Jonathan ashworth

Friday

Katy Balls

Labour Together? Party morale & the threat of Reform

11 min listen

Former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth and Patrick Maguire from The Times join Katy Balls for her penultimate Coffee House Shots podcast as The Spectator‘s political editor. Since losing his seat at last year’s general election, Ashworth has been CEO of Labour Together – but not for much longer as he exclusively reveals on the podcast. Less than two weeks to go from the local elections, and only a few months away from marking one year in power, what is morale like in the Labour Party? While Patrick reflects on who might, or might not, be feeling happy, Ashworth provides more reasons for Labour supporters to feel bullish – particularly when thinking about the

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Coffee House Shots live: the Starmer supremacy

47 min listen

Join Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Kate Andrews, along with special guest Jonathan Ashworth, for a live edition of Coffee House Shots recorded earlier this week. They dissect the first few weeks of the new Labour government and look ahead to the policies autumn, and the budget, might bring. Having surprisingly lost his seat at the election, how blunt will Ashworth be? The team also answer a range of audience questions, including: how big of a welfare crisis is the government facing? Would – and should – they reform the NHS? And could the challenge Reform UK poses to traditional parties continue to grow?  Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy. 

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Does Keir Starmer really oppose vaccine passports?

As opposition grows to government plans to introduce vaccine passports, not even the Prime Minister appears keen to defend the proposals. In Monday’s press conference, Johnson refused to be drawn into a conversation about the plans and wouldn’t even say whether there would be a Commons vote on the policy. However, government figures suggest the proposals will be put to a vote should they be given the green light in government. So, how will Keir Starmer vote when the time comes? Today Labour have suggested they will oppose the plans for domestic vaccine passports in their current form. A Labour source told Politico they were unlikely to support the plans

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Transport Secretary’s Spanish self-isolation shows ‘risk for everyone’

Dominic Raab – ‘Swift decisive action’ needed on new quarantine rules The government updated its rules on foreign travel yesterday so that anybody returning to the UK from Spain has to self-isolate for 14 days. The new guidance reflects the discovery of 971 new coronavirus cases in Spain in one day, prompting fears of a second wave in the country. Sophy Ridge interviewed the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and asked him to justify the rapid imposition of the new quarantine guidance: SR: Why was the decision taken with so little notice? DR: …We took the decision as swiftly as we could. We can’t make apologies for doing so. We must