Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
On the day Theresa May takes control at No.10 in a comparatively seemly transition, the Labour party is in the midst of the biggest crisis in its history. Jeremy Corbyn will be on the ballot paper in what looks set to be a messy and fractious leadership contest. He also looks likely to win: in
Signing a petition calling for a referendum re-run might seem rather futile after the Brexit vote was done and dusted. But it seems that the four million people who did just that and put pen to paper haven’t completely wasted their time after all. The petition, which said that the Government should hold a re-run
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Mark Carney’s clash at this morning’s Treasury Committee was a masterclass in passive aggressiveness veiled in pleases and thankyous. From the words being said, it wasn’t clear there was any enmity in the room. But Carney’s expressions couldn’t have made things clearer: there is certainly no love lost between these two. Before
There were no great bombshells being dropped elsewhere or dramas unfolding in the Tory leadership race to distract attention away from Angela Eagle during her interview this morning on Today. But the Labour leadership hopeful might have been wishing there had been. It’s a big day for Eagle, with the party’s NEC deciding today whether
David Cameron is now in in his last full day in Downing Street and already all eyes are on the woman who will replace him. Theresa May is on the front of every newspaper this morning as she prepares to take over at No.10. Here’s how the papers have greeted Britain’s new PM-in-waiting: The Daily
Theresa May’s speech outside Parliament was all about conciliation: she made a point of paying tribute to Andrea Leadsom and David Cameron before giving a brief summary of what May’s Britain will look like. She said her focus was on uniting Britain and, once again, she spelt out that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ – a phrase she has used again and
David Cameron has given his backing to Theresa May and he’s also confirmed that by Wednesday evening, he’ll be out of Downing Street for good. The Prime Minister said that tomorrow he’ll chair his last Cabinet and that Wednesday’s PMQs will be his final appearance at the despatch box. During his brief statement just now,
As leadership launches go, the timing could not have been worse for Angela Eagle. Moments before she was due to set out her pitch, rumours started to circulate that Andrea Leadsom was dropping out of the race for the Tory leadership. By the time Eagle had actually started speaking, Leadsom was elsewhere reading a statement confirming
Andrea Leadsom initially tried to go on the attack following the row over her motherhood comments sparked by an article in the Times on Saturday. Today, the Tory leadership candidate appears to be attempting a different technique to put out this fire for good. At first, she was ‘disgusted’ by the presentation of the piece
Just when it looked as though Britain’s vacuum Government had enough on its plate, the junior doctors row – which many had hoped had finished – will now bubble on. BMA members have just voted to reject the Government’s contract offer by 58 per cent to 42 per cent. The margin was convincing enough that
Stephen Crabb is one of the least experienced candidates in this Tory leadership contest and that was on show during his interview on the Today programme just now. To his credit, Crabb – unlike Theresa May – has made it clear that he doesn’t want EU citizens living in the UK to be ‘negotiating chips’
Voting kicks off today amongst Tory MPs in the first round of ballots to decide who will be Prime Minister. Little seems certain about the outcome of a leadership election which has already offered up much drama in the first week. But based on the large support of Conservative MPs gathering behind Theresa May, it
Nigel Farage has joined the growing list of politicians to resign after stepping aside as Ukip leader this morning. It was a surprise move, which Farage said was brought about by him feeling that he had ‘done his bit’ following the Brexit vote last month. In a speech, the Ukip leader said that he wanted
Andrea Leadsom is the last of the five candidates to launch her bid for the Tory leadership. But if the bookies odds are anything to go on, she is rapidly emerging as a potential frontrunner in this race. Many will view Leadsom as one of the ‘Brexit candidates’ in this fight. Somewhat refreshingly, though, she
Nigel Farage has resigned as Ukip leader. Farage announced his decision to stand aside as the party’s leader in a speech this morning. In a surprise move, Farage said that the Brexit vote meant that his ‘political ambition has been achieved’ and that he was calling time on his leadership of the party. He said:
Dropping out of the Tory leadership race does mean one good thing for Boris: he can now go back to throwing rocks from the sidelines. Having landed himself in hot water last week with his Telegraph column in which he appeared to offer both freedom of movement for Brits abroad whilst introducing a much stricter
There’s much speculation about who will be the two MPs chosen by the Tory party to fight it out for leader, but there is less dispute about the candidate who looks set to get knocked out on Tuesday when voting actually starts on Tuesday. Barring an unlikely surge of support from fellow Tory MPs, Liam
To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. A week after Britain backed Brexit, politics shows no sign of slowing down. David Cameron has resigned, Michael Gove has pulled out of Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign before
Even by the standards of Westminster politics, yesterday’s developments will be remembered for a long time. But meanwhile, in the short-term, Michael Gove’s decision to launch his own campaign – and Boris’ subsequent move to drop out – favours only one person in the Tory leadership race: Theresa May. The Home Secretary made her pitch
Theresa May has launched her Conservative leadership bid this morning. Her scheduled announcement came just moments after Michael Gove announced that he was also entering the race in a surprise move, having broken ranks with Boris Johnson’s own campaign. In her speech, which you can read in full here, the Home Secretary said: ‘My pitch
