All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
12 min listen
Rishi Sunak has spent his first day in office appointing his new Cabinet. As the Prime Minister vowed to fix the ‘mistakes’ of his predecessor’s administration – who’s in and who’s out? Katy Balls and James Forsyth discuss. Produced by Natasha Feroze.
In the coming weeks we’re going to learn a lot more about what went so badly wrong inside Liz Truss’s government. Indeed, my colleague James Heale is co-writing the book on it. As Rishi Sunak heads into No. 10 in a bid to undo some of the damage (‘mistakes were made…’ he said on the
Russia is peddling implausible tales of Ukrainian ‘dirty bombs’. Kyiv and the West are embarked on a campaign to counter this propaganda, and again the talk is of the risk of Moscow using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine. And that’s the point. First of all, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu broke months of relative
Rishi Sunak is Britain’s third prime minister this year. On Tuesday, Sunak assembled a new top team with the hope of unifying the fractured party. The cabinet departures included Jacob Rees-Mogg among those heading to the back benches. As for the arrivals, Suella Braverman is back in the role of Home Secretary just under a
Unlike Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak didn’t skirt around the circumstances of the changing of the guard in No 10. His address on arriving in Downing Street as the new Prime Minister was very to the point. He paid tribute to his predecessor’s ‘noble aim’ of wanting to improve growth and create change, but added: ‘But
Is Europe’s chilly winter destined to become another Millennium bug – a much-feared disaster that never transpires? Only a few weeks ago wholesale gas prices were surging, leading to predictions of blackouts, rationing and people unable to heat their homes. Throughout August, analysts produced forecasts (extrapolated from wholesale gas prices) which showed eye-watering energy prices
Good morning. I have just been to Buckingham Palace and accepted His Majesty The King’s invitation to form a government in his name. It is only right to explain why I am standing here as your new Prime Minister. Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis. The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putin’s
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Katy Balls and James Forsyth discuss from the rooftop of Parliament the key takeaways from Liz Truss’ departure speech. How does she reflect on her time in office? Produced by Natasha Feroze.
Liz Truss’s final words as Prime Minister were not just an attempt to set out what she sees as being the ‘legacy’ from her 49 days in power. They were also the outgoing Conservative leader’s last chance to argue that what she had done was in the national interest, rather than the chaotic experiment that
Joe Biden, the man whose diet seems to consist of ice cream and gaffes, has done it again. Having managed to irritate both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss with his European interventions, ‘sleepy Joe’ seems determined to make it a hattrick of Tory premiers. The septuagenarian president was addressing a Washington event on Monday evening to
A penny for the thoughts of Emmanuel Macron on Saturday when it seemed Boris Johnson might once more occupy No. 10. Hasta la Vista, baby. Oh Mon Dieu, non! Macron’s opinion of the former PM is on record, and the French in general were aghast at the prospect of Boris back in charge. One newspaper
As Liz Truss prepares to leave Downing Street after 47 days in power, the PM’s reputation is in tatters. Seeing out the reigning monarch after seventy years, spooking the financial markets like a distant hyena terrifies a family of meerkats, and, incredibly, tanking the Tories’ poll rating to its lowest ever level at the same
On this morning’s Coffee House Shots, Fraser Nelson returned to the phrase he coined last Wednesday: ‘the muppet premium’. This premium, he said, summed up the additional borrowing costs markets were now demanding from the British government, having lost credibility for responsible and sustainable financing. Are there early signs that soon-to-be prime minister Rishi Sunak
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We have a new leader of the Conservative party. After Penny Mordaunt dropped out of the race just seconds before the deadline, Rishi Sunak will become the next prime minister. But he inherits a disunited party, war in Ukraine and a huge economic mountain to climb. What comes next? James Forsyth and Katy Balls discuss.
