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
Tonight, 125 MPs voted in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza, by way of an amendment to the King’s Speech. Here is the full list of the 56 Labour MPs who disagree with Keir Starmer, and backed a ceasefire. The ten that have ‘left the frontbench’ are italicised.
Keir Starmer continues to face significant pressure to call for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict over Gaza. A third of all Labour MPs have either said they want a ceasefire or signed a Commons motion calling for one, out of a current total of 198 Labour members in the Commons. Below is The Spectator’s
This open letter, signed by Simon Sebag Montefiore and others, was first published in the ‘Chronicle for Higher Education’. It has been reproduced in full below. Every Tisha B’av, the national day of communal mourning, Jews read liturgy recounting the horrors of our slaughtered ancestors throughout history and around the world. Every year, our blood
Thank you, Akshata, for that introduction, and thank you for always being there for me. My wife: truly the best long-term decision for a brighter future, I ever made. I have been blessed in my life. I have a wonderful wife and two daughters who make me proud every single day. And I was also
Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester will be scrapped. The Prime Minister said he was ending the ‘long-running saga’ and vowed to invest the money saved – £36 billion – ‘in hundreds of new transport and infrastructure’ projects. The PM also used his Tory conference speech to unveil a
And just like that it’s day three of the Conservative party conference in Manchester! With one full day left, there’s plenty to get stuck into. Today’s highlights include speeches by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Over on the fringe circuit there’s a range of interesting events and The Spectator hosts its
It’s day two of the Conservative party conference in Manchester and attendees are shaking off last night’s merriment to get stuck into today’s agenda. Today’s highlights include speeches by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, while over on the fringe circuit there’s a range of interesting events covering themes from education, Ukraine and
It’s the first day of the annual Conservative party conference in Manchester. Grant Shapps, who is making his first major speech since being promoted to Defence Secretary, is the headline act on the main stage. Here are the rest of the highlights: Main agenda – from 14:00: 1400: Greg Hands MP, Chairman of the Conservative
The Conservative party conference in Manchester is something of a political version of the Edinburgh festival: you go for the fringes, not the main events, and there’s no end of variety. The Spectator is hosting a packed and entertaining schedule of fringe events – and a famously un-crashable party. All our events are free but require
Labour leader Keir Starmer’s reshuffle has now finished. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been moved from her current berth, shadowing the Cabinet Office to Levelling Up – marking something of a promotion for Rayner. Lisa Nandy, however, has been given a large demotion from shadow Levelling Up minister to shadow cabinet minister for international
Nigel Farage’s bank account with Coutts was closed earlier this year. Here is the bank’s dossier, obtained by Farage using a subject access request, that reveals why: Item 1: Personal data extracted from minutes from Wealth Reputational Risk Committee on 17th November 2022 Content • Seeking approval to continue the relationship with Nigel Farage (NF)
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has released an 11-minute audio message after leading a march on Moscow. Here is an edited transcript of what he said: The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) is probably the most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, and possibly in the world. (It is made up
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, has left Rostov-on-Don and ended the armed insurrection against Vladimir Putin. After one of the most extraordinary days in Russian history, he said he marched within 125 miles of Moscow but said he decided to go no further to avoid bloodshed. Putin, who had ordered his
Today, MPs will get the chance to debate and vote on the Privileges Committee report on Boris Johnson. This will not be whipped by the government, allowing Tory MPs to vote how they wish. So far more than a dozen of Johnson’s supporters in parliament have expressed public criticism of the report but some stop
This morning the Privileges Committee published their findings of their investigation into Boris Johnson’s conduct in the wake of the partygate scandal. They found that Johnson had misled the House of Commons and said that, had he not resigned as an MP, they would have recommended a 90-day suspension for him. As part of their
On 12 June, Carla Foster, 44, was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment at Stoke on Trent crown court for aborting her unborn baby using abortion pills after the legal cut-off point of 24 weeks. Here are the remarks made by the judge, the Hon. Mr Justice Pepperall, during her sentencing:
Boris Johnson has announced that he is resigning from Parliament ‘at least for now’, after the Privileges Committee recommended his suspension as an MP for ten days. The Committee had been investigating whether the former PM misled the Commons about parties in Downing Street. Now that he has stepped down, Boris will trigger a by-election in
