Lucy Dunn is The Spectator's political correspondent. She is a qualified doctor from Glasgow.
Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election,
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The Prime Minister was set to announce his crackdown on the existing rights of refugees at the European Political Community meeting today; however, he has flown back to chair a Cobra meeting after a terror attack in Manchester. Two people have been killed and at least two others injured after a driver allegedly rammed a
Today the High Court ordered a company linked to ex-Tory peer Baroness Mone to pay £122 million to the Department of Health for breaching an NHS contract during the pandemic. The company – PPE Medpro – was set up by a group led by the peer’s husband Doug Barrowman. During the pandemic, Mone recommended the
Keir Starmer’s keynote speech in Liverpool was punchier and more powerful than the Prime Minister’s usual interventions. The Labour leader announced that his party will scrap Tony Blair’s target that 50 per cent of children should go to university, replacing it with the aim of seeing two-thirds of kids get a degree or gold-standard apprenticeship.
Labour mayors are stealing the limelight at Labour conference. As Sir Keir Starmer continues to struggle with staffing issues, policy positions and a prevailing surge in support for Reform UK, new polling for Sky News has revealed that six in ten Labour members would back Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to be leader, with fewer
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Labour party conference has kicked off in Liverpool, and the Chancellor has just delivered her keynote speech. ‘Security, security, security’ was the message from Rachel Reeves as she addressed the Labour party faithful. The Labour government, she said, will create an economy that puts the British worker above all else. Aside from setting out her
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The Labour machine has whirred into gear to try and contain a certain Northern mayor’s mischievous interventions this week, by announcing a big controversial piece of policy. The news that ID cards – Tony Blair’s pet project – will be introduced has splashed all the front pages, demoting Andy Burnham to yesterday’s news. It’s a
Another one bites the dust: Steph Driver, Keir Starmer’s head of communications, has announced she will leave No. 10 – making her the latest Starmer aide to quit. Driver was a loyal companion to the Prime Minister even before his election, spending five years as his chief of communications when he was in opposition. She
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Labour conference kicks off this weekend in Liverpool – but the mood going in is far from triumphant. On today’s Coffee House Shots, Lucy Dunn is joined by Tim Shipman and More in Common’s Luke Tryl to take the temperature ahead of Labour’s big set-piece. They discuss why some voters already see Starmer as ‘just
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Andy Burnham, Manchester’s mayor and self-styled champion of the North, is openly flirting with a return to Westminster just days before the Labour Party conference. In a revealing interview, he outlined his ‘Manchesterism’ – a blend of business-friendly socialism and public control of essential services – though what that actually means remains unclear. Typically, he
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Nigel Farage has unveiled his most radical immigration plan yet – scrapping indefinite leave to remain for migrants – in a move designed to reverse the so-called ‘Boriswave.’ James Heale explains how this would affect hundreds of thousands already living in the UK, why the party claims it could save £250 billion, and whether any
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Keir Starmer has lost another aide, MPs are debating what the Prime Minister knew about Mandelson’s links to Epstein and a new poll has Lucy Powell as the favourite to win Labour’s deputy leadership race against education secretary Bridget Phillipson. Could things be any worse for Starmer? With US President Donald Trump touching down at
Peter Mandelson is no longer US ambassador to the UK, but tough questions remain for Keir Starmer about why he appointed the ‘Prince of Darkness’ in the first place. Downing Street distanced itself from Mandelson last week, with the Prime Minister’s spokesperson claiming that new information had emerged about Mandelson’s relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey
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The big news in Westminster today is that there has been another defection to Reform. But this time it feels slightly different: a front bench Tory with a CV that spans multiple Tory leaders and a number of books on Conservative thought is now batting for Reform. Danny Kruger, Nigel Farage’s latest defector, served as
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The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s sacking continues. All eyes are now on Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – could he take the fall for Mandelson’s appointment? As Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times Gabriel Pogrund tells James Heale and Lucy Dunn, Mandelson and McSweeney’s relationship stretches back to New Labour. But, Pogrund warns,
Shabana Mahmood wasn’t given long in her new gig before facing the media. She became Home Secretary on Friday afternoon, after former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner resigned over an ethics probe into her tax affairs, and this morning set out her stall on immigration. Positioning herself as a ‘whatever it takes’ minister, Mahmood says
As of late August, Nigel Farage’s Reform party now has representatives in local government, Westminster, the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish Parliament. The group’s only MSP is Graham Simpson, a frontline Conservative politician for almost ten years, who defected just under a fortnight ago. I caught up with him at the Reform conference – amid
On Friday, former Deputy Prime Minister and housing minister Angela Rayner resigned after an ethics probe into her tax affairs was published. The move prompted Prime Minister Keir Starmer to begin a mass reshuffle of his government, with his new cabinet appointments here. Starmer’s timing made it a rather coincidental coup, with the news overshadowing
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Lucy Dunn catches up with Tim Shipman at Reform’s party conference, taking place in Birmingham, to get his reaction to Labour’s reshuffle. The reshuffle took place following Angela Rayner’s resignation from government. Tim argues that it’s clear the reshuffle centred around getting Shabana Mahmood into the Home Office, where she can tackle some of the
Keir Starmer is carrying out a far-reaching reshuffle this afternoon after Angela Rayner resigned from her three roles (Deputy Prime Minister, Housing Minister and deputy Labour leader) following a probe into her tax affairs by Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser. The writing was on the wall for Starmer’s former second-in-command after her
