Podcast
Katy Balls speaks to women at the top of their respective games, about their passions, their battles, and what makes them tick. Katy is Political Editor of The Spectator.
Katy Balls speaks to women at the top of their respective games, about their passions, their battles, and what makes them tick. Katy is Political Editor of The Spectator.
Women With Balls
Arlene Foster is the former first minister of Northern Ireland and was leader of the Democratic Unionist Party from 2015 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold either position. Arlene moved into politics after joining the Ulster Unionist Party as a Law student at Queen’s University Belfast. Having grown up in conflict during
Play 36 mins
Women With Balls
Anji Hunter is the former gatekeeper to Tony Blair’s Labour government. She was once described as the most influential non-elected person in Downing Street and became one of Blair’s closest confidantes. Acting as an alliance broker, Anji worked across businesses and the media, including Murdoch’s empire. After decades by Blair’s side, Anji moved to the
Play 48 mins
Women With Balls
Suella Braverman is the Conservative MP for Fareham and became the first female elected Attorney General in 2020. Formerly known as one of the Brexit Spartans, she talks on the podcast, about growing up surrounded by politics where she first lay the foundations for a career as a Conservative politician. As a young woman, she
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
During the pandemic, we spent more time online than ever before and this has seen a boom in online fraud. It’s estimated that scam adverts have tricked 1 in 10 people on the biggest online platform into paying for fake products. In 2020, almost 150,000 fraud cases were recorded with losses reported of up to
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Fiona Hill is the former director for European and Russian Affairs on the United States National Security Council. She has advised presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George Bush. In November 2019, she testified at Trump’s first impeachment hearing. On the podcast, she tells Katy about growing up in the North East and moving the
Play 44 mins
Women With Balls
Carolyn Harris is a Welsh Labour Party politician serving as the Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018, and has been the Member of Parliament for Swansea East since 2015. On the podcast she talks to Katy about her three successful campaigns, menopause, and the time she accidentally turned on the No.10 Christmas lights.
Play 26 mins
Women With Balls
Emma Gormley is managing director of daytime at ITV studios, where she controls flagship shows on the channel such as Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women. On the episode, she talks to Katy about what got her into broadcast journalism, the pressures of looking after some of the most popular shows on
Play 30 mins
Women With Balls
Michelle Donelan was elected in 2015 as a Conservative MP for Chippenham. Since then, she has been re-elected twice and has risen in her political roles. Starting as a member of the education select committee and becoming a whip, to then being appointed a minister, first of children and families, and then in the latest
Play 24 mins
Women With Balls
Camilla Tominey is known on both sides of the pond as one of the world’s go-to Royal correspondents. She began her career in journalism at the Hemel Hempstead Gazette before moving to cover the Royals for the Daily Express and is now the associate editor at the Telegraph. On the episode, she talks to Katy
Play 36 mins
Women With Balls
Tzipi Hotovely is the current Israeli Ambassador to the UK. She was formerly a politician in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, having climbed the ranks to become deputy foreign minister. On the episode, she talks to Katy about her 2,500 strong wedding reception, campaigning for mother’s rights in Israel and what modern-day anti-Semitism look like. They also
Play 30 mins
Women With Balls
Bridget Phillipson is the shadow education secretary and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South. On this episode, recorded just before Labour’s last reshuffle where Bridget was promoted, she talks to Katy about what it was like to go to Oxford from a humble upbringing, how Labour can win the next election, and why she didn’t
Play 27 mins
Women With Balls
Money is not generally discussed at the dinner table, and inheritance even less so. So, do parents do enough to pass down responsible personal finance habits to the next generation? And if not, how can those conversations be had? On this live recording of The Spectator’s Women With Balls podcast, deputy political editor Katy Balls
Play 29 mins
Women With Balls
Sarah Vine is a columnist for the Daily Mail and formerly wife of Cabinet minister Michael Gove. On the podcast, Sarah talks to Katy about growing up in Italy, working her way up tabloid journalism (including what it was like to work for Paul Dacre), and her reflections on being a columnist with a politician
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Ruth Davidson is the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and now sits in the House of Lords as the Baroness of Lundin Links. On the episode, she speaks to Katy about her happy upbringing as an active tomboy despite a near-death car accident at the age of five; her mother’s reaction when she left
Play 36 mins
Women With Balls