Rishi Sunak’s first order of business will be restoring stability to the government and, thereafter, regaining the confidence of the markets. But the incoming prime minister will eventually have to confront a looming threat of even greater import: Scottish independence. Lawyers for the UK and Scottish governments are currently battling over the matter before the
What is Rishi Sunak going to do as prime minister? We are still little the wiser, even after he addressed the nation from CCHQ with an extremely short and vague statement. Without managing to look into the camera filming him, he promised that he would bring the party and the country back together, and paid
It’s a rather strange leadership contest when the winner reaches the end without having said a single word in public. That’s what has happened in the case of the new Tory leader – and soon-to-be prime minister – Rishi Sunak. After Boris Johnson decided not to enter the race and Penny Mordaunt failed to reach
Well, good luck, Rishi. You’ll need it – and not just because, as backbench Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope put it this morning, the Conservative party has become ‘ungovernable’. The whole job of prime minister has become impossible. There are too many demands on the person who holds that position, and too much blame placed
In the run up to China’s National Party Congress, there were whispers that a high level official in state security had been wiretapping the President. After all, why else would Sun Lijun, previously the vice-minister of public security, have been sentenced to death for taking bribes that others got much lighter sentences for? But if
Penny Mordaunt has conceded defeat in the Tory leadership race. Here is the full text of her statement: Our party is our membership. Whether we are elected representatives, activists, fundraisers or supporters. We all have a stake in who our leader is. These are unprecedented times. Despite the compressed timetable for the leadership contest it
Rishi Sunak has been elected leader of the Tory party and will be the next prime minister after Penny Mordaunt pulled out of the race. By the 2 m. deadline, 197 Tory MPs – half of the party – had come out for him. Just 27 had gone public for Mordaunt: her team said that anonymous
After Just Stop Oil’s recent attack on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery, the group has become emboldened by the international publicity their actions have earned. This is clearly the explanation for today’s field trip to Madame Tussauds where, after buying tickets like good little anti-capitalists, two of its activists covered a waxwork model of
More than half of Tory MPs now back Rishi Sunak in the race to become prime minister. Penny Mordaunt remains in the contest, but she has until 2 p.m. to persuade 100 Tory MPs to support her leadership bid. Here is who is backing whom: Rishi Sunak (197) 1. Crispin Blunt 2. Julie Marson 3. Richard
Given how inflation has taken off and sent real incomes into steep decline it is remarkable that Britain is not already in recession. It seemed that we were heading that way – until the Office for National Statistics revised upwards economic growth in the second quarter of this year from minus 0.1 per cent to
12 min listen
After Boris pulled out of the leadership race last night, all eyes are on Rishi Sunak who could be Prime Minister by lunchtime. Can Rishi rescue the Conservatives? Kate Andrews speaks to Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Natasha Feroze.
‘At least I’ve been prime minister’ – those were the reported words of Liz Truss on realising that she had presided over so much chaos that she’d have to step down after just six weeks in office. It is most unlikely that our next prime minister would react to catastrophic failure in such a manner.
For the last few days and weeks, the political news from Britain has been unremittingly grim. But Rishi Sunak in No10 represents a new start – but before he starts, it is worth considering the case for optimism for his premiership. Here goes:- At a time when market-literacy is at a premium, we’ll have the
Will Rishi Sunak be prime minister by teatime? After Boris Johnson announced that he would not enter the contest after all, the chances of a coronation have risen. Penny Mordaunt has 25 MPs publicly backing her – a long way short of the 100 required to make it onto the ballot. However, she still has an opportunity
One of the quaint superstitions of the moment is a belief that our political dysfunction has a ready solution. The government stumbles from one crisis to another but things will pick up once Liz Truss is gone. Rishi Sunak warned that she would fail and so he is best placed to succeed her. He will
Once again, 357-odd Conservative MPs have complete control over what happens next in this country. There are three questions that each of them will be urgently considering. One is: what’s best for the country? The second is: what’s best for the Conservative party? The third is: what’s best for me personally? It will not have
18 min listen
Kate Andrews, James Forsyth and Katy Balls discuss the surprise withdrawal of Boris Johnson from the Conservative leadership race.
Does Nadhim Zahawi have the worst judgement in Tory politics? As recently as last year, the man could do no wrong: the boosterish vaccines minister who impressed at education, winning fans with his back story and media savvy. Yet since then, the millionaire pollster’s winning touch seems to have deserted him. Indeed, Zahawi has been