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.
10 min listen
Rishi Sunak has finally answered questions over his healthcare arrangements with a statement in Prime Minister’s Questions, stating that he is currently registered with an NHS GP but has used private healthcare in the past. Is this change in tack an admission that he should have answered the question sooner? Katy Balls talks to Isabel
He was going to change his line at some point. Finally, at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Rishi Sunak dropped his refusal to discuss his family’s healthcare arrangements and admitted he has gone private. He used the first question of the session, from Labour’s Cat Smith, to ‘answer the lady directly’ and say: ‘I am registered
It’s the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the year and strikes will undoubtedly dominate. Both sides feel they have a political advantage. Rishi Sunak sees his anti-strike laws requiring minimum service levels as a way of uniting his party and claiming that Labour don’t care about the basic safety of the public. Keir Starmer sees
13 min listen
Business Secretary, Grant Shapps has introduced a bill proposing a minimum level of public sector work during strike action for six key industries. Labour’s Angela Rayner told the Commons these plans are ‘insulting and utterly stupid’. As a policy that Tories largely agree on, could this bill bring the party together? Also on the podcast,
9 min listen
In an interview on Sunday, Rishi Sunak refused to tell Laura Kuenssberg whether he has a private GP. Could this question come back to haunt him amid accusations he is ‘out of touch’? As Parliament returns from recess, ministers are holding talks with unions to avoid further public sector strikes. However, with strike action still
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
12 min listen
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
11 min listen
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
15 min listen
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
25 min listen
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.
9 min listen
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.
65 min listen
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
9 min listen
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