James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
A new week brings with it a new backbench group. The New Conservatives are a dozen MPs who are drawn from the 2017 and 2019 intakes. They want a fundamental realignment of the party so it better reflects the interests of voters in the Midlands and across the red wall in the north. Prominent members
14 min listen
James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about how Suella Braverman’s speeding scandal might unravel; and what to expect from Keir Starmer’s vision to build and NHS fit for the future.
11 min listen
Immigration and the economy are priorities for Rishi Sunak’s government. But under Boris Johnson and Theresa May, net zero was also a major policy focus for Conservative governments. Is Sunak as keen on it as his predecessors were? James Heale speaks to Fraser and Isabel Hardman.
10 min listen
Rishi Sunak is in Hiroshima for the G7 summit. President Zelensky has said he’ll be making a surprise appearance, and Sunak will be meeting with President Modi on the sidelines. What does Sunak want from the trip? Max Jeffery speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman.
9 min listen
James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson about Rishi Sunak’s response to the impending migration figures and what could be in Keir Starmer’s plans to ‘make Brexit work’.
Liz Truss is in Taiwan this week, urging the West to take a stronger stance against China. Her message is clear: Europe’s future is ‘inextricably linked’ to that of the island, you can’t trust Beijing to follow the rules and Britain and its allies must now take action. Citing Chinese naval expansion, military build-up, economic decoupling
11 min listen
The Prime Minister has gone to Iceland today to see the Council of Europe, where he has been talking about immigration and the ECHR with other European leaders. On the episode, Katy Balls explains his mission to get other leaders on board with the UK’s hardline approach to immigration. Cindy Yu also talks to James
14 min listen
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said that there is no good reason the UK can’t train its own lorry drivers and fruit pickers in order to bring immigration rates down. Katy Balls speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman about why this has rubbed some up the wrong way and Keir Starmer’s speech over the weekend,
Insurrection was in the air in Bournemouth this weekend as MPs and activists descended on the seaside town for a Tory grassroots jamboree. ‘Take control’ was the aim of the Conservative Democratic Organisation’s inaugural meeet, with 250-odd diehards defying the ‘communist barricades’ of the rail strikes to pitch up at the Bournemouth International Conference. The
The local elections last week proved to be a disappointing night for Reform UK. Prior to polling day, its leader Richard Tice had talked up the ‘huge appetite’ among voters for Reform but the party averaged a mere six per cent of the vote in the wards where it stood. It won just half a
11 min listen
Will Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, lose her supporters in the ERG, after the government confirmed that it would be going back on its pledge to remove all EU legislation from UK law by the end of 2023? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews.
13 min listen
James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Stephen Bush about the Lord’s debate on the Illegal Migration Bill. Now in its third reading, will the government face substantive amendments to the legislation?
Today in parliament has been dominated by the Upper House, where peers are scrutinising the Illegal Migration Bill at its second reading. The debate is only halfway through but the legislation has been subject to something resembling a turkey shoot as noble lord after noble lord has queued up to attack the government’s proposals. The
With gains of 643 councillors and 22 authorities, Labour clearly had a good result in Thursday’s local elections. Yet with the BBC and Sky both publishing vote share projections which show the party falling short of an overall majority – winning just shy of 300 seats rather than the necessary 326 – the spectre of
16 min listen
James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about the fallout from the local elections, some of the arrests made during the Coronation and Rishi Sunak’s plans to give powers to the pharmacies.
Conversations between the Prime Minister and the monarchy are, by convention, kept strictly confidential – and taken to the grave. But Boris Johnson has always been someone who thinks rules are there to be broken. His former spin chief, Guto Harri, has just confirmed something that they tried to cover up at the time: the
18 min listen
Is the government using mass immigration to mask failures in the welfare system? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Matthew Goodwin, author of Values, Voice and Virtue.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his party is on track to win the next general election after the Tories were hammered in local polls across England. The story of these local elections however appear to be Tory disaster rather than Labour triumph. The BBC’s Projected National Share (PNS) of the vote – based on
Results are still coming in fast but one of the big stories of this local election night has been the Tories’ southern discomfort. Onetime safe seats in the once-impregnable ‘Blue Wall’ have fallen overnight to the Liberal Democrats and to a lesser extent, the Greens and Labour too. The leaders of Windsor and Mid Suffolk
It’s local election week which means all parties are engaged in the great game of expectation management. Just over 8,000 seats in 230 unitary, metropolitan and district councils are up for grabs this time, with seven in ten voters in England able to cast their votes on Thursday. The last time these seats were contested
