Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
11 min listen
With Boris Johnson set to announce the end of legal Covid restrictions later today, how will people respond? Will they continue to isolate, or choose to go about their life even if they have the virus? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about the change, as well as the continuing
24 min listen
The Online Safety Bill could be about to hand social media giants even more powers over journalism and free speech. Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and Damian Collins, who chairs Parliament’s joint committee on the bill.
Four years in the making, the Online Safety Bill has now been sent to senior ministers for review — a process that allows them to protest, to shout if anything obvious that has been missed. In this case, the process is invaluable because something huge has been missed. The Bill, if passed, would empower the Silicon Valley
11 min listen
Next week is the end of recess and Boris Johnson is expected to scrap universal access to free Covid tests. What will be the reaction to this? ‘You do have to wonder if tests are the best use of taxpayer’s money given the pressure on the NHS‘ – Fraser Nelson Also on the podcast, the
33 min listen
In this week’s episode: What’s the mood like in Boris’s bunker? For this week’s cover story, James Forsyth writes about the defensive bunker mentality inside No. 10 and the PM’s strategy of keeping MPs sweet to hold back a no confidence vote. James joins the podcast along with Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson to discuss. (00:50)
14 min listen
On Saturday night, No. 10 announced two new appointments: Steve Barclay would become chief of staff, and Guto Harri would become director of communications. Will Downing Street’s reshuffle improve the mood of Tory MPs? And what else does Boris Johnson have to do? Katy Balls talks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the new faces
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Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about what happens if and when Graham Brady receives 54 letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s leadership.
14 min listen
Five members of Boris Johnson’s team have now resigned from No. 10. This led Downing Street to bring forward changes to Johnson’s top team – announcing the resignations of chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, director of communications Jack Doyle and Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary (who sent the now notorious BYOB email). How will
Boris Johnson’s great strength has always been his ability to spot, recruit and hire a great variety of brilliant people. He did so when he edited this magazine and as London Mayor with a superb crop of deputy mayors. As Foreign Secretary he couldn’t hire anyone, so he struggled. As Prime Minister, his gift seemed to have
17 min listen
Recorded just moments after Spectator Political Editor, James Forsyth broke the story that Munira Mirza, the Downing Street head of policy, had resigned over Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer. Katy Balls talks to James about how this defection of one of Johnson’s oldest allies will affect the already turbulent No. 10. They
Andrew Neil is back on our TV screens (‘Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road?’, Channel 4 this evening). Perhaps the most dramatic moment in the documentary is when he confronts Michael Gove, one of the main advocates of lockdown, over the blood-curdling government posters used last year: ‘Look her in the eyes and tell her you
20 min listen
Five Tory MPs have publicly said that Boris Johnson should resign. After a torrid week in Downing Street, which finished with the Prime Minister having to apologise to the Queen for a party being held on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, could we soon see a leadership contest? Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson
13 min listen
With some early signs that the Omicron threat is waning, talk has begun around Westminster as to when we can get rid of the remaining Covid restrictions. To help Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman make sense of the latest figures, they are joined by Editor, Fraser Nelson with an update from The Spectator‘s
12 min listen
Despite a torrid time for the Prime Minister’s popularity over the last few months, there may be a political revival on the horizon. His decision not to lockdown over the Omicron variant seems to have paid off and won back some of the support from his party. But will the Johnson project end up a
11 min listen
The first PMQs of 2022 was a little different. It was Angela Rayner’s turn to step up to the dispatch box whilst Keir Starmer is isolating having tested positive for Covid. Rayner went after Boris Johnson on inflation and the cost of living crisis looming in Britain, criticising the government for refusing to cut VAT
15 min listen
The government has delayed making any announcements about further Covid restrictions in the face of Omicron for weeks. But with more data coming in every day about this new variant, seemingly showing it leads to a lot less hospitalisations than previous waves, will there even be any new measures at all? ‘The science and the
The present best-case scenario is that Omicron peaks early in the new year and then falls just as fast as it did in South Africa. Given how much is still unknown about the variant, it’s impossible to plot any trajectory with confidence far less read a trend into a few days of data over the
Last week, the Cabinet decided to wait for a week before imposing any more Covid-19 restrictions for England. I understand that there was a meeting today between Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid, Chris Whitty, UKHSA’s Jenny Harries and others in which they agreed to wait another week and see the results of the booster programme. This
Does Sage have a pro-lockdown bias? Sir Patrick Valance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, wrote an article in the Times recently presenting Sage as a ruthlessly neutral force speaking ‘scientific truth to power’. He’s refuting the idea of Sage providing a range of gloomy factoids and scenarios which tend to make the case for lockdown. His
15 min listen
Boris Johnson chaired a Cabinet meeting yesterday to discuss the imposition of new Covid restrictions over Christmas. After three hours, the Prime Minister emerged to announce that no new restrictions had been decided on. These meetings are usually called for the Cabinet to rubber-stamp a decision made by Boris and his advisers, so what’s changed?
