Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
From our UK edition
NHS maternity services are in crisis: everyone knows that. In fact, everyone has known a lot more than that for at least a decade. There have been so many reports highlighting the precise nature of this crisis that the health service and government now have 748 recommendations that they could implement to improve care. Instead
From our UK edition
17 min listen
Megan McElroy unpacks a rowdy PMQs with Tim Shipman and Isabel Hardman. Kemi Badenoch made Keir Starmer uncomfortable over student loans but – at a time when trust in the Conservative brand is low – could some of her rhetoric backfire? Plus, what did they make of the revelation that it was the Speaker of
From our UK edition
Kemi Badenoch was on savage form at Prime Minister’s Questions. The leader of the opposition has generally improved her performance in this session, but she has always been particularly good at verbally kicking politicians when they are down. Today, she came out with some brutal lines, including that Labour MPs were saying they were being
From our UK edition
This afternoon’s Commons debate on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was unusual for all kinds of reasons. It was not just that the Speaker had decided that MPs could directly criticise the former Duke of York even though parliamentary convention normally prevents them from discussing the monarchy in the Chamber. It was not even that the government accepted
From our UK edition
10 min listen
Bridget Phillipson has unveiled Labour’s long-awaited overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities system – a £4 billion reform designed to rein in spiralling costs and bring order to what MPs across the House describe as a broken model. Ministers insist this is reform, not retrenchment – but with councils under intense financial pressure
From our UK edition
Today’s unemployment figures aren’t just a reminder of the mess the government has made of the jobs market with its national insurance hikes. They also underline the futility of the government more generally. It has moved into survival mode and cannot pursue the welfare reforms that are clearly necessary. As Ben Miller sets out here,
From our UK edition
15 min listen
PMQs today and – as predicted – Keir Starmer came out worst in a pretty unpleasant session. Kemi Badenoch pinned the Prime Minister on the continued Mandelson fallout and now the scandal over Matthew Doyle, the former No. 10 comms chief who – just four weeks after his ennoblement – Labour have already been forced
From our UK edition
What is the point of Keir Starmer’s government now? Morgan McSweeney’s departure may have been an attempt by the Prime Minister to buy some extra time, like a patient bargaining for expensive life-extending drugs, but it doesn’t change the diagnosis: this is a government that no longer works. Ministers who had previously been very loyal
From our UK edition
Is there a building in Britain more important than the Palace of Westminster? Depending on who you listen to today, parliament is so important that MPs and peers really must agree to an expensive restoration that would see the Palace being emptied and rebuilt either in stages or all at once – or is it
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Another impressive PMQs from Kemi Badenoch – but she had plenty of ammunition to deploy after the Peter Mandelson scandal took a bleaker turn this week. The Prime Minister clearly wanted to make a strong statement in his first answer to Kemi Badenoch, saying that ‘Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament and my party’. He
From our UK edition
Prime Minister’s Questions today highlighted Keir Starmer’s weakness, and not just when it comes to Peter Mandelson. The Prime Minister made clear in his first answer to Kemi Badenoch that ‘Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament and my party’. He added: ‘He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before
From our UK edition
Once again, Keir Starmer’s government has ended up talking about scandal, rather than policy: something the Prime Minister once levelled as an accusation at the Tories. Health ministers had hoped to spend today talking about improving cancer treatment, but instead we are settling into an entire week dominated by Peter Mandelson. The Met have now
From our UK edition
10 min listen
It is our solemn duty to inform listeners that David Lammy won deputy PMQs at a canter today. To be frank, it was a low-rent affair. Andrew Griffith was the Tory sent out to question David Lammy while Keir Starmer is in China, and the shadow business secretary didn’t do a particularly good job. Perhaps
From our UK edition
Today’s Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was a particularly low-rent affair. Andrew Griffith was the Tory sent out to question David Lammy while Keir Starmer is in China. The shadow business secretary didn’t do a particularly good job: perhaps he had assumed that Lammy would have another disastrous session like he did when a prisoner was
From our UK edition
15 min listen
It’s psychodrama all round on Coffee House Shots today. Between Andy Burnham – who over the weekend was denied the opportunity to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election – and Suella Braverman – who has just announced that she’s defecting to Reform (shock horror) – it seems like the main parties are competing to
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham from running for parliament, with the party’s National Executive Committee voting 8-1 against his candidacy for Gorton and Denton. The Prime Minister himself voted against Burnham, while his deputy Lucy Powell was the only member of the committee to vote in favour. There is an obvious argument for blocking
From our UK edition
10 min listen
Keir Starmer scored a rare win at PMQs, talking tough on Trump in light of the President’s escalating rhetoric on Greenland and the Chagos Islands. Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on foreign affairs and Britain’s relationship with the US president, and Starmer departed from his usual caution to strike a notably firmer tone. What
From our UK edition
Keir Starmer tried to use Prime Minister’s Questions today to deliver what he hoped was a tough new line on Donald Trump. It wasn’t quite a Love, Actually moment – mercifully; more of an ‘Er, actually’, but still. In his first answer to Kemi Badenoch, Starmer told the chamber that: I want to be clear
From our UK edition
16 min listen
It is the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the new year – and Keir Starmer returns to the Commons already under pressure. With major international crises unfolding, Kemi Badenoch used PMQs to question whether the Prime Minister is present, engaged or in control. In response, Starmer just seemed narky. As the exchange descended into rows
From our UK edition
‘He has got no choice but to be here for Prime Minister’s Questions! That’s why he’s here. If he could skip this, he would!’ That accusation from Kemi Badenoch would apply to any week, but it was striking that at this first session of the New Year, Keir Starmer looked like he wanted to skip