Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman

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.

Sunak fends off Starmer’s attacks on illegal migration

Keir Starmer decided that attack was the best form of defence at Prime Minister’s Questions. He tackled Rishi Sunak’s flagship ‘stop the boats’ policy on the basis that it simply won’t work. The Labour leader started his attack by linking International Women’s Day with what he claimed was the government driving a ‘coach and horses’

Does Sunak have enough time to stop the boats?

Rishi Sunak has just finished a press conference on his flagship legislation to curb illegal crossings in the Channel. The Prime Minister said the legislation would enable him to ‘keep my promise’ to the public to stop the boats and that it would ‘break the business model of the people smugglers’. He said ‘this is

Labour is finding it difficult to justify hiring Sue Gray

Labour was the party under pressure in an urgent question in the Commons. This is not normally the order of things: it is usually the opposition or a disgruntled backbencher who tables the question, and an irritated-looking junior minister who is sent out to bat defensively on behalf of their beleaguered seniors. But today, the

Isabel Hardman

Can Rishi stop small boats?

13 min listen

Tomorrow the government is set to deliver its plan the tackle small boats, legislation Rishi Sunak has been promising since before Christmas. Is Rishi about to get tough on immigration? Also on the podcast, what is the latest in the Sue Gray scandal? Will this – alongside continuing questions over Simon Case – start a

Why have we become numb to the failing social care sector?

Helen Whately, the care minister, gave a moving speech this week. It was personal and emotional, but it won’t get much attention. Whately told a health conference organised by the Nuffield Trust about the final months of her grandmother’s life. Her grandmother had reached the age of 100 and was living independently, enjoying walks in

Starmer did a bad job of interrogating Sunak at PMQs

Rishi Sunak bowled up to Prime Minister’s Questions in an excellent mood, clearly still on a high from his Windsor Framework. The PM was greeted by a huge cheer from Tory backbenchers on arrival, but then had six eclectic and not-particularly-effective questions from Keir Starmer to wade through. The most important of those questions came

Isabel Hardman

The horrifying cost of Hancock’s Covid testing targets

The Telegraph’s splash of leaked WhatsApp messages about Matt Hancock and care home testing is a devastating reminder of the cost of those early decisions taken in Covid. The plight of care homes in lockdown is one of the worst aspects of the pandemic. The sheer scale of the deaths among this vulnerable population and

Has Rishi Sunak pulled this off?

15 min listen

James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls about some of the key points in the Windsor Framework. Having reached an agreement with the EU, can Rishi Sunak do the same with both the Tories and the DUP?

Sunak sells his deal in parliament

Rishi Sunak’s sell to the Commons this evening was that his Windsor Framework has ‘taken back control’ and that MPs need to ‘seize the opportunity of this moment’. In other words, Brexit is done and history will judge you if you don’t back what’s just been agreed. The Prime Minister was keen to pay tribute

Isabel Hardman

Can Sunak get a new Protocol deal past its critics?

A lot of the grand choreography around today’s Northern Ireland Protocol deal is designed to make it much harder for critics to cause chaos. There’s the meeting in Windsor between the King and Ursula von der Leyen, which Downing Street is insisting was something the Palace wanted, rather than being requested by Rishi Sunak. The

Isabel Hardman’s Sunday Roundup – 23/02/23

13 min listen

Isabel Hardman hosts the highlights from Sunday morning’s political shows. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says there’s ‘quiet confidence’ about the Northern Ireland Protocol deal. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Labour would act in the ‘national interest’, and expects to support the deal. SNP leadership hopeful Humza Yousaf said that with sustained public support, ‘independence

Farewell to arms: Britain’s depleted military

39 min listen

This week: In his cover piece for the magazine, Andrew Roberts says that the British Army has been hollowed out by years of underfunding and a lack of foresight when it comes to replacing the munitions we have sent to Ukraine. Historian Antony Beevor and author Simon Jenkins join the podcast to discuss Britain’s depleted

Isabel Hardman

Why Kate Forbes is apologising

Somewhat inevitably, Kate Forbes has issued a lengthy apology for her rather forthright comments on moral issues in the early days of the SNP leadership contest. The Scottish Finance Secretary put out a lengthy post on Facebook in which she said: Every leader’s identity is multifaceted – I am a woman, I am a Highlander,

Isabel Hardman

Was there anything Labour about Labour’s five missions?

10 min listen

Keir Starmer has set out Labour’s five missions for government in a speech today, but was there anything Labour about them? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about where this speech leaves the Labour party’s chances to win the next election. Also on the podcast: the government’s plan to cut the asylum

Will there be resignations over Northern Ireland?

10 min listen

Rishi Sunak continues to try to get his MPs onside when it comes to the government’s deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Some Eurosceptics have warned that the Prime Minister could see resignations from his government if this is handled badly, with some touting Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s name. What’s the latest?

Isabel Hardman

Can Sunak avoid a Tory split over the Northern Ireland Protocol?

The most important question at Prime Minister’s Questions came from DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who brought the Chamber to silence as he demanded certain assurances from Rishi Sunak about the negotiations between the UK and EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Sunak has spent the past few days holed up in meetings with the most

Time is ticking for Sunak to resolve the Protocol

Today was supposed to be the day when Rishi Sunak presented an agreement which resolved the issues over the Northern Ireland Protocol to his cabinet. That was the plan, at least, when the Prime Minister flew to Belfast on Friday for talks with the parties at Stormont. But today’s cabinet came and went and no