James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
From our UK edition
11 min listen
Rishi Sunak has landed in Delhi ahead of the G20 summit this weekend. He will be hoping to smooth the way for a new free trade deal with India. What does a good result look like for the prime minister? Will the new deal result in increased immigration? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
13 min listen
The Conservative MP Chris Pincher has resigned following the Commons decision to refuse his suspension appeal. Follow Nadine Dorries's most recent resignation, this means the government faces their 9th by-election since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister – can they come back from this? Also on the podcast, Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman about Rishi Sunak's move to rejoin the EU Horizon Project and the latest on the UK-India trade deal.
From our UK edition
10 min listen
It was the first PMQs since the summer recess today and Labour were on the attack, comparing the Tory government to 'cowboy builders' over the ongoing school concrete debate. Rishi Sunak replied by calling out the leader of the opposition as 'captain hindsight'. Who came out on top? Also on the podcast, it's a year since Liz Truss's doomed premiership. How should we reflect on her time as PM? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale.
From our UK edition
‘I’m sorry for the damage and the loss. It was a scary time, and I'm sorry for that.’ Kwasi Kwarteng’s contrite apology on TalkTV last night was a striking contrast with the confidence, excitement and ambition which he and others exuded on taking up their new posts in Liz Truss’s government exactly one year ago today. Back then, there was talk from the likes of Truss’s chief of staff Mark Fullbrook about it being a ‘seven year premiership'. Yet it ended up being over in just seven weeks. How did it all go so wrong, so quickly? Loyalty to the leader was prioritised over party unity By the time the new prime minister walked up Downing Street to make her speech on that wet Tuesday afternoon, the course of her government had been set already.
From our UK edition
13 min listen
The government is struggling to change the story. After Gillian Keegan yesterday said, about the concrete crisis, that ‘everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing’, the story has continued to dominate the news. How can the government recover? Who should take the blame? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Conservative Home’s Paul Goodman.
From our UK edition
14 min listen
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reshuffled his shadow cabinet but just who has made it in and who has been moved aside? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Linden Kemkaran.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
Parliament is back from recess and the row which will be dominating MPs inboxes is the school concrete crisis, which has disrupted the start of term for over 100 schools. Why didn't the government act sooner? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
35 min listen
This week: In his cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator’s political correspondent James Heale writes that the PM’s visit to New Delhi for the G20 Summit next week could be a defining moment in the special relationship between Britain and India. He is joined by Shanker Singham, former advisor to UK Secretary of State for International Trade, to discuss Rishi's Indian summer. (01:18) Also on the podcast: Owen Matthews The Spectator’s Russia correspondent expresses his concern about the US’s waning support for Ukraine in the magazine this week. He argues that ultimately it is America – and the outcome of next year's presidential election – that could decide Ukraine’s fate.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
Rishi Sunak may have shelved his plan for a big reshuffle but we have had some cabinet changes today. Grant Shapps has taken his fifth cabinet position in one year, replacing Ben Wallace as Defence Secretary, and Sunak loyalist Claire Coutinho will take over as Energy Secretary. What does Coutinho’s appointment reveal? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
When Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, India’s press was thrilled. ‘From Age of Empire to Rishi Raj’ declared the Times of India: another headline hailed the ‘Browning Street’ phenomenon. ‘Indian son rises over Empire’, proclaimed the New Delhi TV channel, a play on the colonial-era adage that the sun never sets on Britain’s empire. When Sunak visits New Delhi for the G20 next week, it will be quite a moment. Two Hindu heads of government will meet – the old power and the new. Sunak’s agenda is to bind Britain closer to a growing Asian economic powerhouse – which last week completed its first successful moon landing – while containing China by bolstering its rivals.
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Nadine Dorries’s seat in Mid Bedfordshire has a majority of 25,000. With the Boris Johnson ally now leaving Parliament, the seat is set to be a three-way race between the Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Who stands the best chance of challenging the Conservatives? Also on the podcast: Suella Braverman has instructed police to ‘investigate every crime’. Will it improve the public’s faith in the force? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.
