James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has tonight been forced to stall the Bill which would hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius. The legislation enabling the deal was expected to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday. But this evening, it was revealed that the votes have been delayed amid parliamentary ping-pong and
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With the Conservatives on watch for further defectors, academic Richard Johnson and Conservative peer Danny Finkelstein join James Heale to discuss whether British politics rewards traitors or faithfuls. Richard points out that often personal success is dependent on whether the party goes on to be a major or minor player in British politics; Winston Churchill
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Three big stories for James Heale and Tim Shipman to pick over today: Andy Burnham’s return, the Donald Trump that refuses to go away, and the continued fallout of Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform. This afternoon we found out that former Labour minister Andrew Gwynne is on the brink of standing down as an MP,
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To committee room 14, where many of the remaining 117 Tory MPs crammed in tonight to hear from their leader. Kemi Badenoch was welcomed with 25 seconds of prolonged banging from her colleagues, after a week in which, first Robert Jenrick, and then Andrew Rosindell chose to defect to Reform. Having addressed both the right-wing
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Keir Starmer scored a rare win at PMQs, talking tough on Trump in light of the President’s escalating rhetoric on Greenland and the Chagos Islands. Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on foreign affairs and Britain’s relationship with the US president, and Starmer departed from his usual caution to strike a notably firmer tone. What
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China’s controversial ‘super embassy’ has been approved, after years of debate over the security risks. Campaigners had called on ministers not to give the site the green light, given its proximity to important internet cables that support the City of London. MI5 have admitted they can’t ‘wholly eliminate’ the national security risks around the site.
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Donald Trump has thrown another diplomatic hand grenade. This weekend, the President threatened sweeping tariffs on countries backing Greenland’s independence – a move that has rattled European capitals and reignited questions about America’s global strategy. Is this about Arctic security, rare earth minerals, or something more personal? As tensions rise, how should Britain respond? Can
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There used to be a sign up in No. 10 which quoted Gilbert and Sullivan. ‘Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot,’ read the plaque, installed by Harold Macmillan. It is advice that Keir Starmer has taken to heart, as Donald Trump seemingly tries to tie Nato in as many twists and bows as possible. The
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Reform UK has gained its seventh MP after Andrew Rosindell switched sides on Sunday night. The longtime Member for Romford was unveiled after a rapid series of talks earlier today. In a statement Nigel Farage said that ‘Andrew is a great patriot. The Tories’ lies and hypocrisy over the Chagos Islands betrayal has tipped him
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As Ed Davey condemned Donald Trump’s military manoeuvres abroad, Annabel Denham looked on and asked ‘what’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?’. Thinking about the Lib Dem’s longstanding europhile stance, the senior political correspondent at the Telegraph wrote: ‘the party that once stood on a tradition of civil liberties now wants us to rejoin a
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Yesterday was a breathless day in Westminster. The defection of Robert Jenrick spawned plenty of headlines and even more memes. But now that the dust has settled, how has the news been received? Was it a total victory for Reform, and evidence that they are slowly swallowing up the Tory party, or is Kemi still
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Robert Jenrick has sensationally defected to Reform. After a day that started with his sacking from the Conservatives – over plotting to reject – continued with the will-he-won’t-he drama of whether Farage would accept him as a new Reform member this afternoon; it ends with a press conference welcoming him to Farage’s gang. So what
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Robert Jenrick has rounded off an extraordinary day on the British right by formally joining Reform. Sacked by Kemi Badenoch at 11 a.m., he was in Milbank Tower announcing his defection at 4:30 p.m. A grinning Nigel Farage gave him a brief introduction – only for there to be an awkward 30-second pause before Jenrick
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Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the Tory whip and suspended his party membership. In a video on X she claims, ‘I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’. The Tories compiled a
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Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the Tory whip and suspended his party membership. In a video on X she claims she was ‘presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible’. The Tories compiled a
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It used to be said that Keir Starmer had a magic lamp, such was his fortune in opposition. If this genie did exist, it has long since crossed the floor. The U-turn on digital ID last night gave Kemi Badenoch yet another stick with which to beat Starmer at today’s session of PMQs. The Tory
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The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Russell Findlay MSP, sits down with James Heale to look ahead to May’s pivotal Holyrood elections. He pushes back against the threat from Reform, arguing that Nigel Farage is trying to be ‘all things to all people’, and he is scathing about the lack of loyalty shown by those
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The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a new strategy on the NHS. Sir Ed set out his big, bold plan this morning: scrapping the UK–US pharmaceutical deal to redirect £1.5 billion into social care. It sounds like a substantial sum – until you remember it amounts to less than 1 per cent of the NHS’s annual
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The Sopranos is not an obvious starting point when discussing the Liberal Democrats. But a TV programme about mafia, murder and manicotti offers a useful analogy for comparing Ed Davey’s strategy to that of Reform UK. David Chase, the Sopranos creator, recalls once meeting a TV exec who wanted LOP – ‘Least Offensive Programming’, the idea
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How many Tories is too many? That’s the question Westminster is asking after the unveiling of Reform’s latest defector. Nadhim Zahawi, Boris Johnson’s brief-lived Chancellor of the Exchequer, is Nigel Farage’s latest recruit. He told journalists that the UK had reached a ‘dark and dangerous’ moment, and that the country needed ‘a glorious revolution’. But
