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.
Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was less about Rishi Sunak and more about the Tories around him. Keir Starmer opened his attack by describing the Conservatives as ‘the political wing of the flat earth society’. He said that ‘Tory MPs spent last week claiming that Britain is run by a shadowy cabal made up of activists,
‘I’ve been sacked for doing my job. I think I’ve been sacked for doing what the law asks of me and I’ve breached, I’ve fallen down over a clause in my employment contract, which I think is a crying shame.’ That was just one of the bombs that former independent chief inspector of borders and
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Until recently the government’s independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal has been in front of the Home Affairs select committee today to hit out at his erstwhile employers. Cindy Yu talks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls on the episode about Neal’s abrupt sacking and just how ‘independent’ an independent inspector can
Will Lindsay Hoyle really last as Speaker? Today he managed to enrage the SNP once again by refusing the party’s application for an emergency debate. The plan had been to use this SO24 debate, as it is known, to refresh the argument that the SNP couldn’t put to a vote last week about a ceasefire
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With cases of neurodegenerative conditions rising in the UK, it’s crucial to re-examine how we tackle these diseases. The Spectator’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman speaks to Debbie Abrahams MP (co-chair of the Dementia APPG), Dr Emily Pegg (associate vice president at Eli Lilly), Dr Susan Kohlhaas (executive director at Alzheimer’s Research), and Professor Giovanna Mallucci
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As MPs return to their constituencies, the drama from Wednesday’s parliamentary debate is still fresh in Westminster. James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman about whether MPs’ safety concerns are influencing democracy, and why the outcome of the debate could mean lessons are learned for the future.
Lindsay Hoyle’s justification for tearing up convention on the Gaza vote was that he had become worried for MPs’ safety and was trying to give members the widest range of options to express their view. It didn’t work out that way, as he acknowledged last night, and the Speaker will spend today in private meetings
The Commons has gone into meltdown this evening over the Speaker’s handling of the Gaza ceasefire motion, with the Speaker expressing ‘regret’ for the way the debate ended up. SNP and Tory MPs stormed out at one point, and MPs voted on whether to close the chamber to the press and public as part of
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Sir Keir Starmer can breathe a sigh of relief this afternoon, thanks to Lindsay Hoyle. The Speaker has selected Labour’s amendment on a Gaza ceasefire, which means that a likely mass rebellion from Labour MPs will be averted. SNP and Tory MPs are furious at Hoyle, and say that he has tried to rewrite the
One person dominated Prime Minister’s Questions, and it wasn’t Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer. It was Kemi Badenoch, who appears to be going deeper into her battle with former Post Office chair Henry Staunton. Starmer decided to deepen the row further today, while Sunak notably didn’t make all that much effort to defend Badenoch beyond
The government has now tabled its own amendment to the SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. This change to the text calls for ‘negotiations to agree an immediate humanitarian pause as the best way to stop the fighting’, and then ‘moves towards a permanent sustainable ceasefire’. It also says that a ceasefire requires
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Today Keir Starmer has moved his party’s position on a ceasefire in Gaza as he seeks to quell what could the biggest rebellion of his leadership. MPs will vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza with Labour set to add its own amendment to the SNP motion tomorrow. For the first time, Labour is calling
Labour has significantly shifted its language on Israel’s conflict with Hamas over the past 24 hours. But has it changed its position? Yesterday Keir Starmer gave a speech to Scottish Labour conference in which he called for ‘a ceasefire that lasts’, adding: ‘That is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now.’ His aides
Kemi Badenoch has been launching a few more grenades into the Post Office row, with a bullish statement in the House of Commons dismissing the allegations made at the weekend by Henry Staunton. The former Post Office chair had claimed an official had asked him to slow compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal
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Labour has the won two by-elections in Wellingborough and Kingswood, overturning big Conservative majorities in the process. Party chairman Richard Holden has brushed the results off as typical midterm by-elections where voters what to give the government a kicking. Does this argument stack up? And what can Reform take from the results? Isabel Hardman speaks
Sadiq Khan has announced six new names for the previously boringly-named Overground. The practical point of it is that the Overground goes everywhere and is quite confusing to navigate if you’re an occasional visitor. Breaking up the orange (which only stayed that way because Boris Johnson liked it being the same colour when he was
Labour has now suspended Graham Jones as a parliamentary candidate after a recording emerged of him allegedly saying that Britons who travel to Israel to fight for the IDF should be ‘locked up’. The former MP, who is standing again in Hyndburn, was taped appearing to refer to ‘f***ing Israel’, and saying it was ‘illegal’
Lord Cameron has shown again this afternoon how much the government’s tone on the conflict in Gaza has changed recently. The Foreign Secretary was taking questions in the Lords and heavily laboured the point that Israel should think twice before going into Rafah. He repeated his regular argument that there had been too many Palestinian
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Labour faces another antisemitism battle as their candidate for the Rochdale by-election said that Israel allowed the October 7th attacks as a pretext to invade Gaza. Azhar Ali has since apologised for his comments and Labour has allowed him remain the candidate for Rochdale. Natasha Feroze speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman about Keir
Who to blame for the demise of Labour’s £28 billion annual green investment pledge? According to Keir Starmer, it’s the Conservatives. He said this afternoon: ‘What would be really irresponsible is to know the damage done to the economy by this failed government and ignore that and pretend it didn’t happen.’ The party briefing is
