Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
Is Labour serious about welfare reform? It hasn’t given that impression over the past year, given the flagship welfare reform bill ended up being gutted, largely because the Treasury had decided to use it as a vehicle for a load of blunt cuts, rather than the real – and very costly – business of wholesale
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Andy Burnham, Manchester’s mayor and self-styled champion of the North, is openly flirting with a return to Westminster just days before the Labour Party conference. In a revealing interview, he outlined his ‘Manchesterism’ – a blend of business-friendly socialism and public control of essential services – though what that actually means remains unclear. Typically, he
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Donald Trump might be in the UK for the state visit, but it’s Labour pains that are dominating the headlines and, predictably, there is a typical northern lad who thinks he could be just what the party needs. Despite having made two previous (failed) attempts at the leadership, Andy Burnham is on manoeuvres. He does
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Kemi Badenoch has just skewered Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on the topic of Peter Mandelson’s association with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Badenoch learned from her mistakes last week and devoted all six of her questions to trying to get Mandelson fired as British Ambassador to Washington. She pointed out that the victims
Kemi Badenoch learned from her mistakes at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, and devoted all six of her questions to trying to get Peter Mandelson fired as British Ambassador to Washington. Badenoch devoted all six of her questions to trying to get Peter Mandelson fired as British Ambassador Last week, she tacked on random observations
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Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch faced off in the first Prime Minister’s Questions following summer recess. With the date of the Budget announced that morning, the economy was expected to dominate – which it did, to the surprise of most MPs, who expected Badenoch to attack over the Angela Rayner tax row. The deputy prime
Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer clearly didn’t spend their summer breaks working on their performances at Prime Minister’s Questions. Today’s exchanges between the two leaders fell quickly into the usual meandering grudge match of accusations about blowing up and running down the economy, and ministers resigning or not resigning. Each question was ostensibly about the
Will Keir Starmer’s mini-reshuffle of ministers and key aides solve the Prime Minister’s problems? The Prime Minister has moved Darren Jones from the Treasury to the Cabinet Office in a change widely interpreted as an attempt to sideline Rachel Reeves and boost the government’s ability to deliver on its reforms. Jones was Chief Secretary to
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GCSE results day has brought a mixed picture; the pass rate has fallen, yet the regional gap has reduced and the gender gap is the narrowest it has ever been. Isabel Hardman and Sir Nick Gibb, former Conservative schools minister, join James Heale to discuss education policy, how changing cultural expectations may be helping the
Nicola Sturgeon has all the usual things she wants to achieve in her memoir: rumours to scotch, a legacy to spell out, and so on. But the most important thing to the former first minister seems to be telling her readers that she is in fact not Nicola Sturgeon. The ‘seemingly confident, combative woman who
18 min listen
There has been a drip feed of stories over the past few days from Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir Frankly which hits the shelves this week. In her book, the former First Minister of Scotland covers a slew of topics including SNP infighting and her relationship with the late Alex Salmond, her sexuality and the police probe
Keir Starmer joked at Prime Minister’s Questions today that Tory MPs seemed to be on recess already. But he wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders either, giving automated answers to Kemi Badenoch’s questions about tax and the economy. Having complained volubly about prime ministers not answering the questions he asked as leader of the opposition,
If he were measuring his success at Prime Minister’s Questions purely by avoiding making any senior colleagues cry, Keir Starmer had a reasonably good session today. Rachel Reeves was beaming on the front bench, and next to her Yvette Cooper was joining in with the smiling too. It was the same level of smiling sincerity
The public won’t forgive and nor will I, said Health Secretary Wes Streeting of plans by junior doctors to strike over his refusal to cave to demands for 29 per cent pay rises. Speaking to the Times he said: ‘There are no grounds for strike action now. Resident doctors have just received the highest pay award across the
Given we have known for a good while that Labour thinks the way to save the health service is to move care out of hospitals and into the community, you might have expected today’s NHS ten-year plan to explain how the government is going to do that. The preventive agenda is not a new idea that needs
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Today Wes Streeting – with the help of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves – announced his 10 year plan for curing the NHS. It’s all about creating a ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’, but what does actually mean in practice? Much of the plan was leaked in advance: first, focusing on preventing disease before it becomes too
If you’re looking for an early example of Tom Stuart-Smith’s work, you’d have to go to a car park to find it. The now world-famous landscape designer started his career doing ‘awful supermarket projects’ where ‘landscape was perceived as just something they kind of had to do’. This was in the 1980s: today, if you
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There were extraordinary scenes in PMQs today. Rachel Reeves appeared distraught as the Prime Minister failed to guarantee her security when asked by leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch. It was brutal to watch, as the iron chancellor’s lip quivered and a tear rolled down her cheek. In many ways, you can’t blame her –
Keir Starmer was utterly brutal at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, though towards his own Chancellor, rather than the opposition. He refused to say, when invited by Kemi Badenoch, that Rachel Reeves would be in position until the end of the parliament. Behind him, Reeves looked utterly miserable, to the point that Badenoch highlighted it in
What do we really need to change about the NHS? Later this week we will finally get the NHS plan from Health Secretary Wes Streeting which, like all the other big reforms before, promises to make the health service fit for the future and focused on patients. Streeting has been more articulate than many previous
