John McTernan was political secretary to Tony Blair
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Keir Starmer delivered his new year’s speech, promising ‘Project Hope’ ahead of the general election. Critics claimed the speech was rhetoric heavy, low on policy. Having attacked the Prime Minister for dithering over the May general election, Rishi Sunak later announced it was his ‘working assumption’ to hold the general election in autumn 2024. Was
15 min listen
Keir Starmer has had a difficult week, trying to keep his party on message over the war in Israel and Gaza. The official position is that Israel has a right to respond to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October, but a number of Labour MPs are now calling for a ceasefire. Could Starmer have better handled
14 min listen
Another day, another U-turn. But this time it’s Labour, who have changed tack on their plans to end charitable status for private schools. Labour leader Keir Starmer previously declared that the charitable status for private schools could not be justified, so what’s behind the move? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan, former
14 min listen
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reshuffled his shadow cabinet but just who has made it in and who has been moved aside? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Linden Kemkaran.
21 min listen
It’s been 16 years since Tony Blair walked away from frontline politics, but rather than retiring to Fife to write his books – like another Labour leader – he has managed to build his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change into one of the most sophisticated and influential think tanks in modern politics. What role
15 min listen
Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and former Labour advisor John McTernan to discuss the ongoing Labour row over the child benefits limit. Reactions were muted during today’s shadow cabinet meeting, but is this a reflection of a looming reshuffle? Produced by Natasha Feroze.
15 min listen
It has been a mixed start to the week for Labour. Rachel Reeves has been criticised for ‘following the same tram lines’ as the Tories on spending. Meanwhile, Starmer has been boosted by the decision taken by Unite – one of the UK’s biggest unions – to retain close ties with the Labour Party. Do
14 min listen
Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and former Labour advisor John McTernan about Labour’s announcement that they are watering down their green investment pledge. Is Labour in trouble over this U-turn? And could this be seen as a change in strategy for the party? Produced by Natasha Feroze.
43 min listen
This week: In her cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls writes that as Labour prepares for government, Keir Starmer is rooting out the far left sections of his party and replacing them with moderates. She is joined by John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair, to discuss the return of the
Diane Abbott is a giant figure in the modern Labour party. As the first black woman ever to be elected to the House of Commons, and the longest serving black MP, she is an inspiration to black and brown communities – especially women – across the country. Abbott also wrote a crass and offensive letter
Offering Sue Gray a job as his chief of staff is one of the most consequential decisions Keir Starmer is ever going to make in his political career. For a senior politician, your chief, together with your communications director, and your campaign director, are force multipliers. They represent you in meetings and briefings you can’t
Boris Johnson and No. 10 staff could soon face being interviewed under caution over partygate. While this is remarkable, it is not unprecedented: Downing Street has been the focus of a police investigation before, when Tony Blair, my boss, was prime minister. Fifteen years ago, the ‘cash for peerages’ affair led to me and my colleagues being interviewed
Tony Blair had a breakthrough moment in the mid-1980s. As an opposition frontbencher, he observed that UK politics was paralysed by Margaret Thatcher. The Conservative party were in awe of her and Labour were mesmerised like a snake in front of a mongoose. Politics was binary: are you for or against Thatcherism? Tony realised that
If we learned one thing from Labour Party Conference it’s that capitalism is bad. The union leaders said so, the delegates said so, Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the Labour Party, said so – at length. And do you know what? They’re right. Capitalism is bad, very, very bad – at defending itself. As anti-business
Claiming credit for things that are nothing to do with you is where trouble starts in politics. You can claim that you have abolished ‘boom and bust’, even when occasionally qualified as ‘Tory boom and bust’, but the economy will disprove you – as Gordon Brown spectacularly found out during the Global Financial Crisis. George
It takes some skill to turn the BMA into the NUM – but Jeremy Hunt has done just that. It takes nearly as much skill to persuade the public that people on £53,000 a year are scions of the oppressed working classes – but the BMA, aided by Hunt, have done that too. How did
David Cameron should be in real trouble over Calais. It goes to the heart of two of the central issues by which British voters judge governments: are you competent and can you control immigration. Judging by the unstoppable growth of the chaotic ‘Jungle‘, the increasing number of assaults on Eurotunnel staff and the rising number
Here are four things that Liz Kendall has said during the Labour leadership campaign. First, that she would never close a successful school. Second, that the country should always come first, not the party. Third, that the UK should spend at last 2 per cent of GDP in defence. And finally, that Harriet Harman is
In a valedictory interview, Sir David Nicholson was quite frank about the state of the health service that he has run for the last eight years. ‘In its current form,’ he declared, ‘the NHS is unsustainable.’ It is hard to imagine Simon Stevens, who takes over as NHS England chief executive this week, having to
