Tim Shipman is political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Shabana Mahmood has unveiled her long-awaited reforms to immigration rules, including on indefinite leave to remain, and with them the partial climbdown briefed over the past few days. Noa Hoffman is joined by Tim Shipman and James Heale to examine what has and has not changed in the new plans.
From our UK edition
I’ve been writing about politics for 25 years and, putting aside the two years (2007-09) I was based in Washington, John Healey’s first Budget on Wednesday was by some distance the most boring I have sat through. As I wrote in my column this week and explained in our live Budget event on Wednesday evening, one possible explanation is that Andy Burnham wants to keep the window open for an early general election, keeping the show on the road and not spooking the markets, while Labour’s poll numbers creep upwards. The markets gave a shrug, but so did everyone else. This was not the end to 40 years of neo-liberalism or the transformation of the British economy and society that Burnham promised. So what is he up to?
From our UK edition
John Healey’s budget on Wednesday contained 98 measures, the most since 2010, and yet the OBR appears to be questioning the extent of his £15 billion in headroom. Tim Shipman speaks to the OBR’s David Miles about a tax take heading for a post-war high, the cuts pencilled in for the end of the parliament, and why, by his reckoning, Britain is 25% poorer than it expected to be in 2008.
From our UK edition
29 min listen
The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove, political editor Tim Shipman, economics editor Michael Simmons, economist and CEO of the Great British Business Council Catherine McBride and Harry Bell, director of financial planning at Raymond James, will give their insights into the autumn Budget, just hours after it is announced.
What is the purpose of a Budget? To stabilise the national finances? To kickstart economic growth? If you’re John Healey, it may be to show the markets that you’re fiscally responsible and the public finances are safe in your hands. If you’re Andy Burnham, the goal is to show the public that you’re trying to do something about the rising cost of living – and to convince Labour MPs that they were right to give you the job. But Burnham also has big plans to transform the country and this was a Budget more about tinkering than transformation. Yes, defence will get £5 billion more by letting the National Wealth Fund borrow off the public balance sheet to invest in defence companies.
From our UK edition
30 min listen
Just days after The Sunday Times revealed that five SAS soldiers were sent back into the war zone while under a three-year murder investigation, MPs passed the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, which the SAS Regimental Association has threatened to challenge in the High Court. To understand it's implications, Tim Shipman speaks to Richard Williams, former commanding officer of the SAS, about lawfare, the chain of command and what it means for Britain’s standing with Washington. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Henry Lloyd.
From our UK edition
A week before the budget, and hours after ministers approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field, Andy Burnham faced off with Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions in what James Heale reckons was the PM’s first win in the Commons since taking office. James and Isabel Hardman join Tim Shipman to dispute the score, pick over what Badenoch missed on welfare and immigration, and work out why John Healey’s budget may be smaller than expected.
From our UK edition
Andy Burnham has gone to Scotland, where the SNP annual conference is under way in Aberdeen. In his speech at Labour’s get together in Liverpool, he gave one of the most passionate defences of the Union by a major British politician since the Scottish referendum 12 years ago. Today he delivered a speech on devolution 150 miles away in Lanarkshire. He invited the SNP to join him in pushing power out of the capital and into the regions. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, is also north of the border, urging Burnham to rule out another independence referendum. John Swinney, the SNP leader and First Minister, of course, is busy arguing that if Burnham wants to revisit the Brexit referendum result, the Scots should be allowed to have another go too.
From our UK edition
As Andy Burnham rolls out the red carpet for Volodymyr Zelensky in Downing Street, he has publicly sided with Kyiv against the Trump administration, days after the US President called for Zelensky to be replaced. Noa Hoffman is joined by James Heale and Tim Shipman to weigh up the politics, and to ask whether Ed Miliband’s desire to be seen as a saviour over Israel-Palestine has backfired, with friends of Jonathan Powell, the National Security Adviser, now saying he is likely to quit.
From our UK edition
After last night’s botched coup against the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, and a rather temperate Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons today, James Heale is joined by Isabel Hardman and Tim Shipman to review the events of the last 24 hours.
From our UK edition
It often takes an outsider to see us most clearly. When I had breakfast with the ambassador of an EU country last week he asked me: ‘What is the Burnham government’s foreign policy? Because it seems to me there is only domestic policy conducted on the international stage.’ Keir Starmer and David Lammy’s approach was ‘progressive realism’. Under New Labour, Robin Cook advanced an ‘ethical foreign policy’. Andy Burnham, however, appears to have little interest, leaving the details to Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. As a Labour peer notes: ‘We have Andy’s vibes and Ed’s conscience.
