Tim Shipman is political editor of The Spectator.
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
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.
From our UK edition
For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s political editor Tim Shipman, restaurant critic Angus Colwell and Telegraph associate editor Poppy Coburn. This week: does the country want Kemi Badenoch’s tough love? Ahead of Tory party conference, Tim speaks to the Tory leader about her plans to get Britain working again. She argues that if you can work, you should; young people without a work history could be put onto a six-month ‘get to work’ scheme rather than Universal Credit. Badenoch says the Tories have spent too long worrying about being called the ‘nasty party’ and now need to plant their flag on welfare, the economy and conservative values. But while her personal fortunes have improved, has the Tory brand recovered with her?
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Tim Shipman has interviewed Kemi Badenoch ahead of Tory party conference this weekend. In the interview, the Conservative party leader exclusively reveals the Tories plan to ban benefits to under 25s who have never worked before. For this special episode of Coffee House Shots, here is an extract from the Spectator's Edition podcast, where Tim sat down with the Spectator's Lara Prendergast and Angus Colwell and the Telegraph's Poppy Coburn. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
From our UK edition
Kemi Badenoch, like many in the Labour party, is not sorry to see the back of Keir Starmer. ‘I did not find Starmer an interesting person,’ she says. ‘He never said anything interesting.’ Andy Burnham is a different proposition. ‘Quite interesting,’ she thinks. ‘He has more of a clear sense of who he is politically, which makes him more confident in terms of what he wants to do. But who he is politically is so far removed from who I am politically that I think that there’s a sharper contrast between us.’ We speak in her office in Portcullis House with the Labour conference in full cry in Liverpool. ‘It feels very much like student union people who’ve got older, but they still want to do the stuff that they did in the student union,’ Badenoch says.
From our UK edition
1) He’s the most effective speaker we’ve had in a PM for years I’ve been attending party conferences since 2001 and in that time I’ve heard around 70 leaders’ speeches from all the parties. This was one of the most important and defining – I expect it will remain among the half-dozen most memorable. It was big on heart, rather than brain, at times hugely emotional and strangely moving as Burnham became overcome when discussing the recent death of his father. This was both big and bold and nostalgic but also intimate, quiet, drawing you in, gently elegiac for what has been lost in a way you could appreciate (even if you don’t accept Burnham’s diagnosis of what has gone wrong). I judge speeches on ‘the tingle factor’, whether I get that prickle up my spine.
From our UK edition
22 min listen
Andy Burnham has used his Labour conference speech to set out his clearest vision yet for the country and it was a strikingly ambitious one. Noa Hoffman is joined in Liverpool by Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons to unpack a speech that ranged from a new National Care Service and reform of the pension triple lock to electoral reform, water and Britain’s future relationship with the European Union. How radical is Burnham’s programme in practice and is the ambition matched in the detail? And what was missing from the speech? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
From our UK edition
21 min listen
Live from Labour conference in Liverpool, Noa Hoffman is joined by Tim Shipman and James Heale to discuss the questions Andy Burnham still needs to answer. Can Labour tighten immigration controls while edging closer to Europe? How will Burnham pay for his social care ambitions? And is the party already thinking about an early election... despite what the PM might say. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
25 min listen
Ahead of Labour Party conference, Tim Shipman is joined by former shadow cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth to discuss the mood inside the party, Andy Burnham’s growing authority and whether he could be tempted to call an early general election. They also consider the pressures facing Burnham on tax, welfare, Europe and the North Sea – and why, sooner or later, he will have to start making enemies. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
From our UK edition
Andy Burnham has just ruled out a general election next May. As I wrote in my cover story this week, there are a lot of people at the top of Labour thinking about going to the country but – as I and most of my sources concluded – the polling numbers are just not there and the only meaningful policy freedom the PM would gain would be the ability to put up personal taxation. ‘He’ll raise your taxes to pay for migrants and benefit claimants’ looks like the easiest ‘No’ campaign slogan since ‘Take Back Control’. The Prime Minister argued that calling a snap election would leave the country ‘arguing again amongst ourselves’ Party conferences are never much fun for prime ministers.
From our UK edition
Andy Burnham pitched Britain to the UN this week as an 'honest broker' on artificial intelligence, only for Washington to ask OpenAI and Anthropic to make Britain's AI Security Institute wait its turn. Michael Simmons is joined by James Heale and Tim Shipman to discuss James's column on the backlash, data centres and whether Burnham's Makerfield test will make room for AI innovation.
From our UK edition
After fresh polling from YouGov put the Tories ahead of Reform UK today, the leader of the opposition has set out plans to get people off of unemployment benefits, and limit what successful claimants can spend it on. James Heale is joined by Michael Simmons and Tim Shipman to weigh up the policy proposal, another poll from Survation, and whether Andy Burnham will go to the country for an early election. Produced by Henry Lloyd.
