the podcast, James says: 'It was really obvious how the press, the public, the opposition, were going to react to the Tory party trying to upend the standards rules and stay a guilty verdict against one of their own MPs. This is not an unexpected reaction to that kind of action.

The Owen Paterson story continues today with the government u-turning quicker than expected. This came after realising that allowing Tory MPs to mark their own homework by scrapping the standards committee might cause more outrage than they first thought. Leaving them now in a situation described by James Forsyth as, 'an infinitely worse position for absolutely everyone involved.'James is joined by Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls to discuss this, self-inflicted, political nightmare.

The row over Owen Paterson has come to a head today as the amendment to lift his suspension - tabled by fellow Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom and backed by the government - has upset many sides. Labour and the SNP are going in hard on accusations of Tory sleaze, with a real possibility of this spreading further than the Westminster bubble; while some Tory MPs who were whipped to vote in favour of the amendment are disgruntled at the position the government put them in ('It's fair to say that it has caused deep unease within the Tory party', Katy says). So what will be the impact of today's vote? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. James concludes: 'I think the government made a very big mistake today'.