James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
From our UK edition
Happy immigration stats day, one and all. The Home Office has this morning released a raft of data on visa numbers and asylum claims up until June. While Yvette Cooper might prefer to talk about the policing aspect of her brief, the numbers today show the challenges of migration. The figures released today covers three
From our UK edition
On Tuesday afternoon, a familiar figure pulled up at a Westminster café to plot the Tories’ downfall. Nigel Farage beamed from the back of his black Range Rover as he arrived to welcome Reform’s latest recruits. The purpose of the Old Queen Street summit was to plan the party’s path to next year’s local elections
From our UK edition
13 min listen
The government seems to have appointed another party-political advisor to the civil service – this time Labour Together’s Jess Sargeant to the role of deputy director at the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Constitution Group. Is the Labour party just as prone to a bit of cronyism as they accuse the Tories of having been? Cindy
From our UK edition
12 min listen
Keir Starmer has been meeting the new First Minister Eluned Morgan as part of a two day trip to Wales. While the trip included a visit to a wind farm, Starmer quickly faced questions about the fate of steel workers in Port Talbot. What does this challenge tell us about Starmer’s Industrial Strategy and his
From our UK edition
15 min listen
The fallout from the riots continues as the numbers being processed by the justice system have led to emergency measures being triggered by the government. What does this mean and, given the prison system was at breaking point even before the riots, what happens next? Also on the podcast, the six Tory leadership contenders have
From our UK edition
A backlash has been steadily growing since Rachel Reeves announced the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance a fortnight ago. Currently, all 11.4 million pensioners receive an extra £200 to help heat their homes every winter, with those over 80 receiving a blanket £300 payment. Under Reeves’ plans, only those receiving pension credit or other means-tested benefits
From our UK edition
At last, it’s happened. After months of warnings, the government has today activated emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding. Across the north of England defendants waiting for a court appearance will be kept in police cells until prison space is available. The system, known as ‘Operation Early Dawn’, was activated this morning – the second
From our UK edition
21 min listen
Labour is planning to reform the civil service into five ‘missions’ that will lead the agenda, moving away from the purely departmental way of arranging priorities at the moment. Cindy Yu talks to James Heale and Jill Rutter from the Institute for Government and UK In a Changing Europe (and a former civil servant) about
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Less than 48 hours after Transport Secretary Louise Haigh hailed a new deal with train drivers… the rail union Aslef announced further strike action. So what happened to Labour’s ‘relationship reset’ with the unions? And with recent pay deals, what incentive is there for workers to compromise with the government? Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman
From our UK edition
It is less than 48 hours since the government hailed a new deal with train drivers as proof that two years of rail strikes would soon be coming to an end. So it will be some embarrassment that Aslef, the rail union, today announced a further 22 days of strike action on the east coast
From our UK edition
After a year of speculation about how Keir Starmer would work with Donald Trump, the situation stateside has changed dramatically. Gone is the flailing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate; in his place is Kamala Harris, his resurgent vice president. She enters her party’s national convention as the bookmakers’ favourite to win the White
From our UK edition
11 min listen
The broader story this morning paints a positive picture for the UK economy. While growth in June took a pause, growth in Q2 for this year is estimated to be 0.6 per cent, roughly in line with what markets were predicting, as forecasts for UK growth have been repeatedly revised upwards since the start of
From our UK edition
Labour backbenchers have spent years dreaming of the day they are in power and get ‘the call’ from the Prime Minister, inviting them to become ministers. But this time, a few were surprised that when the call came they heard the cut-glass accent of Sue Gray on the line. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised them.
From our UK edition
11 min listen
We’ve got some news today on the inflation rate, which rose to 2.2 per cent in July, slightly up from the Bank of England’s target of 2 per cent, where the rate sat in May and June. It’s the first rate uptick this year – and though widely expected, it will be used to explain
From our UK edition
18 min listen
After successful showings at NATO and Blenheim Palace Keir Starmer is facing his first foreign policy tests, with big developments in Ukraine and in the Middle East. On the one hand, Ukrainian troops are continuing push into the Kursk region of Russia and on the other it looked last night that Iran had ramped up
From our UK edition
There is still a fortnight to go until parliament returns – but one Tory contender clearly cannot wait to get back to Westminster. Tom Tugendhat this afternoon gave a speech on a theme and at a venue which suited him perfectly: an address at the RUSI military think tank on security. This speech was billed
From our UK edition
13 min listen
Over the weekend we have had some news on Labour’s housing policy. The Times have splashed on the news that in order to meet their pledge to build 1.5 million houses by 2030, councils will be given the power to buy up green belt land. Will this actually get Britain building? Elsewhere, the Tory leadership race continues
From our UK edition
In four weeks’ time, the Liberal Democrats will descend on Brighton for their annual conference. It’s likely to be the most enthusiastic such gathering in recent years, with the party celebrating the record 72 seats they won at last month’s election. The Lib Dems gained 61 more MPs than the paltry 11 they took in
From our UK edition
32 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale interviews Woody Johnson, the former American Ambassador to the UK, about a possible second Trump term (1:19); Lara Prendergast reflects on the issue of smartphones for children and what lessons we could learn from Keir Starmer’s approach to privacy (6:35); reviewing Patrick Bishop’s book ‘Paris ’44: The Shame
From our UK edition
If Donald Trump does return to the White House, then another restoration could soon follow. Woody Johnson, a confidant of the president since the 1980s, served as his man in London from 2017 to 2021 and is now tipped for a second spell as ambassador. ‘What I know about President Trump is if he asks
