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.
The Tory leadership contest is looking decidedly sedate compared with the ructions in the Labour party this morning. But tomorrow the 1922 Committee Executive will meet to discuss the timetable and rules for the battle to replace David Cameron as Tory leader and Prime Minister. As I report in the Observer today, senior Tories are
With the sacking of Hilary Benn from the Shadow Cabinet, we have reached open hostilities in the Labour party. The former Shadow Foreign Secretary has just told the Andrew Marr Show that there is ‘never an ideal time’ and that Jeremy Corbyn is a ‘good and decent man, but he is not a leader’. The
Jeremy Corbyn is giving a speech this morning about Labour’s response to the EU referendum. Rumours have been sweeping the party overnight that the Labour leader will use the event to step down and hand over the reins to John McDonnell, who has been on manoeuvres for months. But aides deny that this will happen
In the past few minutes, two Labour MPs – Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey – have submitted a motion of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn. This is not a surprise given how angry the parliamentary party was after last night’s referendum results in its heartlands, but it now depends on whether their parliamentary colleagues have
As Katy reported earlier, Labour has prepared a script that attempts to exonerate Jeremy Corbyn for the party’s terrible night in its heartlands in this referendum. I have now been leaked that script, which MPs are expected to use from 6am, and it makes rather entertaining reading. The best line is the following: ‘Jeremy Corbyn
As reported yesterday on Coffee House, MPs have been incredibly frustrated by the response of parliamentary spending watchdog Ipsa to their requests for extra security measures following the murder of Jo Cox. This afternoon Ipsa’s chair Ruth Evans has written to MPs saying the regulator will ‘review and accelerate’ the process of approving applications for
For someone who has spent his whole life building up to the referendum, Nigel Farage has had a rather patchy campaign. On the one hand, he has performed reasonably well in his TV question time slot, exceeding the expectations of those in the Leave camp who were dismayed that ITV had signed up the Ukip
Exasperated MPs have called for their security to be taken out of the hands of their expenses watchdog Ipsa after struggling to install additional protection at their homes and constituency offices following the death of Jo Cox. Coffee House is aware of a number of battles between MPs of all parties and Ipsa over approval
David Cameron has just given a rather bizarre statement in Downing Street pleading with voters to back Remain on Thursday. It was rather bizarre firstly because it didn’t contain anything new at all, and was just a restatement of the case for staying in the bloc, and secondly because it was in Downing Street, which
David Cameron put in a confident, passionate performance tonight in his Question Time grilling. At one point the Prime Minister broke into a forceful rant about Winston Churchill deciding to carry on fighting the war, arguing that Britain shouldn’t quit now, either. It was clearly planned, in fact Cameron rather have the impression that someone
‘If you’ve got water coming in through the roof then they should be doing something about that,’ says Stephen Timms mildly to one of his constituents. The East Ham MP is sitting in the middle of a long row of tables in the Town Hall, flanked by two caseworkers, each seeing a member of the
A couple of months ago, the Leave campaign seemed constantly grumpy, complaining about media coverage, colleagues and the use of the government machine in this referendum. But now, with just a week to go until polling day, this seems to have reversed. The Brexiteers’ continuing poll lead has spooked Remain, and Remain really isn’t dealing
Tom Watson’s comments today that a future government would have to try to reform freedom of movement rules in the European Union are clearly a last-ditch attempt to show the party’s voters that it is taking their anger about immigration seriously. But they are also strange, for three reasons. The first is that it is strange
The Leave campaign is doing well at the moment: taking a lead in the polls and spooking the government no end. But is it getting rather carried away with its success? This morning on the Today programme Priti Patel gave a rather awkward interview about the campaign’s spending priorities in the event of a Brexit
We are definitely now in squeaky bum territory in the EU referendum. Leave has a seven point lead in today’s Times/YouGov poll, while yesterday the Guardian/ICM poll put Leave six points ahead. Meanwhile the Sun has splashed on its backing for Leave. It isn’t a huge surprise that the Sun is supporting Britain leaving the European
MPs pressing for the reform of backbench bills have declared war on the government after it refused to accept any of the changes that they recommended. Private Members’ Bills are a tedious and unedifying part of Parliament which promise much and disappoint even more. Earlier this year, the Procedure Committee published a report on how
Gordon Brown is busy trying to reset the Remain campaign with a rather leftier tone today. As Tom writes, Labour voters are far less solid in their support for Britain staying in the European Union than the party had hoped, and so the campaign is being handed over to the party so that it can
David Cameron is now having to face questions on what he would do if, as looks far more likely than he would have liked at this stage, Britain votes to leave the European Union. As James predicted in his cover piece this week, Cameron will have to row back on predictions that he made about
Tonight’s TV clash on the EU referendum is being billed as Boris Johnson being ganged up on by a group of women. True, the former Mayor is the only chap in tonight’s line-up (which will give him an unusual glimpse into what most debates feel like for most women in Westminster most of the time),
Sarah Wollaston’s defection to Remain is a blow to the Leave campaign, whatever some of its supporters might say. The Tory MP is notoriously independently-minded, and unafraid of changing her mind, too, which makes her a rare species in Westminster. She is also totally uninterested in a government job, which makes it more difficult for