From our UK edition
Labour has held Holborn and St Pancras in the first major electoral test of the post-Starmer era – but what does the result tell us about the state of the left? James Heale is joined by Tim Shipman and More in Common’s Luke Tryl to discuss Andy Burnham’s appeal, Zack Polanski’s problems and whether the Greens have already missed their moment. Plus: are the Conservatives beginning to squeeze Reform, and is two-party politics making a comeback? Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
Kemi Badenoch delivered her Conservative party conference speech in Birmingham this afternoon. Here are fourteen things we learned from her speech: 1) Kemi Badenoch has her tail up Anyone who read my interview with the Conservative leader last week, where she claimed: ‘I get better every day,’ knows that Badenoch is not lacking for confidence, having turned her personal prospects around with a barnstorming speech to the party faithful at last year’s annual conference. Today she seemed confident in herself, her views and the arguments she wants to make — though the delivery was a little less urgent than last year, the pauses too prevalent and the energy a little thin until the final ten minutes. Badenoch’s plan is to remind people of how toxic that 2016-19 period was.
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Kemi Badenoch has just delivered her conference speech, bringing Conservative Party Conference 2026 to a close. She very nearly almost announced the inheritance tax policy many had expected – instead beefing up the Tory offer to homeowners with a pledge to abolish inheritance tax on the family home. Beyond that, it was relatively light on new announcements: Kemi could hardly be accused of ‘policymaxxing’. What was clear from the Leader of the Opposition’s rhetoric, however, was that there is now plenty of clear blue water between the main parties – setting British politics up for an intriguing run-in. Has Kemi finally found ‘the right way’? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Tim Shipman, James Heale and Lara Brown. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
The old jokes are the best. When I arrived in Birmingham on Sunday evening for the Tory party conference, I immediately ran into a former Downing Street bigwig. ‘The Conservative party has two modes – panic and complacency,’ he noted. ‘Last year was panic. This year it’s complacency.’ Twelve months ago, everyone was miserable. Kemi Badenoch’s leadership was on the line and the Tories were on between 17 and 22 per cent in the polls. This year, everyone was delirious at having survived and congratulating themselves on having located a vast political battleground vacated by the leftward-lurching Andy Burnham and the rightward-lurching Reform UK. Badenoch’s personal ratings have soared and the Tories poll… er, between 17 and 22 per cent.
From our UK edition
13 min listen
James Heale is joined by Tim Shipman, Michael Simmons and Lara Brown from the second day of Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. They discuss shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith’s pitch for a low-tax, low-regulation economy, Kemi Badenoch’s new ‘Britannia Shield’ defence proposal and whether the Tories are starting to recover some confidence. As Kemi seeks to assemble a more credible frontbench team, to what extent is this conference the beginning of a genuine Tory revival? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
From our UK edition
34 min listen
James Heale, Tim Shipman and Tali Fraser record live from Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. As we pass the two year mark of Kemi Badenoch's leadership of the Tory Party, the panel discuss whether she has done enough to win voters over and whether the party is ready for an early general election. Did Kemi miss a trick in not pressuring new Prime Minister Andy Burnham for one – and could Kemi survive an election defeat? Plus, the panel answer a variety of audience questions including: how to make Conservatism more attractive to younger people, how much the Manchester City scandal could tarnish Brand Burnham – and whether the pensions triple lock should be abolished. Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
James Heale is joined by Tim Shipman and Liam Halligan, Telegraph columnist and the new director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), to look ahead to Conservative Party conference. Kemi Badenoch’s latest attempt to draw clear dividing lines with Andy Burnham was over a tougher welfare offer aimed at the under-25s – exclusively revealed in an interview with Tim in the Spectator this week. Kemi will hope that this appeals, alongside tougher fiscal restraint and general plain speaking. Plus: how do the Conservatives outflank Reform while seeking to appeal to those in the centre-ground who may have turned to Labour at the next election?
From our UK edition
We are on the home stretch of the party conference season. It’s the turn of the Greens this weekend and Zack Polanski – now a distant 6-1 shot to win the Holborn and St Pancras by-election next week – has given his big speech, promising to keep Andy Burnham’s Labour honest. ‘Vote Green and watch Labour move,’ he cried, citing the government’s shifts on Israel and fossil fuels. Polanski is now the one in the hotseat with the regional broadcast political editors. James Heale is down in Brighton keeping an eye on things and rounds up the best of it here. The Greens, somewhat bizarrely, seem to have briefed that if they can turn 30 per cent of the 2024 Labour vote in the by-election, they would then be just four points behind. ‘This is on a knife edge,’ a source says.
From our UK edition
45 min listen
Suella Braverman joins Tim Shipman to discuss her new memoir Patriot, from growing up with imposter syndrome to her battles inside the Conservative Party and eventual defection to Reform. She reflects on immigration, Brexit and patriotism, her clashes with Rishi Sunak, and explains why she believes she could never work with the Tories again. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
