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.
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The first day of strike action has begun with large parts of the country’s railways, as well as London’s underground lines, shut down. But where workers are trying to put pressure on the government and Network Rail over higher pay, it seems like the Labour party is in more trouble. Disagreement over the party’s position
Sir Keir Starmer has ended up in a very Starmer-esque pickle over the rail strikes this week. Yesterday he instructed Labour frontbenchers not to join picket lines, and said at the weekend that the strikes should not go ahead, having stayed rather quiet on the matter until then. This has annoyed many of his MPs,
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Today begins a chaotic week for commuters who face major travel disruptions as rail staff stage the biggest walkout in 30 years. Union leaders have accused the government of ‘inflaming tensions’, as Grant Shapps has refused to negotiate with the unions over pay, conditions, job cuts and safety. Also on the podcast, what could be
Has Boris Johnson run out of ideas? It’s not an unreasonable question at the end of a week in which more than 40 per cent of his MPs said they didn’t want him leading them any more. Still less unreasonable when his big reveal policies have been getting on with something that David Cameron signed
There’s a row afoot in the House of Lords. That’s a bit of a dog-bites-man line these days, with government defeats in the Upper Chamber being so common that they’re totally unremarkable. But this latest spot of bother doesn’t come from Labour or the Lib Dems or even those difficult-to-read crossbenchers. No: the new rebels
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By sticking to his promise to ‘move on’ after the confidence vote, Boris has announced his new flagship policies during a speech in Blackpool. He unveiled the ‘benefits-to-bricks’ pledge aimed at extending a home-buying scheme. Will new housing measures be enough to regain the support of the public and the dwindling respect from his party?Also
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Boris Johnson was surrounded by opposition at the despatch box when he faced the Labour leader at PMQs today. Did Keir Starmer make the most of his opportunity to score points against the Prime Minister’s disappointing result in the confidence vote the night before? Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.
It’s not unusual for a Labour leader to attack the government over the NHS at Prime Minister’s Questions. Neither is it a topic of low salience at the moment, given the size of the backlog. But it was nonetheless Sir Keir Starmer’s subject choice today was curious because it was precisely what Boris Johnson wanted to
Another day, another ridiculous Boris Johnson statement. This morning, the cabinet discussed whether the NHS was to become like Netflix, and predictably everyone has got very excited. It’s worth having a look at what actually happened at the meeting, though. The official readout is that Sajid Javid — not Johnson ― updated ministers on ‘the
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It is the day after the night before when Boris Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote. Today he held a meeting with the Cabinet to tell his colleagues it is time to ‘move on’. ‘This looks like a slow Tory suicide to me’ – Fraser Nelson Some critics have pointed to the fact that shortly
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The results are in. 211 Tory MPs expressed confidence in the Prime Minister, while 148 said they had no confidence in Boris Johnson continuing to lead the Conservative party. While this is technically a win, it is a narrower victory than Theresa May (who looked splendid in her ball gown tonight) got in her no-confidence
Boris Johnson has just insisted that he has had ‘an extremely positive’ and ‘decisive result’ in the vote of confidence in his leadership. He said the government can ‘come together’ and ‘put behind’ it all the rows of the past few months and ‘focus on the stuff that the public actually want us to be
Now that the confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s leadership is on, Conservative MPs have suddenly become very busy, while senior Tories are breaking cover to declare that they no longer support the Prime Minister either. Jeremy Hunt, currently the favourite to replace Johnson with some bookies, has surprised no one by announcing that ‘today I will
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Boris Johnson will face a confidence vote tonight. Announcing the news this morning, the chair of the 1922 committee Sir Graham Brady said in a statement: ‘The threshold of the 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.’ Will he win? Katy Balls
What is Boris Johnson actually accepting responsibility for when he says he is ‘humbled’ by Sue Gray’s report into partygate? Humility isn’t a word often used in connection with Boris Johnson, although it’s hardly valued at all in Westminster, so perhaps he is following a slightly different definition to the rest of us. Or perhaps
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The long-awaited Sue Gray report is finally published today. It included new photographs (including of the birthday bash, though James Forsyth describes the photo as looking more like ‘an enforced office socialising occasion’ than a party), colourful details (one staffer was threw up at one drinks) and some unsavoury revelations (Sue Gray was damning about
Sir Keir Starmer used Prime Minister’s Questions today to show how hard it is going to be for Boris Johnson to move on from the Sue Gray report. The Labour leader acknowledged as he opened that there was going to be a statement on that inquiry right after this session, and so he was going
In the past few minutes, Sue Gray’s final report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street has been published. It makes for grim reading. The report is just 37 pages long, along with photos of the events that the senior civil servant was tasked to investigate. The key line is where Gray says that ‘the senior
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Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties during lockdown is set to be released on Wednesday morning. The tone Boris Johnson takes will be vital to his political future. What will he say? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
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It’s finally happening! This is the week the infamous Sue Gray report into partygate will be released. Details are few and far between, although we do know that the Prime Minister will be mentioned by name in the document. Mutterings from Tory HQ are that this is not going to be a good week for
