James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The election campaign will resume on Friday, with both Labour and the Tory national campaigns re-staring. This is welcome news. The decision to pause the campaign in the light of this horrific terrorist attack was understandable. But the danger, with only 15 days to go until polling day, was that a prolonged pause would have
Theresa May has just spoken from Downing Street about the terrorist attack in Manchester. She said that the police and the security services believed they know the identity of the suicide bomber, but do not wish to reveal it for now. She said that the bomber had blown themselves up by one of the exits
Today was not a day that Theresa May will want to repeat anytime soon. In the morning, she had to U-turn on one of the centrepieces of her election manifesto and in the afternoon, she faced the most difficult interview she has had as Prime Minister. Theresa May never really got onto the front foot
U-turning on a manifesto commitment just days after it was announced would be embarrassing for any politician. But it is particularly humiliating when your whole campaign is based around the idea that you offer competent, ‘strong and stable’ leadership. But even leaving aside the immediate political repercussions, this U-turn is a deep blow to Theresa
When he was asked what kind of generals he wanted, Napoleon replied ‘lucky ones’. Theresa May certainly fits into that category, as I say in The Sun this morning. In the Tory leadership race her two main rivals, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, destroyed each other leaving her facing Andrea Leadsom who promptly blew herself
When you go to the polling station, Tory campaign chiefs want you to be thinking about Brexit and who you want as Prime Minister negotiating for Britain. This point was underlined at today’s Tory manifesto launch. Theresa May was introduced by the Brexit Secretary David Davis and she herself concentrated on why Brexit makes the
Normally, the first anniversary of a prime minister taking office is the occasion for a lot of opinion polls and assessments. But by going to the country early, Theresa May has pre-empted that. By the time she has been in No. 10 a year, the voters will already have delivered their verdict via the ballot
It hasn’t taken long for the Tories to try to turn Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France to their advantage in this election. At first glance, the triumph of the pro-EU Macron—the warm up music for his victory address was the Ode to Joy, not the Marseillaise—who has talked about luring British business and research to
It was tempting to view Theresa May’s Downing Street broadside against the European Commission as purely a piece of domestic political theatre. After all, Jean-Claude Juncker is a more convincing bogeyman than Jeremy Corbyn. Yet having made further enquiries, I think that May was also keen to send a message to EU capitals with her
The local elections have given us the clearest demonstration yet of how UK politics is being realigned. The Ukip vote has collapsed and is moving in large numbers to the Tories. Combine this with the erosion of the Labour vote under Jeremy Corbyn, and places where you never thought the Tories would win are turning
After the Brexit rows of the last few days, Donald Tusk—the President of the European Council—has intervened and urged everyone to calm down. ‘These negotiations are difficult enough as they are. If we start arguing before they even begin, they will become impossible. The stakes are too high to let our emotions get out of hand.
The most intriguing aspect of today’s local elections is the contest for the new West Midlands Mayoralty. In normal times, you’d have this marked down as a shoe-in for Labour—they have 21 of the region’s 28 MPs and control six of its seven local authorities. But these aren’t normal political times and the Tories have
General elections are meant to produce a government and an opposition — ideally, a decent version of both. It is obvious what government this election will deliver: a Tory one with an increased majority. That, after all, is one of the reasons why Theresa May has decided to go to the country three years early.
Theresa May has kicked off the Tory general election campaign with a remarkably punchy statement in Downing Street. She accused the European Commission of trying to interfere in the UK general election. She said that the hardening of the Commission’s negotiating stance and the leaks of recent days ‘had been deliberately timed to affect the
Considering that their party is expected to win by a landslide, the Tory spin doctors sound unusually panicked. They are keen to point out that the polls aren’t always right, and the pollsters are still trying to correct what they got wrong at the last general election. They insist that national voting tells you little
If the polls are anywhere near right, then Theresa May will be queen of all she surveys on June the 9th. As I say in The Sun today, not since Margaret Thatcher in her pomp will a Prime Minister have been so dominant over her Cabinet. She’ll have her own, sizable majority, her own mandate
A man in his late twenties has been arrested on Whitehall today and is being detained under the terrorism act. The BBC are reporting that the man was known to the police. Photos from the scene appear to show a knife on the ground. The police are saying that following this arrest there is no
Considering that their party is expected to win by a landslide, the Tory spin doctors sound unusually panicked. They are keen to point out that the polls aren’t always right, and the pollsters are still trying to correct what they got wrong at the last general election. They insist that national voting tells you little
PMQs went on for an almost an hour today as John Bercow attempted to get in as many valedictories from retiring MPs as possible. But there were two significant pieces of news made in today’s session. First, in answer to Angus Robertson, Theresa May refused to say that the triple lock would continue if the
It was a badly kept secret in Westminster that very senior figures in the UK government wanted Francois Fillon to win the French presidential election. He was regarded as being the best candidate for Britain, and the one most likely to be pragmatic on Brexit. But with Fillon out, attention switches to Macron—the overwhelming favourite.
