After Priti Patel was knocked out in the first round of voting, five candidates for leader now remain. They are, in alphabetical order: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat. Tory MPs will cast their ballots on Tuesday to decide the final four, ahead of two candidates going to members for
It has been a weekend of riots. They began on Friday night in Sunderland, and were repeated in Bristol, Stoke, Hull, Belfast, Leeds, Manchester, Blackpool and Liverpool on Saturday. People threw bricks and bottles at the police, who put up their shields and wielded batons in response. In Hull, a Greggs and a Specsavers were
Keir Starmer has appointed his cabinet, but who are the men and women who will be running Britain? The Spectator‘s writers, including Katy Balls, Kate Andrews and James Heale give the run down on Labour’s top team: Chancellor: Rachel Reeves Kate Andrews: It is not strictly true to say that the government is out of money.
Labour has won an historic landslide in yesterday’s general election. The latest forecasts expect Keir Starmer to come to power with 410 seats, with the Tories reduced to a rump of 131. North of the border the SNP have faced disaster and are predicted to retain just six seats. Perhaps the story of the night,
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed his cabinet after winning a landslide in the general election. Rachel Reeves has been announced as the first ever female Chancellor and Angela Rayner is deputy prime minister. With one seat left to count, Labour has won 412 seats, and the Tories 121. Starmer will enter government on a
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have concluded the final head-to-head leaders’ debate before polling day. The two leaders had fiery clashes on tax, welfare, trust in politics and immigration. Follow the action as it happened on The Spectator’s live blog:
Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer, John Swinney and Ed Davey have gone head-to-head on the BBC’s Question Time leaders’ special tonight. Follow the action, as it happened, on our Coffee House live blog:
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer both faced interviews with Beth Rigby and audience questions in tonight’s Sky News leaders’ debate. Follow action, as it happened, on our Coffee House live blog:
Nigel Farage traded blows with Labour’s Angela Rayner and the Tories’ Penny Mordaunt in tonight’s seven-way BBC election debate. Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations in France early was also a big talking point in the debate which involved Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn, Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru and
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer faced off in the first head-to-head TV debate of the election. Topics included the NHS, the tax burden, foreign policy and immigration. Read the analysis and highlights below:
Labour have selected the bulk of their candidates for the next election but the Tories are still a while way away from that yet. Below is a list of all the MPs from the two main parties who have said they will quit their current seat at the next election. Conservative MPs (78): Labour MPs
Labour has won the Blackpool by-election as the Tory party also performed badly in local election results overnight, losing 280 seats so far. Here are the results: Labour: 736 seats (+115) Tories: 283 seats (-280) Liberal Democrats: 242 seats (+43) Green: 77 seats (+35) Reform: 0 seats Some Tories will be breathing a sigh of relief
Last week I stood here to announce the ending of the cooperation agreement between the SNP and the Greens: the Bute House Agreement, and that the SNP would seek to govern as a minority government. I made that decision as leader of the SNP because I believed the Bute House Agreement was the right one
Tonight saw the second reading of the Sunak administration’s flagship Tobacco and Vapes Bill. As expected the government easily won the vote by 383 votes to 67, thanks to Labour’s support of the legislation. However some 59 Tories chose to cast a vote of protest against plans to introduce a generational ban on smoking, with
The Princess of Wales this evening revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer, and that she is being treated with chemotherapy. Read her full video message here: I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you personally for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst I have been recovering
Jeremy Hunt’s Budget was short on surprises. The Chancellor cut National Insurance for workers by another 2p in a bid to address the Tories’ poll slide ahead of the upcoming general election. Hunt also announced a shake-up to child benefit charges, said that ‘non-dom’ tax status would be scrapped and said that alcohol and fuel
It’s not looking good for Lindsay Hoyle, with MPs continuing to sign Will Wragg’s Early Day Motion of no-confidence in the Speaker. The current number now stands at 93 signatories – more than one in eight MPs who sit in the House of 650 Members. Among them are 47 Tories, 42 SNP, three Plaid Cymru and
The Rwanda Bill tomorrow gets its Third Reading in the House of Commons. But before that comes the committee stage, with MPs on the right of the Conservative MPs putting down amendments to the Bill. Some are warning that unless the Bill is amended to make it tougher today then they will either abstain or
According to the polls, the Conservative party are heading for a landslide defeat at the next election. The Daily Telegraph this week published a mammoth YouGov survey of 14,000 people which forecasts that the Tories will retain just 169 seats, while Labour will sweep to power with 385 – giving Sir Keir Starmer a 120-seat majority. This
Fourteen months after Liz Truss left Downing Street, her list of resignation honours has today finally been finally published. It contains eleven names, three of whom receive peerages and will take up seats in the House of Lords. Four of the recipients are, like Truss, sitting Conservative MPs in the House of Commons. Here is
