Katy Balls

Katy Balls

Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.

The Tory cigarette rebellion will likely go up in smoke

Back when Rishi Sunak was trying to pitch himself as the change candidate, he used his party conference speech in October to announce three big policies: the scrapping of HS2, a ‘new Baccalaureate-style qualification’ to replace A-levels and a plan to create the first smoke free generation. The latter idea was inspired by a similar

Would Trump and Starmer get on?

12 min listen

Donald Trump seems to have the Republican primaries wrapped up. He’ll almost certainly be up against Joe Biden on 5 November in the general election. If Trump wins, and in Britain’s own elections in the second half of 2024, Starmer wins, the two will make an odd pair. Will they get on? Max Jeffery speaks

The Plot: part II

14 min listen

Rishi Sunak seems to be facing his own ‘plot’. But unlike in Nadine Dorries’ now infamous book, it’s not a secret cabal orchestrated by Dougie Smith hoping to depose him, but a mysterious rebel group, backed by Tory donors, who have been funding the polling we’ve seen in the Telegraph recently. The news today is that they

Katy Balls

Why Sunak’s critics won’t stop plotting

Simon Clarke’s call this week for Rishi Sunak to go didn’t exactly inspire others to follow. Instead, it’s had a unifying effect on the Tory party. ‘He’s given us all a common cause to rally behind: uniting against him,’ says a former cabinet minister. After the publication of Clarke’s Daily Telegraph op-ed declaring that ‘it

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Why Labour’s tax attacks on the Tories are working

This week tens of millions of workers will receive their pay slips for the month of January and with them a tax cut. National Insurance is going down, so take-home pay is rising. Polls show that voters think Labour is more likely to cut tax than the Tories, a surprise weapon for Starmer The NI

Does Simon Clarke’s intervention matter?

12 min listen

Tory MP Simon Clarke called for Rishi Sunak to resign last night. In a piece in the Telegraph, he wrote that the Prime Minister was ‘uninspiring’ and ‘does not get what Britain needs.’ Will other Conservative MPs also demand Sunak resign, or will they unify around their leader? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and James

Katy Balls

Are the Houthi strikes working?

12 min listen

The UK launched a new set of strikes on eight Houthi targets last night. Typoon jets dropped £30,000 Paveway bombs on an underground storage site and surveillance and missile capabilities controlled by the Yemeni rebel group. But are the strikes working? The Houthis have continued to attack ships in the Red Sea, and a row

Sunak’s Rwanda plan suffers first Lords defeat

Just last week Rishi Sunak held a special Downing Street press conference to warn peers not to ignore ‘the will of the people’ and block his Rwanda plan. Fast forward a few days and Sunak’s warning appears to have fallen on deaf ears, with the Prime Minister suffering his first Lords defeat on the topic

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How far will Hunt cut taxes?

14 min listen

Jeremy Hunt said he would look to cut taxes in the March budget. In the Mail on Sunday, he said he would look to emulate the late Nigel Lawson, who as Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor slashed rates. But Hunt has been promising tax cuts, and hardly delivering, for a while. Will this time be any different?

How is Cameron’s comeback coming along?

13 min listen

As problems in the Middle East and war on the continent dominate the headlines, David Cameron has been front and centre in his new role as foreign secretary. Is his experience coming in handy? Is he Rishi’s ‘prime minister abroad’?  Katy Balls speaks to Craig Oliver, director of communications at No. 10 during the Cameron

The Theo Clarke Edition

28 min listen

Theo Clarke is Conservative MP for Stafford. She is the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Kenya and sits on the International Development Select Committee. Before being elected she set up and sold her business and then went on to be Chief Executive of an international development charity backed by Bill Gates. Theo got involved in

Is the ERG a spent force?

12 min listen

After much back and forth, the Rwanda Bill passed last night with only 11 votes against while other critics, such as Lee Anderson who resigned his party role, abstained. Rishi Sunak can celebrate a small victory as it appears that the Brexit ‘Spartans’ of yesteryear are something of a spent force today. Cindy Yu talks

Katy Balls

Sunak goes on the offensive over Rwanda

Who is to blame if no flights with asylum seekers leave the UK for Rwanda ahead of the election? In a Downing Street press conference this morning, Rishi Sunak tried to suggest the answer would be the House of Lords or Labour rather than his government. In a bid to capitalise on the ‘Safety of

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Regicide is in the air for the Tories

An election year, a tired government accused of being in power too long, and a bickering party. This was the backdrop to the coup against Gordon Brown in 2010 when Geoff Hoon – the defence secretary under Tony Blair – and his fellow ex-minister Patricia Hewitt called for a secret ballot. The coup was a

Why Lee Anderson’s exit is a problem

10 min listen

Last night Rishi Sunak faced the largest rebellion of his premiership over amendments to the Rwanda bill. There were also three resignations – deputy chairs Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith as well as PPS to Kemi Badenoch, Jane Stevenson. How much damage could do to his already divided party? Today, MPs will debate for a

Lee Anderson’s resignation spells trouble for Rishi Sunak

The fallout from the return of the Safety of Rwanda Bill has begun – before a single vote has been cast. Lee Anderson has handed in his resignation as deputy chairman of the Conservative party, alongside his fellow deputy Brendan Clarke-Smith. The two red wall MPs, who won their seats in the 2019 election, had

Katy Balls

Isaac Levido’s warning to the Tory party

11 min listen

With the Tories reeling from yesterday’s poll in the Telegraph, it is interesting that the party’s official election strategist Isaac Levido was already scheduled to address Tory MPs last night. Levido ran the 2019 election campaign and holds clout with Conservative MPs. What did he have to say? Is the Tory strategy evolving? Also on the

Isaac Levido’s warning to the Tory party

Tory MPs start the week fretting about their seats after the Telegraph published an MRP poll suggesting Keir Starmer would win a majority of 120 if an election were held tomorrow. So, it was a case of interesting timing that the party’s official election strategist Isaac Levido was already scheduled to address Tory MPs on

Katy Balls

Is there a plot to oust Sunak?

15 min listen

Polling published in the Telegraph has ruffled more than a few feathers in Westminster today. The YouGov survey shows that the Tories are on course to lose half of their MPs – including eleven members of the cabinet – at the next election. Are the Tories heading for another 1997 moment? What should we read into the