James Heale is The Spectator’s deputy political editor.
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The Daily Telegraph have run a story this week that Angela Rayner may have dodged stamp duty on her second home. But beyond the story, its the photos of the Deputy Prime Minister on the beach at Hove – drinking and vaping – that went viral. Christian Calgie, senior political correspondent for the Daily Express,
Party conference begins next week when Reform UK kick off their two-day jamboree in Birmingham. Spirits within Nigel Farage’s party are high after a successful summer in which they dominated the recess period with a well-executed ‘flood the zone’ media strategy. A steady drumbeat of weekly announcements culminated on Tuesday when Reform’s long-awaited deportation strategy
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Human rights barrister Dr Anna Loutfi and deputy political editor James Heale join Michael Simmons to unpack the latest court ruling over the migrants housed at the Bell Hotel. The government has won an appeal today – but how much of a victory is it really? Anna explains how the legal questions considered by this
Asylum seekers will be allowed to stay at the Bell Hotel in Epping after the Court of Appeal lifted a temporary injunction preventing them being housed there. The High Court ruled last week that 138 men living at the Essex hotel must leave by 12 September. But they will now be allowed to stay after the
Angela Rayner’s living arrangements are causing the Deputy Prime Minister a headache. The Daily Telegraph has today splashed on claims that Rayner allegedly ‘dodged’ £40,000 in stamp duty on her new £800,000 seaside flat in Hove, East Sussex, after telling tax authorities it was her main home. The paper reports that she removed her name from the deeds
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James Heale writes in The Spectator this week that Keir Starmer is facing a three-pronged attack from the left: the Greens, the Gaza independents and this new – as yet untitled – Corbyn party. It was not so long ago that we were giving Starmer credit for his ruthless streak, purging the party of the
If there is a hallmark of Keir Starmer’s leadership, it is a willingness to bash the left. For five years, he has repeatedly sided with his moderate factions to make Labour electable. Corbynites have been purged from parliament and the party machine. Principles and policies have been changed to meet the electorate’s approval. Last summer’s
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As James Heale writes online for the Spectator today, ‘two issues continue to plague the government’: how best to attack Nigel Farage. and how to frame an incrementalist approach to policy ‘when the national mood favours radical change’. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for UK-EU relations, attempted to tackle both today as he
Another red-letter day for Reform as the party unveils its second defector at Holyrood. Graham Simpson, a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), has today crossed the floor to join the ranks of Nigel Farage’s ever-expanding army. He is Reform’s second ever MSP, after Michelle Ballantyne’s short-lived spell from January to May 2021. Simpson,
As recess draws towards its close, two issues continue to plague the government. The first: how best to attack Nigel Farage, riding high on a wave of migration outrage? The second: how to frame ministers’ modest protest, at a time when the national mood favours radical change? Today, it was the turn of Nick Thomas-Symonds
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Today James Heale has been on quite the magical mystery tour. Bundled into a bus at 7.45 a.m. along with a group of other hacks, he was sent off to an aircraft hangar in Oxfordshire where Nigel Farage finally unveiled his party’s long-awaited deportations strategy. The unveiling of ‘Operation Restoring Justice’ was accompanied by some
In an Oxfordshire aircraft hanger this morning, Nigel Farage finally unveiled his party’s long-awaited deportations strategy. For six weeks, asylum and small boats has dominated the airwaves. Now, after a successful summer offensive, Farage laid out his plan to deal with the problems he has exploited so successfully. To stop the small boats, he is
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Since the government’s decision to proscribe the group Palestine Action, arrests have mounted across the country, raising questions not only about the group’s tactics but also about the government’s handling of free speech and protest rights. On today’s special edition of Coffee House Shots, Michael Simmons is joined by The Spectator’s James Heale and journalist
A recent trend has emerged at Prime Ministers’ Questions. Each week, after Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch have had their exchange, a series of Labour backbenchers will stand up. Among the usual points about constituency matters, there is typically at least one Member who will take aim at either Reform UK or its leader, Nigel
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GCSE results day has brought a mixed picture; the pass rate has fallen, yet the regional gap has reduced and the gender gap is the narrowest it has ever been. Isabel Hardman and Sir Nick Gibb, former Conservative schools minister, join James Heale to discuss education policy, how changing cultural expectations may be helping the
It is another scratchy, difficult week for the government. Inflation is up, to 3.8 per cent in July – the highest level since January 2024. Asylum applications are now at record levels with 111,000 applying during Keir Starmer’s first year in office. But the real body blow is the interim High Court injunction to stop
Nigel Farage is adept at riding the currents of British politics. When he named Reform after the Canadian party in 2020, it was a statement of intent. Like Preston Manning in the 1990s, he aimed to displace this country’s main centre-right party and refashion it in his image. But where Manning fell short, handing over
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What a difference six months makes. The last time Zelensky and Trump met in Washington we were mourning the end of America’s commitment to security in Europe and a new era of isolationism. But yesterday was a totally different story – and Zelensky deserves much of the credit for his change in tactics. Trump complimented
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Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, joins James Heale to discuss his campaign to improve working class representation in politics. Tom, newly elected in 2024, explains how getting his mum involved in local politics in West Yorkshire led him to think about the structural issues that exist preventing more people from getting
The decision to clear Ricky Jones of encouraging violent disorder has not gone down well with many senior politicians. Footage of the suspended Labour councillor went viral last August after he suggested that far-right protesters should have their throats slit. Jones, 58, drew his finger across his throat and called demonstrators ‘disgusting Nazi fascists’. On
