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.
Alan Johnson and Stephen Dorrell have just conducted an impressively reasoned debate on the NHS on Radio 4. This was all the more impressive given both their parties have boxed themselves into corners on NHS care scandals, from which they will continue to lash out today at the last PMQs of the summer. Whether or
There is a lot of rage in Westminster today (beyond the everyday anger exhibited by some of its inhabitants that Parliament contains other people who disagree with them) about the 13,000 deaths figure that has been bandied around ahead of the publication of the Keogh review. It’s worth noting firstly that Jeremy Hunt did not
Jeremy Hunt’s statement on the Keogh review marked one of the uglier Commons sessions in this parliament. Amid shouting, muttering and angry pointing from the Opposition benches, the Health Secretary announced that 11 of the 14 hospitals in the review would be put into ‘special measures’, while making clear that he blamed the culture the
Labour and the Tories played the first half of NHS political football this morning at health questions. The scrap began with Opposition MPs asking what influence Lynton Crosby had over the decision to drop plain packaging for cigarettes. It is their equivalent of the Tory attack on union influence, and as such has a fair
listen to ‘Andy Burnham defends Labour’s record on Health’ on Audioboo Andy Burnham was in a furious mood this morning when he toured the broadcast studios. It was hardly surprising: most people would grow rather ratty if CCHQ wasn’t just coming after you but briefing that it is coming after you. He angrily told listeners
Justice and Home Affairs ministers have spent a muggy afternoon in the Commons slogging through several hours of tetchy questions from backbenchers about the government’s plan to opt out of European Union justice and home affairs measures, before opting back in to the ones the government has decided it likes. It’s at times like this
If you’re looking for the big Westminster row this week, chances are you’ve missed where the real action is. On Wednesday afternoon, MPs and peers will vote again in the elections for chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking. Normally APPG elections are so tame that few MPs outside their own membership even
The Trident Alternatives Review hasn’t even been published and already the Conservatives are attacking any proposals the Liberal Democrats might have cooked up to water down the nuclear deterrent. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told the morning lobby briefing that the Prime Minister has ‘seen no evidence that there is a way of providing an
Liam Byrne’s attack on the workless benefit cap this morning is interesting, because he’s trying to position himself as tougher than the Conservatives on out-of-work benefits. Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary said: ‘The benefit cap is a good idea in principle but it’s already fallen apart in practice. Ministers have bodged the rules so
The government’s £26,000 benefit cap is one of the most popular policies pollsters have ever come across. No wonder, then, that CCHQ is putting this infographic about to underline the political power of this emblematic policy as it is rolled out nationwide today. Of course, it’s not entirely true that Labour supports limitless benefits, as
Sarah Wollaston is angry. Again. This time it’s about plain packaging on cigarettes. She told the World at One that the decision to stall introducing plain packaging was ‘pandering to election strategists’ and that this was a ‘very sad day for public health’. You can listen to the full interview below:- Now, this is obviously
There’s just a week left of the Parliamentary term to go before MPs go back to their constituencies to mull that awkward pay rise over the summer. But one thing that’s keeping Tory MPs from relaxing is the possibility of a ministerial reshuffle next week. The word from reliable sources is that it will take
‘Iain Duncan Smith must now ask himself if he is fit for purpose.’ That’s what Liam Byrne thinks of the Work and Pensions Secretary’s admission that the roll-out of Universal Credit is being delayed. The original plan was for all new claims for out-of-work support to go into the universal credit rather than the current
One of David Cameron’s better lines at Prime Minister’s Questions was that the trade unions ‘buy the candidates, they buy the policies and they buy the leader’. In his final response to Ed Miliband, he said: ‘What is Labour’s policy on Royal Mail? It is determined by the Communication Workers Union. What is its policy
The Conservatives are a happy bunch at the moment. But for how much longer? They might be riding on the crest of a wave after the second reading of James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill for an EU referendum. But already forces are at work to disrupt the happy harmony. Labour MP Mike Gapes has this
One of the promises from the last round of ‘new politics’ pledges when the Tories were in opposition was a cut in the number of special advisers in a government, on the grounds that SpAds are evil beasts who cost a lot of money. Like many ‘new politics’ pledges, though, this sounded superbly pious in
The warm reception to Ed Miliband’s speech yesterday was so eerily positive that it could never have lasted. Today we get the first taste of the real battle to come, with the GMB warning that they’d be ‘lucky if 10% of our current affiliation levels say yes, they want to be members of the Labour
MPs held a debate in Westminster Hall today about zero hours contracts. Actually, to be specific, Labour MPs held a Westminster Hall debate today, which Jo Swinson replied to as the employment minister. Adjournment debates aren’t often that newsworthy, but what made this debate noteworthy was that it marks another example of the Conservatives failing
Journalists in the Westminster bubble like to point out on Big Speech Days like this that the public couldn’t care a jot about whether Ed Miliband is having a Clause IV moment. They’re right, but that doesn’t stop everyone in the bubble getting rather overexcited about a speech in a sweaty room off Fleet Street
There was a point in Ed Miliband’s speech on a ‘better politics’ where it became clear that for the rest of our lives we’re all going to be trapped in an endless cycle of opposition politicians announcing that they are going to forge a ‘new politics’, as though some other chap hadn’t said the same