James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
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Israel struck military and nuclear targets in Iran overnight in a major escalation of hostilities in the Middle East has begun further strikes on Friday. Iran has vowed retaliation though President Trump has warned Iran and encouraged the Iranians to continue negotiations over their nuclear programme. Further talks had been due to take place this
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Gordon Brown may not be every teenager’s political pin-up. But as an Oxford student, Rachel Reeves proudly kept a framed photo of him in her bedroom. It was Brown who introduced the first multi-year spending review in 1998: the kind of big political set-piece speech which he relished. Reeves’s speech on Wednesday showed the level
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There were few surprises in Rachel Reeves’s spending review today. Health was the big winner, with a £29bn increase in day-to-day spending and £39bn was announced to build social and affordable housing. The main eyebrow-raiser was the announcement that the Home Office will end the use of hotels for asylum seekers within this parliament; this
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Rachel Reeves has pledged a ‘new era of nuclear power’ as the government confirms a £14.2 billion investment in the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. This comes on the eve of Labour’s spending review, with the government expected to highlight spending pledges designed to give a positive impression of Labour’s handling of the economy.
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‘There are no disasters, only opportunities.’ Boris Johnson’s famous mantra is being embraced by Nigel Farage as he tries to turn Reform into a vehicle for government. Zia Yusuf’s un-resignation as party chairman last week offered Farage the chance to restructure his top team. At a press conference this morning, a chastened Yusuf handed over
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This afternoon Rachel Reeves finally completed the longest U-turn in British politics. Ahead of her spending review on Wednesday, the Chancellor confirmed she intends to reverse most of the cuts to winter fuel that she announced last summer. In July, she removed the benefit from ten million pensioners; today she admitted she will restore it
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James Nation, formerly a special adviser to Rishi Sunak and now an MD at Forefront Advisers, joins the Spectator’s deputy political editor James Heale and economics editor Michael Simmons, to talk through the latest on the government’s spending review, which is due to be announced on Wednesday. The last holdout appears to be Home Secretary Yvette
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Well, that was quick. Within 48 hours of his resignation as party chairman, Zia Yusuf has returned to the Reform fold. In a joint Sunday Times interview with Nigel Farage, Yusuf has admitted to making a ‘mistake’. He will now take up a new revised role within the party, focusing on policy formation and leading on the
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Following last month’s local elections disaster, Kemi Badenoch’s team promised a ‘step change’. So just 24 hours after Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride offered a ‘mea culpa’ for the mini-Budget, Badenoch has followed up by suggesting that the UK ‘will likely need to leave’ the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It comes amid a hardening
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Scottish Labour have a new MSP today as Davy Russell won the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, taking the seat from the SNP. Labour won with 31.6% of the vote with the SNP second on 29.4%, Reform close behind on 26.1% and the Conservatives a distance fourth with just 6% of the vote; this marks
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Zia Yusuf resigned this evening from his position as chairman of Reform UK, saying: ‘I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time.’ This comes after he tweeted yesterday that it was ‘dumb’ for Sarah Pochin, Reform’s newest MP, to urge the Prime Minister to ban
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Zia Yusuf has tonight resigned as chairman of Reform UK. In a statement, he posted on X that ‘I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.’ He has worked for Reform for 11 months, during which time, he noted: ‘I
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How Reform plans to win Just a year ago, Nigel Farage ended his self-imposed exile from politics and returned to lead Reform. Since then, Reform have won more MPs than the Green Party, two new mayoralties, a parliamentary by-election, and numerous councils. Now the party leads in every poll and, as our deputy political editor
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Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride delivered a speech today where he attempted to banish the ghost of Liz Truss and improve the Conservatives’ reputation over fiscal credibility. And he compared leader Kemi Badenoch to Thatcher, saying she too struggled at first and will ‘get better’ at the dispatch box. LBC broadcaster Iain Dale and the Spectator’s
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The Shadow Chancellor’s speech this morning was a predictable one. Mel Stride is the kind of Conservative who spin doctors love to send out on the media round: smart, well-briefed and able to stick to the party line. He is also the kind of Conservative who was very much not a fan of Liz Truss,
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‘I’ve changed my mind!’ It is a year this week since Nigel Farage uttered those fateful words, marking his decision to return as leader of Reform UK during the general election campaign. Much has changed in those 12 months. The party’s polling has doubled, membership has soared to 235,000 and new faces make up most
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Rachel Reeves unveiled billions of pounds of investment today for transport and infrastructure projects, as Labour attempts to demonstrate that next week’s spending review is not just about departmental cuts. However, most of the political noise today has centred on her announcement that the winter fuel cut will be reversed by the end of the
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Whisper it, but there was some rather good lines amid the dross of today’s PMQs. ‘Mr Speaker, I asked the Prime Minister what he believes in’, jibed Kemi Badenoch at one point. ‘He had to look in his folder to find out the answer.’ The Speaker responded in kind. ‘Please’, he said, during one of
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Former Commander of Joint Forces Command – and one of the authors of the Strategic Defence Review – General Sir Richard Barrons joins Lucy Dunn and James Heale to talk through the main conclusions of the review, and the questions it raises. Labour have talked up the fact that this is the first government in
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Today the government has published the long-awaited strategic defence review. The brief was to take a new look at some of the challenges to the UK in 2025, and what is needed to ensure our security and reset our defence priorities. We are still waiting for some of the detail, but so far we know:
