Tim Shipman is political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
10 min listen
This is your evening local elections update delivered by James Heale, Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman – all in just 10 minutes. As results come in across the country, they take each party in turn. Have the Greens done as well as we all thought they would? Is this proof that Reform have not reached their peak? Can Labour recover from this total drubbing? And should the Tories be – quietly – pleased with themselves?
From our UK edition
33 min listen
It’s results day, and Nigel Farage is the local elections winner – again. A wave of teal has swept the country, stealing Labour seats from Hartlepool to Havering. This election was sold by insurgent parties as a referendum on Keir Starmer and the story of Labour’s election so far is that they’re haemorrhaging votes on all sides – including to the Tories in Westminster. So what can we interpret so far? Will Starmer get the message and will the herd move against him? Michael Gove speaks to Tim Shipman, James Heale and Charlotte Pickles, chief executive of thinktank Re:State, at this morning’s Coffee House Shots breakfast briefing.
From our UK edition
35 min listen
This week: Lara Pendergast is joined by Tim Shipman, Lionel Barber and Alice Loxton, author of Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen. They unpack Michael Gove’s cover piece which asks whether the local elections will push Labour further to the left. As the Greens threaten Labour in its metropolitan heartlands and Reform eats into its working-class vote, is Keir Starmer facing a battle for the soul of his party? They also consider the collapse of the political centre, the weakness of Britain’s current leadership class, and why being ‘not Keir Starmer’ may not be enough. Also this week: King Charles’s diplomatic triumph in Washington.
From our UK edition
40 min listen
It’s polling day! Tim and James take the opportunity to go through their favourite political books ever, fiction and non-fiction. They discuss the books that have shaped their understanding of politics and make the case for the top spot. Is your favourite on the list? Have you read their number one? And which rankings would you dispute? They discuss with Megan McElroy. If you enjoy Coffee House Shots, you can join Tim Shipman and James Heale live as the election results roll in. Will Starmer survive the night? Are Reform and the Greens about to redraw the political map? And what happens next? Along with a panel of familiar faces and special guests, get the only analysis you’ll need as the political fallout begins. Watch live on Friday at 3 p.m.
From our UK edition
18 min listen
As voters prepare to go to the polls in a set of local elections that could redraw the political map, we examine the ‘outsiders’ on today’s episode – starting with the Greens. After Zack Polanski’s grilling on the Today programme, are the Greens facing the same scrutiny that once engulfed Labour under Jeremy Corbyn? Also on the podcast: Tim writes a letter to Britain’s aspiring prime ministers. What does Keir Starmer still lack? Does Andy Burnham have a plan beyond Manchesterism? And why do so many politicians seem to hate politics? Noa Hoffman discusses with Tim Shipman and James Heale.
From our UK edition
Dear wannabe leaders of Britain. What a lot of you there are! I’ve been writing about leadership and the craft of politics for 25 years and I’m sick of watching the same mistakes repeated. I’m keen to help. So listen up Nigel, Kemi, Zack, Ed, Ed, Andy, Angela and Wes – and you Keir, it’s never too late to learn. 1) TL;DR: If you have no time for impertinent journalists, here’s the executive summary. You need a plan, plus strategy and tactics to deliver it. You need a narrative to explain it to voters. You need the charisma and application to take your party, the civil service and the country with you. And you need to build a team to do the bits that you cannot accomplish alone.
From our UK edition
12 min listen
The local elections are nearly upon us. Political editor Tim Shipman and deputy political editor James Heale bring you the one-stop shop podcast with everything you need to know ahead of the day. What could happen to Keir Starmer, what will a really bad day look like for Labour, and is the political map about to be redrawn? If you enjoy Coffee House Shots, you can join Tim Shipman and James Heale live as the election results roll in. Will Starmer survive the night? Are Reform and the Greens about to redraw the political map? And what happens next? Along with a panel of familiar faces and special guests, get the only analysis you’ll need as the political fallout begins. Watch live on Friday at 3 p.m. here, and tap the bell now to be notified in advance.
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer has now been Prime Minister for one year and 300 days, which puts him 43rd in the list of Britain’s longest-serving prime ministers. Whether he survives the seven weeks (otherwise known as ‘a single Truss’) he needs at the helm to overtake the Earl of Aberdeen will be shaped, in part, by the local election results next week. Those who have spent much time on the doorstep will know that Starmer is personally political kryptonite for many voters MPs are in recess but as they pound the streets and bang on doors, they know these may be the most significant local elections for a generation. By next Friday, we will have much more idea what fate – and the electorate – has in store for our political class.
From our UK edition
16 min listen
Does Keir Starmer have confidence in Rachel Reeves? Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on his Chancellor’s future at PMQs – and he declined to answer, twice. Westminster (and Twitter) is now awash with reshuffle rumours. No 10 has since issued a denial, but the damage may already be done, raising a familiar question: is Keir Starmer just bad at politics? With recess looming and Labour braced for a battering at the local elections, Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman join Megan McElroy to discuss.
When Morgan McSweeney concluded his evidence on Tuesday to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee about the Mandelson affair, a senior Labour figure remarked: ‘What really did we learn from all this? That Keir made a bad decision, wants someone else to blame and didn’t really know what was going on in his own government. Fancy that!’ The fact that 14 Labour MPs voted to refer the Prime Minister to the Privileges Committee (the body which forced Boris Johnson from the political stage) – and a total of 53 recorded no vote in his defence – is far from a ringing endorsement of his leadership. But the significance of the Mandelson hearings has been misunderstood.
