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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GPs have been promised £250 million to improve their services, but only if they increase face-to-face appointments. The Health Secretary must meet the demands of patients that want more face-to-face meetings. But he got a hostile reaction from doctors after a difficult two years for the healthcare service. Meanwhile, the Brexit row is still bubbling
Why is Sajid Javid picking a fight with GPs? The Health Secretary has announced a £250 million ‘winter access fund’ for practices to hire more staff – but only if they increase the number of face-to-face consultations. Practices that don’t increase access will be listed in a league table. It’s something many MPs say they
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With the energy crisis showing no signs of improving, many industries warned over the weekend that they may have to shut down some manufacturing points due to the rising costs. This has lead to tensions between the Treasury and the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng about how to proceed. Isabel Hardman is joined by Katy Balls
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Marking the end of the conference, Boris Johnson gave what James Forsyth describes as ‘the most Boris speech possible’. The Prime Minister set out his ambition for ‘radical and optimistic conservativism’ and won over the crowd with his characteristic jokes. The Conservatives are in a strong position, but was the speech enough to retain support
Last week, Keir Starmer derided Boris Johnson as a ‘trivial man’ in his Labour conference speech. Today in his own address to his party in Manchester, the Prime Minister decided to lean into that description. He didn’t bother to give a serious speech He didn’t bother to give a serious speech groaning under the weight
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It is day three at the Conservative party conference and, as Isabel says on the podcast, Boris Johnson started the day a ‘little tetchy’ on his morning media round-up. After being told by Nick Robinson to ‘stop talking’ on Radio 4, the Prime Minister clashed with the host when asked about rising wages and inflation.
The theme of Priti Patel’s party conference speech this afternoon was very much ‘large and in charge’. She devoted much of her address to talking about the immigration system, as you’d expect, promising stronger crackdowns on people being smuggled across the Channel in boats. Patel focused on the Vote Leave favourite: taking back control Whereas
Why have ministers become so obsessed with where people are doing their work? The war on working from home has become one of the key themes of this Conservative party conference. Senior figures and backbenchers alike have launched attacks on those who are continuing to work remotely rather than returning to the traditional office set-up.
Tory conference is so stage-managed these days that the main hall has long felt like a bit of a sideshow compared to the lively debate on the fringes and the packed bars. That’s been true so far this week, and not just because the ‘main hall’ is just a small area of the convention centre,
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Katy Balls, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson are joined by special guest, the American pollster Frank Luntz, in this episode of Coffee House Shots, recorded in front of a live audience at Conservative Party Conference. They discuss what it means to be a Conservative these days, whether ‘levelling up’ means anything and who
Rishi Sunak is well-known for being a fan of swanky fitness company Peloton, so perhaps it was fitting that the introductory video for the Chancellor’s speech at the Tory conference felt rather like a spinning class. Parts of his address to the packed (albeit small) hall bore more than a passing resemblance to the spinning
What is levelling up? One of the problems with this nebulous term is that anyone in government who has understood what it means has decided to keep this a glorious secret, rather than sharing it with others. Now that there is an entire department for Levelling Up, it’s a bit harder to take this approach.
Labour’s Harriet Harman has called for Cressida Dick to resign as chief of the Metropolitan Police after Wayne Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life order for the murder, rape and kidnapping of Sarah Everard. He is the first police officer to receive such a sentence. In a letter to the Commissioner, Harman writes that ‘women’s confidence
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After a rocky few days, Sir Keir Starmer has delivered his first in person speech as Labour leader to conclude the 2021 Labour Party Conference. The 90-minute speech featured hecklers, multiple references to ‘tools’ and 17 standing ovations. But was it enough to win over the country or even his party? Katy Balls speaks to
Keir Starmer gave a very long speech on the final day of Labour conference. It lasted an hour and a half, and had 17 standing ovations. But it will largely be remembered as the speech in which the Labour leader was repeatedly heckled by the hard left. These heckles worked hugely in his favour and made
What does Keir Starmer have planned for his conference speech, due to begin shortly? Not so much the words in his script, but what he plans to say if – when – he’s heckled. Starmer has been taking quite a Neil Kinnock stance over the past few days, antagonising the hard left with his rule
Keir Starmer is giving his big speech at noon today, the first one he’s been able to give to a packed conference hall since becoming leader. He seems to think that this means he needs to reintroduce himself to his own party and the electorate, and to that end we’ve been promised more detail on
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With petrol and gas supply issues still continuing Labour doesn’t seem to be focusing on this important issue gripping the nation. Instead, though Starmer had a victory in pushing through his changes in regards to Labour leadership voting, his parade was rained on by the resignation of Andy McDonald over disputes about the minimum wage.
One of the most contested grounds in politics at the moment is law and order. It’s not just the high-profile cases of Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard, but a growing sentiment among all voters that they don’t feel as safe as they once did. The Tories know this, which is why they’ve brought forward their
Labour’s party conference slogan is ‘stronger future together’. It’s sufficiently anodyne that despite it being emblazoned all over a massive set in the hall, no one mentions it at all. Instead, the slogan the party’s senior figures seem to have adopted is ‘why didn’t the government have a plan for this?’ Call for parliament to