James Heale is The Spectator’s political correspondent.
14 min listen
This week Nadine Dorries’s new book The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson has been published, and it has ruffled some feathers in Westminster. In it, she claims there was a plot orchestrated by a secret cabal of back room advisors, politicians and individuals in the media to overthrow Boris Johnson. Just what is ‘the movement’?
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Despite mounting pressure from Conservative MPs to remove Suella Braverman, no announcement has been made yet. How much pressure is Rishi Sunak facing over the Home Secretary’s stand-off with the Met Police? Also on the podcast, Natasha Feroze speaks to James Heale and Isabel Harman about the Conservative Home Cabinet league table ahead of a
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Suella Braverman has again dominated conversation with her controversial rhetoric, this time comparing the pro-Palestinian marches to the Orange Marches of Northern Ireland in a punchy op-ed for the Times. Has she finally gone too far for this government? Max Jeffery talks to Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Max Jeffery and Cindy Yu.
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It was the King’s speech today. King Charles announced that the government would introduce new laws to, among other things, force criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, scrap most jail sentences of less than a year, and sell all new houses as freehold properties. Is it enough for the Tories to turn around their deficit
King Charles has just finished taking part in the state opening of parliament for the first time as monarch. The purpose of today’s King’s Speech was to set out the government’s priorities for the coming parliamentary session, which will be the final one before the next general election. This was Sunak’s chance to draw political
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WhatsApps between officials in Boris Johnson’s government have been centre-stage at the Covid inquiry this week. Is the app encouraging on-the-hoof policymaking and nasty briefing? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Guido Fawkes chief Paul Staines.
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This week the prime minister hosted his landmark AI summit at Bletchley Park which wrapped up with an interview with Elon Musk, who warned that AI will one day render all jobs obsolete. The who’s who of AI were in attendance over the two days as well the likes of Kamala Harris and Ursula von
So, the AI summit – what was that all about? The great Bletchley Park jamboree concluded last night with an hour-long chat between Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk. As tech bros and world leaders depart today, Sunak’s team can reflect on a job well done. Prior to the summit, there was much sneering about whether
The Covid Inquiry has been taking evidence from Helen MacNamara, Deputy Cabinet Secretary from 2020 to 2021. During Dominic Cummings’s cross-examination yesterday it was revealed that he had wanted to ‘handcuff her [MacNamara] and escort’ her out of No. 10. Yet much of her evidence this morning corroborates his account (or rather criticism) of Whitehall
Boris Johnson wasn’t in attendance at the Covid Inquiry this morning, but he was certainly there in spirit. The ex-Prime Minister suffered a bevvy of blows in absentia, in the form of WhatsApps published from his former No. 10 team. Among the more explosive were his blunt views on a second national lockdown in October
If you work in politics, chances are you have drunk in the Westminster Arms. Located just off Parliament Square, every night it hosts the collection of hacks, wonks and mandarins that comprise the SW1 bubble. For 30 years, Gerry Dolan has run the pub with his mix of Irish humour and no-nonsense determination. When we
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The Covid inquiry enters its most dramatic week, questioning Martin Reynolds (a.k.a. ‘Party Marty’), as well as former No. 10 advisors Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings. But it seems that the inquiry has gone down more the route of interpersonal drama rather than lessons learnt for government decisionmaking. So what’s the point of it? Katy
Rishi Sunak has tonight moved quickly to sack a Tory MP who called for a ceasefire in Gaza. Paul Bristow, the MP for Peterborough, was removed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) less than two hours after the Telegraph reported that he had become the first Conservative MP to publicly support such a plan. According
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Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure from his party to back a call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The week began with the Labour leader correcting comments he made on LBC that Israel had a right to defend itself. But now, politicians to the left of his party are campaigning for a ceasefire.
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Keir Starmer has had a difficult week, trying to keep his party on message over the war in Israel and Gaza. The official position is that Israel has a right to respond to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October, but a number of Labour MPs are now calling for a ceasefire. Could Starmer have better handled
Former Justice minister Crispin Blunt has tonight confirmed that he is the Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances. In a statement posted on Twitter/X, he wrote the following statement: It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape. I am confirming
‘Dr Death’ was the nickname bestowed on Rishi Sunak by one scientist during Covid. But ‘Dr Doom’ seemed a more apt sobriquet at certain points during his big speech today on artificial intelligence. The Prime Minister evoked the spectre of humanity ‘losing control of AI completely’ to a ‘superintelligence’ that could result in ‘extinction’. He
Rishi Sunak is in office but Liz Truss remains in power. That’s the line that Labour are pushing on today’s announcement that the cap on bankers’ bonuses will be abolished next week. The change was initially announced by Kwasi Kwarteng in the infamous mini-budget of September 2022. It was one of the few measures to be retained when Chancellor Jeremy
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This week marks one year since Rishi Sunak entered No.10. Faced with the weekend’s double by-election defeat, Labour’s lead in the polls and another by-election coming soon, what can Rishi Sunak still do to turn things around? Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale.
It was a year ago on Wednesday that Liz Truss left office. As the ministerial cavalcade rolled out of Downing Street for the short drive to Buckingham Palace, so she entered the history books as the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history. Truss was still reeling from the events of the past seven weeks. The
