Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
No 10 can breathe a sigh of relief this afternoon. Not only has Theresa May’s response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil won her plaudits back home, it has also been met by a rigorous international response. With Germany, France, Ukraine and Canada already expelling envoys, today America
The Cambridge Analytica row looks set to move from the US presidential election to the EU referendum. After Christopher Wylie blew the whistle in the Observer and claimed that Cambridge Analytica used questionable Facebook data to win the US election, the paper looks set to re-focus its investigation on the Brexit campaign. In an 8,000
The Brexit transition draft agreement is in – and it’s not all smooth sailing for the UK government. In a press conference, Brexit negotiators Michel Barnier and David Davis heralded the proposed terms for the implementation period as a ‘decisive step’ towards achieving an orderly Brexit. However, it’s clear that the government will have to rein in
The Electoral Commission has released details of the different parties’ spending on the snap election and it doesn’t make pretty reading for the Conservatives. Not only did they manage to lose their majority in that disastrous election, they also managed to spend the most money of any party in the process. The Tories spent a
Will Russia disrupt the local elections? That’s the question being asked in Westminster. But rather than worries over Russian meddling and subterfuge, the issue at hand is whether Jeremy Corbyn’s questionable response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil will help boost the Conservative vote come May. Those local elections
As Jeremy Corbyn comes under pressure from his own party over his stance on Russia, Theresa May is looking increasingly statesman-like by comparison. The Prime Minister’s handling of the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil has won her praise – with a SkyData poll today finding that 69pc surveyed would
Jeremy Corbyn’s response on Russia continues to send ripples through the Labour party. After the Labour leader failed to say that he believed Russia to be responsible for this attempted murder, his spokesman went one further in the post-PMQs briefing. They appeared to compare the intelligence about the Salisbury attack to the reports of weapons of mass
After PMQs today, Theresa May will give a statement on Russia – and the government’s proposed response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil. Then there will be a ten minute rule motion on ‘supervised drug consumption facilities’ and after that a ‘general debate’ will commence on European Affairs.
Labour’s internal complaints body looks set to have a busy few weeks. After Debbie Abrahams was effectively suspended as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary over allegations of bullying, the Labour MP made a bullying allegation of her own. Abrahams claims she’s the one being bullied – accusing unnamed figures in the Leader’s Office of behaving in an
Here we go. The European Commission draft guidelines for the Brexit trade negotiations have leaked – and, as expected, it doesn’t make all that pretty reading for the British government. Although Theresa May’s Brexit speech was well-received in the UK, in Brussels many of May’s arguments and proposals appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
There are many things the Conservative party needs to do before it is election fit – whether local or national. There’s securing a good Brexit deal, building more homes and repairing the damage done in the snap election – to name a few. As I write in today’s i paper, one of the big things brains
Was Theresa May’s big Brexit speech simply a string of ‘phrases, generalisations and platitudes’? That’s the claim from Michael Heseltine over the weekend. The Conservative peer made the Observer front page with an attack that’s said to break the Tories’ short-lived Brexit unity. He says May’s pitch on Friday fell flat as it only ‘set out
Theresa May’s speech today won’t have left any portion of her party ecstatic. As the Prime Minister promised ‘ups and downs in the months ahead’, she warned that ‘no-one will get everything they want’. With compromises coming down the track, May made sure to dish today’s disappointment out in an even-handed manner. For the Remain side of
The DUP were shown an early draft of Brussel’s proposed legal text by the UK government ahead of its publication on Wednesday. After the painful lesson of December when Arlene Foster almost pulled the plug on Theresa May’s plan to achieve ‘sufficient progress’ after she was not consulted on the wording, the government is learning from its
Is the Irish border problem being used to frustrate Brexit? That’s the claim made by the Foreign Secretary this morning. After Sky News published an excerpt of a letter Boris Johnson wrote to the Prime Minister in which he appeared to concede that physical infrastructure at the border post-Brexit was an option, Johnson gave a
Can Jeremy Corbyn’s big Brexit speech be classed as a success? It really depends on who you think it was aimed at. Unsurprisingly the softening of Labour’s Brexit stance has been welcomed by the party’s Remain-backing membership. On top of that, the Labour leader managed to please big business – for a change. Corbyn’s announcement
Although Theresa May’s Cabinet has finally managed to reach a loose agreement on what they would like to achieve from the upcoming negotiations, the Prime Minister’s troubles look set to continue for the foreseeable. With Jeremy Corbyn expected to confirm that his party backs the UK staying in ‘a’ customs union post-Brexit, there’s growing concern
Theresa May goes into the weekend safe in the knowledge that she has managed to reach an agreement with her divided ministers on the type of relationship Britain will seek with the EU after Brexit. But given that this unity is over a position of their own creation that Brussels may well say no to (and
It’s red letter day for Theresa May. Only rather than a happy momentous occasion, the Prime Minister’s red letter day consists of receiving a letter listing all the Brexiteers’ red lines on the EU. With the inner Cabinet due to meet on Thursday for their ‘away day’ to decide a Brexit negotiating position, the influential
It’s safe to say that David Davis’s turn at navigating the roadmap to Brexit has not gone completely to plan today. The aim of the speech was to reassure businesses and Brussels that the UK will maintain high standards and regulations – with a pledge to keep a level playing field on state aid and competition policy.
