James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
Westminster is strangely quiet today. Most MPs are back in their constituencies. But the place will feel very different next week when there’ll probably be two rounds of voting in a Tory leadership contest. The speed of the contest – the 1922 executive is likely to propose having the parliamentary rounds wrapped up by 21 July – will
With Boris Johnson going, talk now turns to the next Conservative leadership race. Tory leadership contests are always more like the Grand National than the Derby: crowded, unpredictable and with the favourite often not making it. But even by these standards, the coming contest looks remarkably open. There will be no shortage of candidates. Suella
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In this week’s episode:After Boris, who’s next?On the day the Prime Minister resigns, Katy Balls and James Forsyth discuss the aftermath of Boris Johnson’s premiership. Who might be the next Tory leader? (0.51).Also this week:Who are the wealthy Russian émigrés ready to fight in the war?Sean Thomas talks with Moscow-based journalist, Gabriel Gavin about the
Boris Johnson should stand down with immediate effect. Yes, he has managed to fill various cabinet posts. But he will find it more difficult to fill the junior ranks of government. It would clearly be better for the smooth running of government for all the ministers who quit yesterday to return. But that won’t happen
In the end, the Prime Minister was damaged irreparably before he resigned on Thursday. The confidence vote wounded him. Then two by-election defeats revealed that people were voting tactically against the Tories. A party that tolerated Boris Johnson because he was a vote-winner now concluded he was an electoral liability: rebellions followed and then (finally)
Tonight it is clear that the only way Tory MPs can remove Boris Johnson is through the new 1922 executive changing the rules on Monday and a new confidence ballot on Tuesday. Johnson has ignored the pleas from several of his Cabinet to take a dignified exit. He is instead, in the words of one
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Despite mass resignations and calls from newly appointed ministers to resign, Boris has dug his heels in and refused to leave. What will be his next moves? And are the rumours of a snap general election really on the cards? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth.
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As several cabinet ministers have resigned, is it hours, days, weeks or months before Boris Johnson is kicked out? James Forsyth joins Katy Balls from the roof of Parliament.
Boris Johnson is now facing a situation where if he doesn’t resign he will face more cabinet resignations. Johnson is currently in front of the liaison committee, but when he returns to his office he will have a delegation of cabinet ministers waiting to see him who will him he is done and that he
Late last night, Boris Johnson appeared to have stabilised the situation, albeit temporarily. He had managed to appoint a new Chancellor and Health Secretary and no other cabinet ministers had followed Sunak and Javid out the door. But this morning, his situation has rapidly deteriorated. Resignations from the junior ranks started up again, previously loyal
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Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid have resigned from government. In letters to the Prime Minister this evening, Sunak said the government ‘cannot continue like this’, while Javid told the PM that ‘the situation will not change under your leadership.’ Will more ministers now resign? And is this the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership? Isabel Hardman
The Chancellor and the Health Secretary have both resigned and at least one more cabinet minister is considering their position. This is the cabinet moving against Boris Johnson. It reflects the growing sense in cabinet that, as Sunak puts it, ‘we cannot continue like this’. This puts Boris Johnson in the gravest danger of his
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Boris Johnson was briefed ‘in person’ on a formal Whitehall complaint into Chris Pincher, a former Foreign Office official said today, despite No. 10 saying yesterday that the Prime Minister was unaware of specific allegations against the MP. With the government having to explain itself once again, how much more will Tory MPs take? Max
Another day, another scandal. The Simon McDonald letter, which John Connolly writes about here, has escalated the Pincher story. It challenges the entire No. 10 account of what Boris Johnson knew about previous Pincher allegations and when. The reaction of Tory MPs to this latest development is a combination of exhaustion and despair. One influential
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Boris Johnson knew of media reports about Chris Pincher’s conduct when he invited him to join the government, it emerged today. How serious a crisis is this for the government? And as the Prime Minister today returned from three international summits, was he able to put his domestic problems behind him in the Commons? Katy
Tory MPs are exhausted. Speak to them and they just want all these scandals to go away. One normally cheerful backbencher told me they ‘have never been so depressed about politics’ and that most of their colleagues feel the same way. The Chris Pincher scandal is particularly grim. Regardless of whether No. 10 knew about
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Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about Nicola Sturgeon’s latest plans to hold a referendum on Scottish independence on 19th October 2023, and whether they will even get off the ground.
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Last night Chris Pincher resigned from his role in the government – after ‘drinking far too much’ and ’embarrassing himself’. Witnesses reportedly saw the deputy chief whip ‘groping’ men at the Carlton Club in London. Also on the podcast, today is the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China. Can the government
The Chris Pincher situation is much worse for the government than the Neil Parish one was. Parish was a backbencher, Pincher was – until his resignation – the deputy chief whip and had played a key role in the shadow whipping operation which shored up Boris Johnson at the start of the year. Given the nature of
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After an eight-day world tour, Boris Johnson is back on British soil to face Tory MPs for the first time since the two by-election defeats. Meanwhile, the privileges committee begins with Harriet Harman as its chair. Critics have suggested this inquiry into whether the Prime Minister misled parliament over partygate risks becoming a ‘kangaroo court’.
