Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
37 min listen
Kate Forbes is an SNP MP and the Scottish Finance Secretary. She stepped in at the last minute when her predecessor, Derek MacKay, was suspended from the party on the day of the Budget. On the podcast, she talks about her international upbringing and how that relates to her nationalism, what it was like to
13 min listen
Within 24 hours of refusing to scrap the NHS surcharge for migrant healthworkers, the government has U-turned. We discuss why; as well as Scotland’s lockdown easing and the new civil servant at No 10, Simon Case.
A little over 24 hours after Boris Johnson stood in the Commons Chamber and defended the NHS surcharge remaining in place for overseas NHS and social care workers, the Prime Minister performed a U-turn. A No. 10 spokesperson has confirmed this afternoon that Johnson has asked the Home Office and Department for Health to exempt healthcare workers from
At PMQs this week, Keir Starmer went on the attack over the NHS surcharge which means workers coming to the UK from outside the European Economic Area have to pay a fee to use the health service. The current fee, of £400 a year, is due to rise to £624 from October. The Labour leader called on
A sign that Downing Street is having to adapt to a new opponent in Sir Keir Starmer could be found in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. After two successive PMQs in which Boris Johnson was accused of being out of his depth by critics and even some supporters, there was a concerted effort to try and show
13 min listen
Boris Johnson pledges to get track and trace up by June 1, but is it possible? Plus, how is the government handling the new Opposition Leader, Keir Starmer, and how is the UK going to implement its Northern Ireland agreement with the EU?
With ministers and officials involved with the country’s coronavirus strategy braced for an eventual public inquiry, this week we’re being given a glimpse of how it might play out. During a morning broadcast round on Tuesday, Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey set the cat among the pigeons when she was asked about mistakes the
15 min listen
This Wednesday, MPs will head home from the virtual parliament and go into recess. When they come back to work, the government is pushing for a return to normal. Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg wants MPs to return to parliament rather than work from home. There are no current plans to renew measures that had allowed MPs to
17 min listen
The government is aiming to reopen schools on June 1, but with teachers’ unions putting up opposition to the move, this timeline is unlikely to be met. Latest research shows that, meanwhile, the education gap between the poorest children and the wealthier is widening all the time. So in its support for the teachers unions,
19 min listen
With Alex Massie, the Spectator’s Scotland Editor, and Fraser Nelson. Presented by Katy Balls.
One of the consequences of the virtual parliament is fewer opportunities for MPs to lobby No. 10. However, this afternoon MPs were given a rare audience with the Prime Minister as Boris Johnson appeared via video link for a meeting of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers. With a growing number of MPs anxious over
18 min listen
This week was meant to mark the moment the whole of the United Kingdom began to ease lockdown. Instead, it’s England that has become an outlier – moving to the slogan ‘Stay Alert’ while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland stick with ‘Stay Home’. With the devolved governments adopting different approaches to easing lockdown, Downing Street is facing a
11 min listen
Public Health England has approved its first mass antibody test. Roche, the supplier behind it, says that the test has an 100 per cent accuracy. So how much of a game changer is this development?
15 min listen
12 min listen
Today the Chancellor announced that the furlough scheme will be extended until October. Along with a raft of other tweaks, just how generous is this extension?
After Boris Johnson was accused by opposition leaders of providing mixed messages over his roadmap for easing lockdown, the Prime Minister attempted for the third time in 24 hours to explain what the new government guidelines mean in practice. Johnson used the daily press conference – alongside chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific
13 min listen
Following 24 hours of confusion over the government’s advice on the next phase of lockdown, Keir Starmer is making his debut as Labour leader with a statement to be broadcast on the BBC. On the podcast, Katy Balls and James Forsyth analyse his approach of constructive criticism.
18 min listen
It’s been six weeks since the Prime Minister first sat down to give the statement to the British public that began lockdown. Today, as James Forsyth first reported in The Spectator two weeks ago, Boris Johnson announced that the lockdown isn’t over yet. From Wednesday onwards, the one form of exercise a day rule will be removed
