James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
Insurrection was in the air in Bournemouth this weekend as MPs and activists descended on the seaside town for a Tory grassroots jamboree. ‘Take control’ was the aim of the Conservative Democratic Organisation’s inaugural meeet, with 250-odd diehards defying the ‘communist barricades’ of the rail strikes to pitch up at the Bournemouth International Conference. The
The local elections last week proved to be a disappointing night for Reform UK. Prior to polling day, its leader Richard Tice had talked up the ‘huge appetite’ among voters for Reform but the party averaged a mere six per cent of the vote in the wards where it stood. It won just half a
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Will Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, lose her supporters in the ERG, after the government confirmed that it would be going back on its pledge to remove all EU legislation from UK law by the end of 2023? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews.
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James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Stephen Bush about the Lord’s debate on the Illegal Migration Bill. Now in its third reading, will the government face substantive amendments to the legislation?
Today in parliament has been dominated by the Upper House, where peers are scrutinising the Illegal Migration Bill at its second reading. The debate is only halfway through but the legislation has been subject to something resembling a turkey shoot as noble lord after noble lord has queued up to attack the government’s proposals. The
With gains of 643 councillors and 22 authorities, Labour clearly had a good result in Thursday’s local elections. Yet with the BBC and Sky both publishing vote share projections which show the party falling short of an overall majority – winning just shy of 300 seats rather than the necessary 326 – the spectre of
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James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman about the fallout from the local elections, some of the arrests made during the Coronation and Rishi Sunak’s plans to give powers to the pharmacies.
Conversations between the Prime Minister and the monarchy are, by convention, kept strictly confidential – and taken to the grave. But Boris Johnson has always been someone who thinks rules are there to be broken. His former spin chief, Guto Harri, has just confirmed something that they tried to cover up at the time: the
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Is the government using mass immigration to mask failures in the welfare system? James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Matthew Goodwin, author of Values, Voice and Virtue.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his party is on track to win the next general election after the Tories were hammered in local polls across England. The story of these local elections however appear to be Tory disaster rather than Labour triumph. The BBC’s Projected National Share (PNS) of the vote – based on
Results are still coming in fast but one of the big stories of this local election night has been the Tories’ southern discomfort. Onetime safe seats in the once-impregnable ‘Blue Wall’ have fallen overnight to the Liberal Democrats and to a lesser extent, the Greens and Labour too. The leaders of Windsor and Mid Suffolk
It’s local election week which means all parties are engaged in the great game of expectation management. Just over 8,000 seats in 230 unitary, metropolitan and district councils are up for grabs this time, with seven in ten voters in England able to cast their votes on Thursday. The last time these seats were contested
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A judge has ruled that strikes by the Royal College of Nursing be cut short by a day, because the six-month mandate for strike action will have passed. Two more unions are still to vote on Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s pay offer. If they support it, could the RCN change their mind on the deal?
For the next ten days, the local elections remain the focus of Tories across the country. But already attention in CCHQ is turning towards the next big contest facing the Conservatives: the London mayoralty in May 2024. The London party board met on Monday to fast-track the candidate selection process, with formal applications now expected
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Colin Beattie, the SNP’s former treasurer, said today that he ‘didn’t know’ about the party’s purchase of a motorhome worth £100,000, the vehicle at the centre of an ongoing police probe into SNP finances. What’s going on? And as the military begins to evacuate British citizens from Sudan, did the Foreign Office react fast enough?
One man’s loss is another’s gain. Rishi Sunak has acted swiftly to fill the gap left by Dominic Raab’s resignation, appointing 46-year old barrister Alex Chalk as his new Justice Secretary. Like Sunak, he is a Wykehamist who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet back in July, citing the Paterson, Partygate and Pincher scandals. The appointment flies in the
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Today was meant to be judgement day for Dominic Raab as we learnt the outcome of Adam Tolley’s investigation into historic bullying claims made against the deputy PM. His fate now rests squarely in Rishi Sunak’s hands. Will he resign? Also on the podcast, there have been a couple of amendments tabled today on the
After a five-month investigation Adam Tolley KC has today given Downing Street his report into the bullying claims against Dominic Raab. Rishi Sunak is now considering its findings before deciding whether Raab broke ministerial rules. However, Raab has some time to wait – with a Downing Street source suggesting that there will be no further
Ministers have agreed to back two amendments to its flagship Illegal Migration Bill as part of No. 10’s attempt to ward off the latest Tory rebellion. The first is an agreement to change the law so that judges can no longer block migrant deportations. An amendment will give the Home Secretary the power to ‘disregard’
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The investigation into Rishi Sunak leads several papers today, but how much does it really matter? On the episode, James Heale talks to Katy Balls and Conservative Home editor Paul Goodman about why the episode is unlikely to hurt Sunak in the long run. They also discuss the coming report on Dominic Raab’s alleged workplace
