Katy Balls

Katy Balls

Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.

Boris Johnson passes withdrawal agreement bill with huge majority

After four failed attempts and one ousted prime minister, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill has comfortably passed the Commons at second reading. In fairness, this is not the first time this has happened. In the last parliament, Boris Johnson narrowly managed to pass the WAB at second reading – however, the government then pulled it when

Why Boris Johnson is talking about ‘ten years’ time’

One of the most striking things about the government’s Queen’s Speech was Boris Johnson’s focus on where the country could be in ten years’ time: ‘Mr Speaker, this is not a programme for one year, or one Parliament it is a blueprint for the future of Britain. Just imagine where this country could be in

Indyref2 could be the biggest headache of Boris’s premiership

Nicola Sturgeon is the only opposition leader who survived the general election. She has emerged far stronger. The Tories had hoped to halt the nationalists’ advance, but in the end, Scotland was the only part of the UK in which their party suffered serious setbacks. Sturgeon’s advancing army dethroned Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, claimed

Jo Swinson’s election nightmare

The Liberal Democrats have capped off a bad campaign with a disastrous results night. The party is on course for a mere 11 seats. To put that into perspective they won 12 seats in 2017. Jo Swinson started the campaign suggesting she could be prime minister. Instead, she has lost her seat. The Lib Dem

Labour prepares for life after Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s election night speech did little to address the fact he led Labour to its worst result since 1935. However, he did at least acknowledge that he probably wasn’t the best person to lead the party into the next election. Many Labour MPs were quick to take to the airwaves to play the blame

Tory lead more than halved in final YouGov MRP poll

When the first YouGov MRP poll of the election campaign was published last month, it was a cause of anxiety in Conservative Campaign Headquarters. The projection of a Tory majority of 68 was seen as overly optimistic – and there were concerns that it could lead to complacency in the polling booth. The second –

Labour double down on NHS attack lines in election broadcast

It’s been a hectic election day for the two main parties. Labour managed to move the conversation to their preferred turf – the NHS – following the story of a four-year-old boy forced to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded A&E unit. As Isabel reports, Boris Johnson’s refusal to look at a photo of

Boris Johnson plays it safe at Nato press conference

There will be relief in Conservative Campaign Headquarters as the Nato summit draws to a close with no election gaffe in sight. With the UK hosting the summit of world leaders, there had been concern that the arrival of the US president with less than a fortnight until polling day could have thrown a spanner

Election Special: who would want to be an MP?

34 min listen

Why would any woman want to be an MP in this general election? In recent years, parliament has been plagued by horror stories of abuse against MPs, especially female ones, with a number of them leaving the job before their time. So does parliament have a woman problem? Katy Balls speaks to a series of

Katy Balls

Security moves to top of the election agenda

With ten days to go until polling day, the election campaign has turned to national security. Following the London Bridge knife attack on Friday by a convicted terrorist which left two members of the public dead, the Conservatives have made a concerted effort to get on the front foot on the issue. Over the weekend,

Why YouGov’s MRP poll will worry the Conservatives

When the 2017 snap election result came through, it proved a shock to many who had been covering the campaign in depth. The bulk of the polls had suggested Theresa May was on course for a comfortable majority. However, there was one poll that had predicted a hung parliament – YouGov’s MRP model. This poll

Five things we’ve learnt from the 2019 Tory manifesto

Boris Johnson has unveiled the Conservative manifesto in Telford this afternoon. The 59-page document – titled ‘Get Brexit Done: Unleash Britain’s Potential’ – is a far cry from the 2017 Conservative manifesto. That document still haunts Tory MPs to this day and is widely blamed for the Conservatives losing their majority in 2017. Today’s offering

Coffee House Shots: Leaders’ Question Time verdict

Who won Friday night’s Leaders’ Question Time? On the latest Coffee House Shots podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and the New Statesman‘s Stephen Bush tell me it’s Boris Johnson who will be the happiest – despite criticism, he got his key messages across. However, the format – which saw hostile audience member questions for Jeremy Corbyn,

Jeremy Corbyn’s credibility problem

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party manifesto has made the front of all the papers today. The response is mixed. While the Daily Mail labels it a ‘Marxist manifesto’ and the Telegraph an ‘£83bn tax blitz on the middles classes’, the Mirror hails it as proof for readers that Corbyn is ‘on your side’. However, the issue

Why trust is an election issue for Boris Johnson

What is the main take away from ITV’s leaders’ debate? Listen to the news bulletins and it appears to be that the Conservatives have been accused of misleading the public. During the debate on Wednesday night, one of the Conservative party Twitter accounts was renamed (and rebranded) as a ‘fact-checking’ site. Throughout the showdown between Boris