Tim Shipman is political editor of The Spectator.
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Three big stories for James Heale and Tim Shipman to pick over today: Andy Burnham’s return, the Donald Trump that refuses to go away, and the continued fallout of Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform. This afternoon we found out that former Labour minister Andrew Gwynne is on the brink of standing down as an MP,
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Keir Starmer scored a rare win at PMQs, talking tough on Trump in light of the President’s escalating rhetoric on Greenland and the Chagos Islands. Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on foreign affairs and Britain’s relationship with the US president, and Starmer departed from his usual caution to strike a notably firmer tone. What
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Donald Trump has thrown another diplomatic hand grenade. This weekend, the President threatened sweeping tariffs on countries backing Greenland’s independence – a move that has rattled European capitals and reignited questions about America’s global strategy. Is this about Arctic security, rare earth minerals, or something more personal? As tensions rise, how should Britain respond? Can
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What a week. Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform yesterday electrified Westminster and the fallout is still spreading. When our editor asked everyone at The Spectator whether Badenoch or Farage was stronger as a result of the Tory leader’s decision to pre-empt the deal and kick him out, I answered that they both were in a better
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Yesterday was a breathless day in Westminster. The defection of Robert Jenrick spawned plenty of headlines and even more memes. But now that the dust has settled, how has the news been received? Was it a total victory for Reform, and evidence that they are slowly swallowing up the Tory party, or is Kemi still
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As the world watches events in Iran, and wonders whether the US will intervene, the Spectator’s cover this week examines ‘British complicity in Tehran’s terror’. When thinking about what could happen next in the crisis, there is a false dichotomy presented between regime survival and revolution; the reality is more complicated, though there is no doubt
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Robert Jenrick has sensationally defected to Reform. After a day that started with his sacking from the Conservatives – over plotting to reject – continued with the will-he-won’t-he drama of whether Farage would accept him as a new Reform member this afternoon; it ends with a press conference welcoming him to Farage’s gang. So what
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Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the Tory whip and suspended his party membership. In a video on X she claims, ‘I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’. The Tories compiled a
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At a Christmas party I witnessed a showdown between two Labour movers and shakers, one a devoted Starmerite, the other an unrepentant Blairite, over whether the Prime Minister can turn things around. They didn’t agree on much – Keir Starmer’s vision or lack of it, Europe, immigration, you name it. When I commented to another
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How many Tories is too many? That’s the question Westminster is asking after the unveiling of Reform’s latest defector. Nadhim Zahawi, Boris Johnson’s brief-lived Chancellor of the Exchequer, is Nigel Farage’s latest recruit. He told journalists that the UK had reached a ‘dark and dangerous’ moment, and that the country needed ‘a glorious revolution’. But
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Britain’s mums are backing Nigel Farage. One in five Mumsnet users intend to vote for Reform at the next general election, the first time a party other than Labour has topped its poll. Having been more negative towards Farage and the right in the past, why are its politically engaged users changing their minds? Are
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Keir Starmer began the year saying that any minute he wasn’t focused on the cost of living would be a minute wasted. Then he spent the first week of the political year engaged in foreign affairs and yet another U-turn. While Downing Street wants to talk about ‘the year of proof’ for its reforms of
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Another year, another U-turn. We expect that the Labour government will be forced to climb down on forthcoming increases to the business rates bills faced by pubs in England. This comes after ferocious industry backlash, spearheaded by figures such as Tom Kerridge, who has been out in the media this week drawing attention to the
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Can Farage plot a route to Number 10, asks Tim Shipman in our cover article this week. He might be flanked by heavyweights – such as his head of policy Zia Yusuf and Conservative Party defector Danny Kruger MP – but he will need a lot more people to pull off his biggest upset for
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18 min listen
2025 was the easy part for Reform. If they win the election, however, how do they actually govern? In The Spectator this week, Tim Shipman writes about the party’s plans to tackle Whitehall bloat, bypass the Lords and restore the authority of the Prime Minister over the various institutions of state. The man tasked with
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16 min listen
It is the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the new year – and Keir Starmer returns to the Commons already under pressure. With major international crises unfolding, Kemi Badenoch used PMQs to question whether the Prime Minister is present, engaged or in control. In response, Starmer just seemed narky. As the exchange descended into rows
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As he made his way to lunch on Monday, Danny Kruger, the former Tory MP who defected to Reform last year, could be seen clutching a well-thumbed copy of John Campbell’s biography of Lord Haldane, one of the forgotten heroes of British politics. Most British politicians in search of heroes look to Churchill or Attlee
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From ‘regime change’ in Venezuela to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Labour government is trying to navigate complicated situations across foreign affairs. Having appeared to weather the domestic reaction to the situation in Venezuela, Keir Starmer is in Paris today to discuss Ukraine alongside Chancellor Merz and Presidents Macron and Zelensky. This is undoubtably important
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It’s our first podcast back in the office of 2026 – and the year has started with a bang, of course, after the successful US operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela. He will appear in a Manhattan court later today. This throws up all sorts of problems for Labour and the left more broadly
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Contemplating a new year always raises questions. Was there a Third Protocol? What was wrong with Oral-A? Can Keir Starmer survive 2026 as prime minister? It is the biggest question in politics this year and the fact that it does not have an easy answer illustrates the mess Starmer has got himself into over the
