James Heale is The Spectator’s political correspondent.
12 min listen
Long term borrowing costs for the government have reached levels not seen since 1998, and 10 year UK gilts are now at their highest point since the 2008 financial crash. Both surpass the levels seen during the Liz Truss premiership – and this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the former PM. A set of similar circumstances,
18 min listen
How do you solve a problem like Elon? We have spent much of the past week talking on the podcast about Labour vs Musk, and the tech billionaire’s vocal criticism of how the government is dealing with the grooming gang scandal. But Reform UK are having their own issues with the volatile owner of X.
17 min listen
In a speech this morning, the Prime Minister unveiled his plans to tackle the NHS backlog and hit back at comments Elon Musk has made regarding grooming gangs, the government’s response to them, and about the Prime Minister’s own role in their prosecution. Whilst the Prime Minister’s speech was plagued by the familiar platitudes about
Keir Starmer’s speech this morning served as a neat microcosm of his six-month premiership. There he was, all primed to explain his plans for cutting NHS waiting lists – and yet he ended up having to talk about grooming gangs. After a frenzied week in British politics, it served as the latest example of a
The next 48 hours could well spell the end of Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Prime Minister – the last major western leader of the pre-Trump era – is reportedly considering resignation, ahead of a key national caucus meeting on Wednesday. Over Christmas, a growing chorus of Liberal MPs from across the country have been issuing
19 min listen
The grooming gangs scandal is back in the news this week after Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips rejected calls for a government inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, prompting a conservative backlash. Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, called it ‘shameful’; Liz Truss, the former Prime Minister, labelled Phillips’s title ‘a perversion of the English
14 min listen
Happy New Year and – of course – happy new long-term social care plan. Not only has Labour announced a ‘longer-term’ solution to a problem the party itself has acknowledged is urgent by setting up a commission that won’t report until 2028, but it has also taken steps to make that reform even harder to
State failure was a consistent theme of British politics in 2024. So as the new year begins, attention has turned to perhaps the most egregious instance of that malaise in modern times: the horrific scandal of grooming gangs in dozens of UK cities. Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister, has rejected calls for a government inquiry
19 min listen
Happy New Year! And it could prove to be a very happy new year for Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. They provided some of the stand-out political drama of 2024, with Lee Anderson’s defection and Farage’s return, before winning five seats at the general election (as well as a hefty chunk of the popular
22 min listen
The former US President died has died age 100 surrounded by his family in Plains. Known as the longest-lived US President in history, The Spectator’s political correspondent James Heale and Freddy Gray discuss Jimmy Carter’s legacy both in and out of office, how he compares to Joe Biden as one-term Presidents, and the way Jimmy Carter’s Christianity
On Christmas Day, 12 million people watched the will-they-won’t-they couple Smithy and Nessa finally marry after 17 years in the finale of the hit BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey. Yet for all the cheery sentiment, it’s a depressing thought that – statistically – in the real world the characters would be earning roughly the
22 min listen
Santa will have had a tricky time this year fulfilling all the Christmas wish lists in Westminster. Keir Starmer is desperately hoping for a change in the political weather, and Kemi Badenoch would like an in with Donald Trump. Ed Davey dreams that Labour’s electoral troubles will get so bad that proportional representation starts to
He was the peanut farmer from Georgia who rose to become the leader of the free world. Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100, served as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. While his term in office was not a success, his post-presidency – the longest in American history
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Last night we got the news that Peter Mandelson is expected to be named the next UK ambassador to Washington. Despite months of speculation, Labour held firm on making a decision until the results of the US election, and with Trump entering the White House in the new year they have gone with an experienced
Peter Mandelson is expected to shortly be named the next UK ambassador to Washington. The announcement – broken by the Times – comes ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump on 20 January. A government source is quoted as telling the BBC: ‘The fact the Prime Minister has chosen to make a political appointment and sent Lord Mandelson
Close your eyes in today’s Liaison Committee hearing and you might have thought Rishi Sunak was still prime minister. Keir Starmer clearly shares his predecessor’s enthusiasm for this end-of-term parliamentary ritual. His smile was broad and his hands flurried as he relished the chance to show off his knowledge in front of two dozen select
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After days of speculation online, the alleged Chinese spy has been named as Yang Tegbo. This latest example of Chinese espionage has opened up a number of debates in Westminster, firstly around Labour’s push to ‘reset’ its relationship with China, as well as the conversation around the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme – a number of
This afternoon Angela Rayner will unveil potentially the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s. The Housing Secretary will speak at 1:50 p.m. on her plans for a devolution ‘revolution’. All areas covered by two tiers of local government — generally district and county councils — will be asked to submit proposals to merge
14 min listen
Labour will reveal plans today to re-design local government, with district councils set to be abolished, and more elected mayors introduced across England. The plans could be the biggest reforms of their type since the 1970s, but with the May 2025 local elections set to be Labour’s first big electoral test since the general election,
19 min listen
New research this week suggested that a majority of Brexit voters would accept the return of freedom of movement in exchange for access to the EU single market. The poll, conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), found that 54% of Brexit voters – and 68% of all respondents – would accept this.
