James Heale

James Heale

James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.

Cleverly gains momentum as Tory MPs prepare to vote

Tory MPs are today preparing to cast their votes in the next round of the party’s leadership contest. The final four will become three, ahead of another ballot tomorrow afternoon to produce the pair who will go to the membership. It is now four weeks since Mel Stride was knocked out and the big shift

Will Starmer’s No.10 reset work?

2 min listen

Who’s in charge in Downing Street? Until recently, the answer to that question would tend to reveal whether you were a Sue Gray or Morgan McSweeney supporter. Keir Starmer’s two most senior aides were viewed to be in a power struggle over the direction of the government. But with Gray’s resignation this weekend, it is McSweeney who is running

Where is the Brexit dividend? Live at Conservative conference

37 min listen

In this special Saturday shots we hear from a panel discussion on Brexit, originally recorded at Conservative Party conference.  Four years on there are successes to point to, namely eliminating the cost of membership, new trade deals and the speed of the vaccine rollout. Yet the prevailing sense is that the full potential of Brexit

James Heale

Can Keir Starmer sell carbon capture?

The Prime Minister is in Liverpool today, outlining plans for green investment. Nearly £22billion is pledged for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production. This includes funding for two ‘carbon capture clusters’ on Merseyside and Teesside over the next 25 years. Ministers hope this will create new jobs, attract

Tugendhat clashes with Cleverly over Chagos Islands

With less than a week to go until MPs vote in the Tory leadership race, a row has blown up over an unlikely cause. A quarrel in a far away country is causing a rupture between the two men whom most colleagues think could be next to go out: Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly. Both

James Heale

Britain could regret handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius

The United Kingdom will shortly be ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under the terms of a new treaty, there will be a 99-year-lease for Diego Garcia, the tropical atoll used by the US government as a military base. It follows two years of negotiation over the strategically important cluster of islands in

Who was the winner from today’s Tory leadership speeches?

17 min listen

The final day of the party conference saw all four candidates take to the stage in a bid to have a David Cameron moment. Back in 2005, Cameron managed to gain momentum at the party conference with an assured speech (no notes) and get one over on his main rival – the then frontrunner –

James Heale

Robert Jenrick promises a ‘new Conservative party’

The Tory front runner was third up in Birmingham. Throughout this race, Robert Jenrick has sought to position himself as someone with the polish of David Cameron and the politics of Nigel Farage. His speech today was very much in that vein: a staunchly right-wing message centred around delivering a ‘new Conservative party’. Like Cameron

James Heale

Tom Tugendhat fails to rouse the Tories

It is the final day of Tory conference and the event for which we have all been waiting: the four leadership candidates are each delivering their 20-minute speeches, setting out their vision for the country. Tom Tugendhat had the mixed blessing of going first. The benefit of this was that it allowed him to deliver

Kemi Badenoch comes out fighting

It has been a busy Conservative conference for Kemi Badenoch, whose comments on Sunday about maternity pay have dominated the last few days. Each of the other candidates in the Tory leadership race is wary of saying anything that might remotely damage their chances next week. But Badenoch remains undaunted by criticism, as she showed

Liz Truss: I would have won more seats than Rishi

There are noticeably fewer people here at Tory conference in Birmingham this week. But one former MP can still reliably pack in the punters. Despite losing her seat in July, the ‘Liz Truss show’ shows no sign of any drop in enthusiasm, with some 300 conference attendees packing out a lecture theatre for a blast

Rishi Sunak urges unity in farewell as Tory leader

It was a curious farewell for Rishi Sunak this afternoon. The Tory leader has just finished his final speech to the party faithful before handing over the reins in five weeks time. Keen not to overshadow his four would-be successors, Sunak opted not to give the traditional Wednesday farewell speech to a seated audience of

Rachel Johnson, James Heale, Paul Wood, Rowan Pelling and Graeme Thomson

34 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Rachel Johnson reads her diary for the week (1:19); James Heale analyses the true value of Labour peer Lord Alli (6:58); Paul Wood questions if Israel is trying to drag America into a war with Iran (11:59); Rowan Pelling reviews Want: Sexual Fantasies, collated by Gillian Anderson (19:47); and Graeme

Inside Starmer’s dinner with Donald Trump

16 min listen

The political equivalent of the Rumble in the Jungle happened last night when Starmer sat down for a two-hour dinner with Donald Trump, following the Prime Minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly. Details of what Trump and Starmer talked about are scant: the official read-out merely says they discussed the ‘longstanding friendship’ between Britain and America. Is this

James Heale

Will ‘flatgate’ damage Keir Starmer?

Labour conference has been and gone and still Lord Alli remains in the headlines. The latest claims regarding the multimillionaire peer surround his £18 million penthouse flat in Covent Garden which Keir Starmer used repeatedly during his time as Leader of the Opposition. Two periods in particular are being scrutinised by the press. First, the

Are we on the brink of ‘all out war’ in the Middle East?

12 min listen

Events have moved on fast since Labour conference with the mounting prospect of ‘all out war’ in the Middle East. This comes after reports that Israel are preparing a ground invasion of Lebanon to push back Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. What levers are at the disposal of the international community to de-escalate this very volatile

James Heale

Inside Labour’s love affair with Lord Alli

As a peer who hates publicity, Lord Alli might have been expected to dodge the Labour conference – given the near-constant coverage of ‘donorgate’. Former staff talk of birthday cards and Christmas gifts, of Prada bags and Paul Smith shirts Yet there he was, clad in his 1990s telly executive uniform of white trainers and

What did we learn from Keir Starmer’s speech?

14 min listen

Sir Keir Starmer has declared ‘change has begun’ in Liverpool. He defended the cuts to the winter fuel payments, announced a Hillsborough Law, and saw off a heckler. But did we learn anything from the speech in terms of policy? Is he leaving conference in a better or worse position than he entered? Isabel Hardman

James Heale

Keir Starmer is in the mood to fight

Keir Starmer’s first conference speech as Prime Minister neatly embodied the past three days in Liverpool: patchy, uninspiring, with a strong finish and the promise of better tidings tomorrow. Starmer took to the stage today after a conference that feels more muted than Labour’s landslide victory might suggest. His speech was accordingly light on policy