James Heale is The Spectator’s political correspondent.
The changing nature of political power was neatly demonstrated in Westminster yesterday. In the House of Lords, members debated Labour’s plans to purge parliament of its hereditary peers. Yet down the corridor in the Commons, that same principle seems alive and well. Ten Labour MPs are descended from former members, including scions of the Benn,
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Labour are planning to publish a 10-year plan to get on the front foot when it comes to the prisons crisis. Shifting from the previous government’s preference to run the system hot to a policy of early release and carving out more places, the headline figure is that there will be 14,000 more prison places
There has been much focus in recent weeks on Reform’s potential impact on British politics. But a rival quintet of insurgents has been quietly making their own plans too. In July, four independents were elected to parliament on a staunchly pro-Palestine ticket: Shockat Adam in Leicester South, Ayoub Khan who took Birmingham Perry Barr, Adnan
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Preparations are stepping up for the government’s spending review, due in June. The Chancellor has taken a more personable approach to communicating with ministers, writing to them to outline how they plan to implement the Budget – with a crackdown on government waste and prioritising key public services. So, expect money for clean energy, the
Nigel Farage is not generally seen as one of nature’s diplomats. Yet the Reform leader is proving to be a formidable force in the international arena. This is most obvious in matters of transatlantic interest, with Donald Trump’s return offering Farage the chance to try and derail Labour’s Chagos Islands deal. But last week showed
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Following news that President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria has fallen, Natasha Feroze discusses what comes next with James Heale and Michael Stephens, senior associate fellow at RUSI. What does the Syrian conflict mean for Britain? Do we need to reconsider our counter-terrorism policy? And how will Britain’s historic relationship with Syria shape our path
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The SNP presented their budget this week in Holyrood with the news that all pensioners would receive a winter fuel allowance and a pledge to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Questions remain about how they will make this budget work financially, but it is clear that they have one eye on the 2026 Scottish Parliament
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There is a feeling of deja-vu in Westminster today as Keir Starmer unveiled his plan for change and six ‘milestones’ (not pledges) to turn the country around. They are: raising living standards in every part of the UK; rebuilding Britain with 1.5 million homes and fast-tracking planning decisions on major infrastructure projects; ending hospital backlogs
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Keir Starmer is preparing to give his big reset speech on Thursday. But the more interesting address is perhaps the one he gave last night at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet, where the Prime Minister gave his first major speech on foreign policy. The most interesting passage saw Starmer reject the notion that Britain will
Andrew RT Davies has quit this lunchtime as the leader of the Conservative group in the Welsh parliament. It follows a confidence vote among the 16 Tory Senedd Members (MSs) who narrowly voted by nine to seven to keep him on as leader. With the group split how best to proceed, Davies has opted to
Keir Starmer is preparing to give his big reset speech on Thursday. But the more interesting address is perhaps the one he gave last night. The annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet was the setting for the Prime Minister to give his first major speech on foreign policy since entering No. 10. The most interesting passage saw
After 14 years in opposition, you might have expected Labour to come into government bursting with plans for Britain. Yet the first four months of the Starmer supremacy have seen ministers commission a glut of various reviews, consultations and task forces about what they should actually do in office. Helpfully, Sky News has compiled a
Keir Starmer has today resolved one of his longstanding headaches: who to appoint to lead the civil service. The man chosen to replace Simon Case as cabinet secretary is Sir Chris Wormald. The 56-year-old has served as permanent secretary of the Department of Health since 2016, leading colleagues throughout the ups and downs of the
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The government is trailing a major policy speech ahead of Thursday, in which the Prime Minister will set out key ‘milestones’ that he wants to hit, in terms of healthcare, living standards, the climate and so on. It’s all sounding a little like a previous prime minister… Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and James
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The controversial assisted dying bill has passed its second reading in the House of Commons with a majority of 55 after just hours of debate. It now heads to committee stage for further scrutiny. What does the bill’s passing at this stage mean for its likelihood of eventually becoming law? And will Labour’s front bench
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In the small hours of this morning Louise Haigh resigned as Transport Secretary following the revelation that she had pleaded guilty to a criminal offence in 2014. Haigh admitted fraud by false representation at a magistrates’ court after she incorrectly told the police that a work mobile had been stolen in 2013. She was then
In recent years, Labour has made great political hay out of allegations of rule-breaking. The party was never slow to criticise Boris Johnson’s government for breaches of lockdown, with Sir Keir keen to depict himself as ‘Mr Rules.’ So it is sub-optimal, to say the least, that a senior minister has tonight admitted pleading guilty
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It’s been a day of press conferences in Westminster. First to Reform UK, where Nigel Farage unveiled their newest defection: Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who had served as a Conservative MP from 2015-24. Could there be more defections on the horizon? Next to Keir Starmer who reacted to the newly published migration figures from the ONS.
Anyone else want to do a Westminster press conference? Keir Starmer made it a hat-trick this afternoon when he gave his reply to the new immigration figures, following Kemi Badenoch’s comments yesterday and Nigel Farage’s response this morning. The Prime Minister’s team gave it the full No. 10 treatment: the flags, the lectern, Starmer looking
There was a business-like manner in Nigel Farage’s response to the news that net migration was more than 900,000 in 2023. Speaking this morning at a Mayfair press conference, Farage was almost flat in his reply on the ‘horrendous’ figures. He insisted that the Tories would ‘never be forgiven’ for presiding over a nine-fold increase