From our UK edition
17 min listen
Nadine Dorries resigned from Parliament over the weekend, writing in a letter to Rishi Sunak that the Conservatives have been ‘corrupted’, and accusing the Prime Minister of ‘opening the gates to whip up a public frenzy against one of his own MPs’. Is Dorries, at least in part, right? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Kate Andrews.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
Are the Tories right to pick local candidates, over Westminster favourites, to be their next generation of MPs? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale.
From our UK edition
28 min listen
This week James Heale describes the mess the Conservative Party has got itself into when selecting its parliamentary candidates (01.17), Svitlana Morenets is in Ukraine witnessing first hand the tragedy of how troops are dying for want of proper medical supplies and training (06.59), Melanie McDonagh discusses the art of kissing and when a kiss is not just a kiss (18.22) and Richard Madeley shares with us his diary in which he ponders Queen songs and cancel culture and the shocking case of Lucy Letby (22.07).
From our UK edition
12 min listen
Rishi Sunak is reportedly going to delay a planned major reshuffle. A Cabinet switch-up was expected next month, but it now seems that only ministers like Ben Wallace, who has already indicated that he wants to step down, will be moved from their posts. What changed the Prime Minister's mind? Max Jeffery speaks to James Heale and Craig Oliver, former director of communications in No. 10. Produced by Max Jeffery.
From our UK edition
You know the Conservative party is in trouble when it does not dare use its name on leaflets. Instead, it took a two-pronged approach in the last two general elections: a presidential campaign for the national media and local politics for the doorstep. With the Tories now 20 points behind Labour, it seems the strategy for next year’s general election is to once again go easy on the Conservative brand and emphasise the local-hero credentials of the candidates. All they need is to find some local heroes. It’s not just that local candidates are seen as more attractive, the barriers to outsiders have been fortified ‘Voters want someone who is going to fight for them and that’s an easier conversation to have if they are a local resident,’ says one newly picked Tory candidate.
From our UK edition
19 min listen
This week: James Heale reads his politics column on why the Tories should fear the Greens (00:56), Lisa Haseldine outlines some of the changes to Russia's school curriculum (06:04) and Neil Clark extols the joys of non-league football (13:02). Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
So far, Keir Starmer has been unmoved by complaints from left-wingers that his policies differ little from those of Boris Johnson’s at the last election. After all, if left-wing voters don’t like his low-key approach, where else would they go? The problem in British politics – as David Cameron found out – is that disgruntled voters do find somewhere else to go. In Cameron’s case, it was to Nigel Farage; in Starmer’s case, it may be to the Greens. Once dismissed as idealistic hippies, the Greens now serve in seven governments across Europe, including Germany, Belgium and Scotland. Even under the UK’s majoritarian system, they’re doing well with 800 council seats – more than Farage ever managed in his prime.
From our UK edition
18 min listen
This week (01.07) James Heale meets the Conservative London Mayoral Candidate, Susan Hall, who is ready and willing to take the fight to Sadiq Khan in next year’s elections, (06.51) Melanie McDonagh examines the effects on children’s publishing as sensitivity readers gain more and more influence and (12.39) Sam McPhail explains why football clubs could be in big trouble if fans start following superstar players, rather than the clubs.
From our UK edition
‘I love a fight. I was going to say debate, but it’s more of a fight to be honest.’ Susan Hall is looking forward to taking on Sadiq Khan at the London mayoral hustings. When we meet for her first interview after securing the Conservative nomination, it is five days after the Uxbridge by-election. Hall is buoyed by an unexpected Tory triumph, thanks to discontent with Khan’s plans to extend the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez). ‘Out on the doorstep,’ she tells me: ‘I thought the questions would be all around Boris but I had nothing. It was all around the Ulez expansion.’ She hopes to replicate a similar result next May. ‘There aren’t really many policies.
