Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
After a difficult few weeks, Boris Johnson has made it to parliamentary recess. Given few expect a no confidence vote to be held during recess, time away from parliament gives the Prime Minister much-needed breathing space. After the seemingly never-ending parade of partygate stories, there have been times when MPs were sceptical he would make it this far. Instead,
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Carolyn Harris is a Welsh Labour Party politician serving as the Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour since 2018, and has been the Member of Parliament for Swansea East since 2015. On the podcast she talks to Katy about her three successful campaigns, menopause, and the time she accidentally turned on the No.10 Christmas lights.
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The Foreign Secretary’s trip to Moscow today ended with Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, walking out of their joint press conference. Did the trip achieve anything – and was it a mistake from the start? Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth on this episode. For James, ‘[Lavrov’s] rudeness is a sign that Liz Truss held
When news broke over the weekend that former minister Nick Gibb had become the 14th Tory MP to publicly call for Boris Johnson to resign, cabinet loyalists were furious. They weren’t just concerned about the growing number of no-confidence letters — they were angered by what they saw as a co-ordinated effort by ‘One Nation’
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The Prime Minister tried to start today’s PMQs with an announcement to fire up the right of his base, an early end to all Covid restrictions. But the partygate scandal is the gift that keeps on giving when during the Commons session a new photo leaked of Boris Johnson at a Christmas quiz with a
Boris Johnson’s attempted reset is underway, with a mini-reshuffle announced this afternoon. The Prime Minister has made a number of changes to his top team as part of his efforts to signal to Tory MPs that he has taken on board criticism of his operation and will improve it. The most striking aspect of this reshuffle is
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On Saturday night, No. 10 announced two new appointments: Steve Barclay would become chief of staff, and Guto Harri would become director of communications. Will Downing Street’s reshuffle improve the mood of Tory MPs? And what else does Boris Johnson have to do? Katy Balls talks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the new faces
Boris Johnson has this evening unveiled the second stage of his Downing Street shake-up. After the Prime Minister rushed forward the departure of his chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and director of communications Jack Doyle when his policy chief Munira Mirza quit on Thursday, replacements have been announced. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
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Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about what happens if and when Graham Brady receives 54 letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s leadership.
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Five members of Boris Johnson’s team have now resigned from No. 10. This led Downing Street to bring forward changes to Johnson’s top team – announcing the resignations of chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, director of communications Jack Doyle and Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary (who sent the now notorious BYOB email). How will
How much trouble is Boris Johnson now in? The Prime Minister suffered one of his most tumultuous days in office on Thursday after his longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza resigned over his Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer. This led Downing Street to bring forward changes to Johnson’s top team – announcing the resignations of
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Recorded just moments after Spectator Political Editor, James Forsyth broke the story that Munira Mirza, the Downing Street head of policy, had resigned over Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer. Katy Balls talks to James about how this defection of one of Johnson’s oldest allies will affect the already turbulent No. 10. They
Tory MPs are in a jumpy mood this afternoon after The Spectator revealed that No. 10 policy chief Munira Mirza has quit Downing Street, citing Boris Johnson’s refusal to apologise over his Jimmy Savile attack on Keir Starmer. Given that Mirza is a key ally of the Prime Minister’s — dating back to his City Hall days — it is
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While Westminster politicians and journalists alike continue to predict exactly how many letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson have been officially filed. Michael Gove’s levelling up white paper has finally arrived. A bizarre document that references many ancient cites and how they ‘levelled up’, but does it propose any tangible solutions on how to
After months of delays, the government’s levelling up white paper is finally out. Boris Johnson has viewed this document as one of the things that will help him kickstart his premiership after months of negative headlines over partygate. However, MPs remain jumpy as letters of no confidence continue to trickle in. As for the document itself,
Since the publication of Sue Gray’s update on partygate a trickle of letters of no confidence have been sent to the 1922 chairman Graham Brady. Two of the senders have gone public – Tobias Elwood and Peter Aldous – while Charles Walker has said he would ‘applaud’ Boris Johnson if he resigned of his own
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While Boris Johnson’s performance in the Common’s yesterday was seen broadly as tone deaf – thanks to comments about Jimmy Savile and drug-taking on the Labour front bench – he was given a chance to redeem himself at a private meeting with his party yesterday evening. ‘One of my favourite questions was when one 2019
After Tory MPs spent the afternoon laying into Boris Johnson over Sue Gray’s summary of her report, the Prime Minister finds himself in a much more fragile position than when he started the day. Tonight he addressed Tory MPs at a meeting of the 1922 committee. Given Johnson’s Commons appearance rattled MPs rather than improving
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The long anticipated Sue Gray report was finally published today albeit lacking significant chucks of detail. Following the report, Boris Johnson made a statement in the Commons. Though he apologised at the beginning, his tone did not seem particularly apologetic, which clearly riled a number of MPs across party lines. ‘The discomfort among the Tory benches
Ahead of the publication of Sue Gray’s report into partygate, there had been talk that the police investigation — which meant the most tricky parts of Gray’s investigation were left out — would help Boris Johnson by ensuring he got off lightly. However, anyone watching the reaction from MPs to the Prime Minister’s statement in the chamber