James Forsyth

Theresa May might still be in office, but she is not in power in anything like the way she was before. On the Marr Show, Michael Fallon made clear that the Cabinet had told Theresa May to drop her two chiefs of staff, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, and that they had told her that

Theresa May’s two chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill have resigned. The pair have good claim to be the most powerful special advisers in British political history, their hold on Mrs May was even greater than that of Alastair Campbell and Jonathan Powell on Tony Blair. Yesterday, one Tory who knows the trio

Theresa May was determined to suggest that nothing had really changed in her statement outside Downing Street after seeing the Queen. She talked about her plans for the next five years, which is—to put it mildly—ambitious. She emphasised the mandate that came from the Brexit referendum, but made no real reference to last night’s events.

If there is ever an inquest into who torpedoed Theresa May’s chances of winning the 2017 election outright, the answer should not be in doubt. The Prime Minister was the author of her own destruction – or, at least, the staggering and needless destruction of her party’s majority. The decision to hold an early election

The overall result of the general election isn’t really in doubt: the Tories will be returned to government tomorrow with an increased majority. But just how big that majority is will have a huge impact on what happens at Westminster over the next few years—and that is much less clear. There are two reasons for

For the second time in this election, political campaigning is suspended because of a terrorist attack. Given the volume of terrorist attacks—three in the last three months and five other plots disrupted—you might think that the issue would have dominated the campaign. But it hasn’t. Until Theresa May’s statement today talking about how there has

The Tories want to make their closing argument in this campaign about Brexit and how Labour would raise taxes, I write in The Sun this morning. I understand that Lynton Crosby held a meeting with senior Cabinet Ministers on Tuesday which set out this strategy. I’m told that the meeting made clear that Crosby is

Theresa May turned in what, I think, was her best TV performance of the election tonight. May engaged with the questions more than she has in previous TV events, and was more confident and fluent than she had been on Monday night. After a prolonged Tory wobble, her performance will have steadied jangling Tory nerves.

When Theresa May decided to go for an early election, she transformed the nature of her premiership. Up to that point she had been the steady hand on the tiller, righting a ship of state buffeted by the Brexit referendum. By going to the country to win her own mandate, she sought to become more

The BBC’s seven-way election debate proved that you can’t have a proper debate with seven people in it. It was a shouty, bity affair in which no one really stood out. This meant that Theresa May pretty much got away with her decision not to turn up. Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t as good on this programme

Jeremy Corbyn turned in one of his most assured media performances in the Sky / Channel 4  ‘Battle for Number 10’ programme. Answering questions from the audience, Corbyn was confident and kept his temper under some hostile questioning. He took every opportunity to return to his key messages. He framed them in a reasonable, rather

Jeremy Corbyn and his crowd always blame Britain first, I argue in The Sun today. They view the West as being responsible for the world’s ills. It was this worldview that led Corbyn to say in his first speech since the Manchester attack that British foreign policy increases the risk of terrorism at home. Now,

Jeremy Corbyn first became an MP 30-odd years ago. Until he became Labour leader, Corbyn was a relatively unknown figure with all sorts of fringe views. Corbyn said, and did, a lot of things with minimal scrutiny because no one thought he would ever be in a position of power. But Corbyn is now Labour’s

One might have expected the general election campaign to resume in a softly-softly fashion following the Manchester bombing. But Jeremy Corbyn’s speech tomorrow morning will lead to some of the most vigorous political debate we have seen in recent times. Corbyn will say ‘Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed