Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
Tory MP Lee Anderson has defected to Reform UK. Speaking at an impromptu press conference this morning, the former deputy Tory party chairman – who lost the Conservative whip last month over his comments on Islamists controlling London – said that he was switching to Richard Tice’s party as the current ‘parliament doesn’t seem to
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Theresa May has announced that she will not seek re-election this year. The former prime minister said that launching her global commission on modern slavery and human trafficking meant she would not be able to spend as much time as she would like on constituency matters. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman
The tributes are pouring in for Theresa May after the former prime minister announced that she will be stepping down at the next election. In a statement in the Maidenhead Advertiser, her local paper, May reiterated her support for Rishi Sunak and said she was leaving to spend more time on ‘causes close to my
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Lucy Dunn speaks to James Heale and Katy Balls about the slightly muted reaction to the budget. Labour has compared the announcements to Liz Truss’s unfunded tax cuts and Scottish Tories have criticised the chancellor’s decision to extend the windfall tax on the profits of North Sea oil. But is this really the pre-election budget?
Ahead of the Budget, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt met MPs for drinks in the Prime Minister’s parliamentary office to try to temper expectations. The Chancellor informed those present that, while he is a low-tax Conservative, he is not a magician. Yes, lots of MPs want him to slash taxes to revive the Tories’ standing
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Jeremy Hunt said the government would cut National Insurance by 2 per cent, would abolish the non-dom tax status and would raise the threshold for child benefits in his Budget today. To discuss the new measures, Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and David Miles, from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Another day, another damning poll for the Tory party. This time it’s a survey by Ipsos for the Evening Standard that finds the Conservatives have hit their lowest level for 40 years. The poll puts the Tories on 20-points, falling from 27-points back in January. It means Rishi Sunak’s party is 27-points behind Labour and
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Budget day is approaching and the government has hinted that their plans for tax cutting ‘giveaways’ are now less likely. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about what to and what not to expect for Wednesday’s Spring Budget.
Budget day is approaching and what was once seen as a window of opportunity is now being talked up as a moment of dread. Jeremy Hunt has gone from comparing himself in January to the former tax-slashing chancellor Nigel Lawson to telling the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that, in reality, fiscal constraints mean on
Rishi Sunak has just appeared on the steps of Downing Street to give a speech on the need to take action after ‘a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in recent weeks. On the day former Labour MP George Galloway was announced as the new MP for Rochdale, the Prime Minister said ‘this situation
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George Galloway has won a resounding victory in Rochdale, after a chaotic and messy by-election in which Labour was forced to disown its own candidate after he claimed Israel had allowed Hamas to attack on October 7th. Former Labour MP Galloway – standing for the Workers Party of Britain – won on a single issue
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Thangam Debbonaire was born in Peterborough to an Indian father and English mother. She has been an MP since 2015 but before Parliament spent over 25 years working to end domestic violence. She served under Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Minister for Arts and Heritage and has served in Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet since his leadership
George Galloway is back. The former Labour MP has triumphed in the Rochdale by-election, taking the seat from Starmer’s party with a majority of 5,697. Galloway – standing for the Workers Party of Britain – won comfortably with nearly 40 per cent of the vote at 12,335 votes. The independent candidate David Tully came in
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Today, the long-awaited Home Office-commissioned Angiolini Inquiry into Wayne Couzens has been published. Couzens had kidnapped, raped and murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard three years ago. The findings were chilling, revealing that numerous opportunities to stop Couzens throughout his policing career were missed. Katy Balls talks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman about where politicians failed
Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trump’s former director of communications, has a phrase that sums up his old boss’s effect on political debate: ‘the universe bends towards him’. In the US, discussion about this year’s election is all about Trump. But he is exerting the same gravitational pull in Britain, both on the Tories as they face
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Liz Truss continues to haunt Rishi Sunak. Labour leader Keir Starmer took aim at her recent exploits at CPAC in the US during prime minister’s questions today. Starmer called on the prime minister to remove the whip after Truss claimed that her premiership was sabotaged by the ‘deep state’. What’s Truss up to this time?
In a week’s time, Jeremy Hunt will stand up at the despatch box and unveil the Spring Budget. This event has long been seen by Tory MPs as a key marker ahead of the general election. It is the last big set piece event in the calendar between now and the short campaign. Ministers, too,
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Until recently the government’s independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal has been in front of the Home Affairs select committee today to hit out at his erstwhile employers. Cindy Yu talks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls on the episode about Neal’s abrupt sacking and just how ‘independent’ an independent inspector can
It’s day five of the Lee Anderson debacle and the row shows no signs of abating. Rishi Sunak is having to defend from both sides his decision to withdraw the whip from the red wall MP – who represents the marginal seat of Ashfield – after Anderson used a GB News appearance to say that ‘Islamists
Rishi Sunak withdrew the whip from Lee Anderson on Saturday over his claim that Sadiq Khan had ‘given our capital away’ to Islamists, who he referred to as Khan’s ‘mates’. Two days on, the row is still dominating the media, with the BBC running a live blog on the issue. This morning, the Prime Minister
