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.
12 min listen
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
12 min listen
Rishi Sunak has signalled the end of the ‘golden era’ of relations between Britain and China, warning of Xi Jinping’s creeping authoritarianism. In his first foreign policy set piece, was it enough to get the China hawks onside? Also on the podcast, James Forsyth and Katy Balls look at the latest amendments to the Online
Are the Conservatives planning to inject Andy Burnham with political steroids? That could be the result of one of the plans being mulled by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has been trying to work out how to make levelling up something that works and lasts. Greater Manchester Tories will spit tacks about the mayoral position created
How many more Tories will announce they’re stepping down at the next election? They need to tell the party in the next two weeks whether they want to do it or not, though there is no obligation for them to share their decision more widely. I understand that Rishi Sunak and his team have been
Today’s net migration figures naturally present a problem for ministers in that they are going in the opposite direction to what the government officially says they should be. As Fraser says here, net migration to the UK last year was at a record high of 504,000, and this looks rather different to the high-wage, high-skill
10 min listen
New migration numbers out today show that, for the first time ever, net migration have exceeded 500,000 a year. Is this a problem for the government, or is this the kind of immigration that they actually quite like to see? Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu.
There are two interesting takeaways from Jeremy Hunt’s advice to people about taking responsibility for their energy consumption. The Chancellor came out with this line at a select committee hearing yesterday, saying: ‘For most people, we need you to play your part in reducing our energy dependency on what Putin chooses to do in Ukraine.’
14 min listen
Starmer and Sunak have today come up against each other at PMQs for the first time since the Autumn Statement. It was an occasion dominated by questions from the Scottish Nationalists on the decision handed down by the Supreme Court ruling against a new independence referendum. James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss. Produced by Oscar
The Tories are really wheeling out all the greatest hits for party rows at the moment. Not content with a fight over the weekend about Brexit, they’re now having an increasingly bitter scrap about planning reform. Last night, ministers delayed a crunch vote on top-down housing targets after it became obvious they were going to
Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak seem to be settling into a comfortable but largely unremarkable slanging match at each Prime Minister’s Questions. Today the pair traded one-liners about each other while failing to land any blows or indeed move the political debate along at all. The Labour leader opened by condemning Fifa and the behaviour
14 min listen
Rishi Sunak is facing his first Tory Commons rebellion on the issue of UK house building targets. Could this be game over? Also on the podcast, after Chloe Smith announced that she will be leaving politics at the next election, could more follow her out of parliament? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel
Chloe Smith is just 40 years old, an age at which people normally start to think about entering the Commons. But today, with five election victories in her Norwich North seat under her belt, she announced she’s leaving. The former work and pensions secretary said in a statement: ‘I hope I’ve been able to make
What was Ipsa thinking? That’s the question MPs are asking today after it emerged that the parliamentary spending regulator has decided MPs can claim for their office Christmas parties on expenses. There’s never a good time to make that kind of decision, but particularly not when their constituents aren’t even turning their heating on or
The past few days have seen some welcome candour about the NHS in England and Scotland. English Health Secretary Steve Barclay has been preparing the English public for long waits that will still be a major issue at the next election. NHS Scotland, meanwhile, has been discussing the possibility that a ‘two-tier NHS’ might end
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The Conservative party is still digesting Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement, a far cry from the last fiscal statement from this party. Have the Prime Minister and the Chancellor managed to deliver a budget that hits the political sweet point of cornering Labour without splitting their own party? Isabel Hardman talks to James
One of the few jokes in Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement was when the Chancellor started talking about himself. As is the custom in fiscal events, he praised a colleague who had come up with an idea that he was now adopting, though it was immediately obvious that this member was Hunt: On staff shortages, the