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.
Both the Westminster and Scottish governments are trying to show they have a grip on the crises in their respective National Health Services today. Neither currently find themselves politically in a strong place on the winter crisis. English Health Secretary Steve Barclay is giving a statement to the House of Commons when it returns this
Rishi Sunak is still refusing to say that the NHS is ‘in crisis’. He’s held meetings on ‘NHS recovery’ this weekend, and will have been told in no uncertain terms by healthcare leaders that this is a crisis, probably the worst one the health service has faced in its history. He told Laura Kuenssberg in
When I was a student, my housemates and I would buy our groceries from a shop that offered only days of the week as the best before. We had a lettuce that went off on ‘Tuesday’, bread that would go stale on a ‘Thursday’, and so on. It was useful for the shop, and useful
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Keir Starmer said this morning that communities would ‘take back control’ under a Labour government. In a speech delivered just down the road from where Rishi Sunak spoke yesterday, the Labour leader promised to expand devolution. Is his vision radical enough? Max Jeffery speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Heale.
Keir Starmer’s new year speech was better than Rishi Sunak’s. It’s easier to give a speech about fixing problems when you’re in opposition and someone else has caused them. But it was just more interesting than what the Prime Minister had to say yesterday. There was the politically audacious decision to pick up Vote Leave’s
The battle of the New Year launch speeches enters its second day, with Labour leader Keir Starmer giving his own address in East London. Rishi Sunak said yesterday he had five ‘immediate priorities’ for fixing Britain. The Labour leader is offering a similar repair job this morning, while also trying to reassure voters this won’t
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Rishi Sunak made five pledges to fix Britain in a speech in London today. Inflation will halve, the economy will grow, debt will fall, NHS waiting lists will be cut, and the government will pass laws to tackle the small boats crisis. Is the PM promising too much, or not enough? Max Jeffery speaks to
Rishi Sunak’s new year speech was more about what he wants to fix rather than how he plans to fix it. That is generally what start-of-the-year speeches intend to do, painting in broad strokes rather than going into endless policy detail. The Prime Minister came to office with a promise to fix the turmoil left
Rishi Sunak is resurfacing today after the Christmas break and amidst the NHS meltdown to talk about maths. The Prime Minister’s new year speech contains an announcement that has provoked a visceral personal reaction in many of the mildly innumerate inhabitants of the Westminster village. It’s the sort of response that will underline to the
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Millions of Britons will forever shun trains because of the ongoing strikes, a government sources told the Times today. Are the strikes proving as effective as unions hoped? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Max Jeffery.
Anyone who thinks the NHS isn’t in a state of collapse hasn’t been paying attention. This is the 75th year of the health service, and it is arguably its worst. Emergency doctors are now warning that A&E delays are ‘killing up to 500 people a week’. They say as many as 500 people could be
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Katy Balls, Isabel Hardman and James Heale review the political maelstrom that was 2022, a year with more Prime Ministers than some decades have managed.
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The nurses’ strike is well underway and there seems to be no sign of an agreement over pay any time soon. The government seems to be receiving fiercer criticism from within the Conservative party than from across the aisle, as former Conservative party chairman (and Truss and Johnson ally) Jake Berry turns into the rebel-in-chief.
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Welcome to the special Christmas episode of The Edition! Up first: What a year in politics it has been. 2022 has seen five education secretaries, four chancellors, three prime ministers and two monarchs. But there is only one political team that can make sense of it all. The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson, deputy political editor Katy Balls
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Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are on strike today in search of a 19 per cent pay rise. Chief Nursing Officer Dame Ruth May appeared outside St Thomas’s hospital to show her solidarity with those striking. What is the significance of this? Also on the podcast, after a further three episodes of Harry
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Keir Starmer put in a weak performance in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Isabel Hardman says on today’s podcast. Is Labour’s fence sitting and vagueness on the strikes starting to hurt them? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu.
Keir Starmer had an unusually weak Prime Minister’s Questions today. He chose to attack Rishi Sunak on the nurses’ strikes, insisting that the Prime Minister could avert the walkouts, which begin tomorrow, by having a meeting with the nurses. ‘All the Prime Minister needs to do to stop that is to open the door and
Rishi Sunak will have suspected that Keir Starmer was going to bring up housebuilding at Prime Minister’s Questions today, and so he came prepared. The Labour leader has been using the Tory revolts on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to build his case that the Prime Minister is weak, and today he did indeed
Another day, another U-turn: this time on onshore wind. To the surprise of no-one, the government has given in to rebel Tory backbenchers, including two former prime ministers, who had been pushing for the end to the moratorium on new onshore wind farms. The amendment to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill from former Levelling
A Labour leader opening Prime Minister’s Questions with a description of the luxurious private schooling that the Conservative Prime Minister enjoyed doesn’t sound particularly informative – or indeed relevant – to many voters. Keir Starmer’s opening question this afternoon was this: ‘Winchester College has a rowing club, a rifle club and an extensive art collection. They charge