From our UK edition
18 min listen
It’s a blockbuster day in parliament today. To kick things off, we had Philip Barton pleading ignorance; to close the proceedings tonight we have a vote on a possible Privileges Committee probe. But in between we have Morgan McSweeney, the longtime bete noire of the Labour party left, giving testimony on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as British ambassador. McSweeney pushed hard for Mandy to be given the gig: a decision which he said in his opening statement to the Foreign Affairs Committee was a ‘serious error’. However, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff denied pressuring Foreign Office officials to clear the appointment ‘at all costs’.
From our UK edition
King Charles is about to travel to Washington to visit President Trump. The brief? Fix the strained relationship. No pressure! Can royal diplomacy steady relations? Will the trip be awkward given Trump's recent words on Starmer, Chagos, The Falklands, and Canada? Does the King have what it takes to navigate such a diplomatic minefield? Elsewhere, Morgan McSweeney will appear before MPs tomorrow to explain his actions relating to the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States. Given he's already said he doesn't recognise portrayals of himself in the media, is he going to come out swinging? Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss.
From our UK edition
Politics has calmed down again after a week of rare frenzy, even by the standards of the past decade. Next week promises a few more dramas before MPs head into recess for the local elections, which once more look like they could be the most consequential for a generation. Sir Philip Barton, Olly Robbins’s predecessor as top mandarin at the Foreign Office, is giving evidence at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to the foreign affairs select committee, with Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, also appearing on the same day. Barton is bound to be asked about how much pressure he was under to clear the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US and in what ways he had to lean on the Cabinet Office even to get the vetting under way.
From our UK edition
The long-debated assisted dying bill is expected to fail in the House of Lords today – described by the bill's leading advocate Lord Falconer as failing 'not on its merits' but 'due to procedural wrangling'. Natasha Feroze speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale about whether that is a fair description of the bill. Plus the Telegraph investigation into Attorney General Lord Hermer's previous roles taking legal action against British troops who served in Iraq and what this means for his suitability to his role in government.
From our UK edition
19 min listen
Somewhere in the documents surrounding Peter Mandelson’s ambassadorial appointment, the Spectator's political editor Tim Shipman reveals, is a text Keir Starmer sent the night before the announcement. ‘You’ll be brilliant in challenging circumstances,’ he told the Prince of Darkness. ‘And after many years of our discussions, we get to work together side by side. I really look forward to that.’ The message was leaked after a week in which the Prime Minister’s relationship with senior civil servants has collapsed. Tim says Starmer’s ‘apparent incomprehension of the very process he advocates has led officials to conclude he is no better than the predecessor he most deplores – Boris Johnson’. Has Starmer become the very thing he sought to destroy?
From our UK edition
Somewhere in the vast array of documents the Cabinet Office has gathered on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador in Washington, there is a text message which Keir Starmer sent the night before he made the announcement. ‘You’ll be brilliant in challenging circumstances,’ he told Mandelson. ‘And after many years of our discussions, we get to work together side by side. I really look forward to that.’ The message was leaked after one of Starmer’s most difficult weeks in charge, a week which senior civil servants believe proves, once and for all, that the Prime Minister himself will never be brilliant in challenging circumstances.
From our UK edition
15 min listen
'The most gripping testimony' since Dominic Cummings which could prove 'extraordinary and quietly devastating' for Keir Starmer. That's the verdict of the Spectator's political editor Tim Shipman following sacked Foreign Office chief Sir Olly Robbins's testimony today before the Foreign Affairs Committee. Tim and former FCDO mandarin Ameer Kotecha join James Heale to explain why the hearing over the Mandelson appointment was so important, the questions the session has raised – and the holes in the story that still remain. Produced by Megan McElroy and Patrick Gibbons.
From our UK edition
The government keeps telling us that they are desperate for economic growth and keen to attract overseas investment in UK plc. But a case at the High Court last week casts some doubt over that. It all goes back to a case brought by Richard Desmond, the owner of the Express newspapers (and retired pornographer), who sued the Gambling Commission over their decision in 2022 to award the National Lottery licence to Allwyn. Allwyn is a company owned by Karel Komarek, a Czech businessman with interests around the world. They’re the biggest lottery operator in Europe and have the licence to operate in the US states of Illinois and Michigan. Desmond's case was that he should have been awarded the licence, not Allwyn. He lost and now faces legal bills of £70 million.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
Westminster is braced ahead of two key interventions in the Mandelson scandal. This afternoon, the prime minister will give a statement in which we understand he will convey his ‘anger’ at being kept in the dark about Peter Mandelson’s (failed) vetting process. Then tomorrow morning, we are expecting to hear Olly Robbins’s side of the story when he appears in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Whose testimony will be the most compelling? Will it be the case – as we expect – that Mandelson’s was a political appointment which the Foreign Office was under orders to push through, despite what skeletons might be in his closet? Tim Shipman speaks to James Heale. Produced by Megan McElroy and Oscar Edmondson.
I have just been contacted by a source who knows much more about what happened with Peter Mandelson’s vetting. It supports the case that I made in my summary of the case last night and Sam Coates made in his thread yesterday that the crucial decision was Keir Starmer’s political decision to appoint him. In essence, Oliver Robbins was rubber stamping a decision which had already been made. Things are much less clear cut than Downing Street has been claiming for the last three days I have heard too from an ally of Mandelson who believes Robbins’ dismissal was ‘egregious’ for exactly the reasons which follow. Some in Whitehall naturally objected to a political appointment from the outset but by no means everyone in Whitehall did so.