Nikki da Costa is the former director of legislative affairs at No 10 Downing Street. She served under Theresa May and Boris Johnson and was pivotal in the government’s wrangles with Parliament over Brexit. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about why she and David Davis didn’t quite get on; why she quit May’s
Play 43 mins
Women With Balls
Dehenna Davison is the MP for Bishop Auckland, and a rising star in Boris Johnson’s 2019 ‘red wall’ intake. On this episode, recorded just after Conservative party conference, Dehenna tells Katy about what it was like to lose her father to a pub brawl so young, getting her work marked in Latin by Jacob Rees-Mogg
Play 31 mins
Women With Balls
Sarah Rainsford was a BBC foreign correspondent stationed in Moscow for 20 years until August when the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) declared Rainsford a national security threat. They expelled her from Russia and gave her only three weeks to pack up her things, bring home her husband and their dog. On the podcast, Sarah
Play 35 mins
Women With Balls
Joanna Scanlan, an actress best known for her role of Terri in the The Thick of It, had a long and winding road before becoming a star of stage and screen. Born in Cheshire and moved to Wales aged three, she went to two convent schools before an Anglican school where she broke every possible
Play 14 mins
Women With Balls
Trudy Harrison is the Conservative MP for Copeland and currently works as the Prime Minster’s Parliamentary Private Secretary. On the podcast, she talks about how when she was younger she always thought she’d be a nanny and how that maternal nature developed into her own childcare business, then local politics and finally the House of
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
Katie Perrior is a public relations expert who co-founded inHouse Communications. She’s worked for two prime ministers and several senior Tory MPs, and today her clients include the spiritsmaker Diageo and the football Super League. On the podcast, she talks about leaning into Boris Johnson’s rambunctious style on the London mayoralty campaign; coming into blows
Play 35 mins
Women With Balls
Polly Morgan is an artist whose trade is taxidermy. She recently won the First Plinth Award, and in her time has sold to celebrity clients including Kate Moss and Courtney Love. On the podcast, she tells Katy about her unusual childhood growing up on a farm with ostriches, goats and llamas; why she got fired
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
The past year has served as a reminder how quickly one’s personal circumstances can change. In uncertain times such as these, financial resilience is more important than ever. But whilst savings for some Brits have surged in the pandemic, it’s not been the case for everyone. 41pc of UK households could not last more than
Play 38 mins
Women With Balls
Katy Searle is the Executive Editor of Politics at BBC News. She is known for overseeing numerous blockbuster political moments, including the infamous kitchen interviews with Ed Miliband and David Cameron, where the Labour leader showed off his two kitchens. On the podcast, she talks to Katy Balls about leaving school at 16, working with
Play 30 mins
Women With Balls
Over the last year of intermittent lockdowns, most of us have spent more time staring at the four walls of our living room than we ever thought possible. One of the biggest factors affecting someone’s pandemic experience is the type of accommodation they’re in, and 8.4 million people in England are living in unaffordable, insecure
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Nusrat Ghani is the Conservative MP for Wealden, having previously served as a transport minister under the May then Johnson governments. On the podcast, she tells Katy Balls about her upbringing under a father who was a headteacher; how she narrowly escaped arranged marriage through university; and how it feels to be one of nine
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives but one of the biggest is the way we work– with 46% of people working from home last year. Perhaps no group has been more impacted by this than the young – from unemployment to the mental health pressures of working from small homes and a
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
Elif Shafak is an award-winning Turkish-British novellist, essayist and activist. On the episode, she talks to Katy about what it was like to grow up in conservative Ankara under the strong women in her family; her prosecution by the Turkish government; and why she thinks too much information is not necessarily a virtue.
Play 39 mins
Women With Balls
Rachel Reeves is the Labour MP for Leeds West and the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about being a teen chess champion (pictured playing), going to a school where her mum worked and what Labour needs to do to turn its losing streak.
Play 40 mins
Women With Balls
Suzanne Moore is a journalist. On the podcast, she tells Katy about interviewing to work for Marxism Today, feeling out of place at The Guardian, and standing to be an independent MP.
Play 44 mins
Women With Balls
Mims Davies is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Employment and the MP for Mid Sussex. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about how her family became lifelong carers when her dad was attacked at work, about why she didn’t come out as a Tory in her student days at Swansea University and why her change
Play 36 mins