Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
36 min listen
Ruth Davidson is the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and now sits in the House of Lords as the Baroness of Lundin Links. On the episode, she speaks to Katy about her happy upbringing as an active tomboy despite a near-death car accident at the age of five; her mother’s reaction when she left
Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP. In a dramatic turn of events, Paterson has in the past 24 hours gone from being spared suspension over a breach of the lobbying rules to facing a fresh vote that many Tories thought he could lose. On hearing the news of the U-turn, Paterson issued a statement saying that
12 min listen
The Owen Paterson story continues today with the government u-turning quicker than expected. This came after realising that allowing Tory MPs to mark their own homework by scrapping the standards committee might cause more outrage than they first thought. Leaving them now in a situation described by James Forsyth as, ‘an infinitely worse position for
Less than 24 hours after Tory MPs were ordered to vote to spare Owen Paterson, the government has U-turned. The former minister had been given a one month suspension from the House of Commons by the standards committee over a breach of lobbying rules. No. 10 tried to block his suspension, instead setting up a new committee
As world leaders depart from the COP26 summit in Glasgow, a row is brewing in the House of Commons on ‘Tory sleaze’. After the parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone found that former cabinet minister Owen Paterson had seriously breached the rules on lobbying, the standards committee recommended that Paterson should be suspended from parliament
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The row over Owen Paterson has come to a head today as the amendment to lift his suspension – tabled by fellow Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom and backed by the government – has upset many sides. Labour and the SNP are going in hard on accusations of Tory sleaze, with a real possibility of this
13 min listen
With the fishing war between the UK and France not necessarily over but at least at a ceasefire, today’s Shots focuses on the Commons. Conservative MP Owen Paterson was found to have committed an ‘egregious’ breach of lobbying rules, but some in his party, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, have raised concerns about the investigation. On the
It’s day two of COP26 and so far the climate summit in Glasgow has made news for travel chaos, Greta Thunberg’s swearing and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s unfortunate ‘Nazi’ climate comparison. There was some disappointment among government officials on Monday when India only set a target of 2070 to reach net zero, but ministers are
As the COP26 summit gets underway, a diplomatic Brexit row is escalating on the sidelines of the conference over fish. After France threatened to block British boats from its ports and increase checks on vessels over a disagreement on fishing licences, the UK warned it could retaliate if France goes through with it. Suggestions from the
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COP26 is officially underway with world leaders meeting this morning. But what can these presidents and prime ministers promise given their domestic political challenges and the seeming disinterest of other nations like China? Katy Balls is joined by Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth to discuss the opening of COP26 and the continuing rise in Anglo-French
11 min listen
The Budget was revealed yesterday, but what do Rishi Sunak’s conservative colleagues make of it? To discuss this, another row with the French about fish, and the end of the Covid travel red list, Isabel Hardman is joined by James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
Just a few months ago, the view inside Downing Street was that the COP26 summit would be a national morale booster. The Coldplay singer Chris Martin was mentioned as a potential headline act and there were excited discussions about giving the event a cute mascot. Now, the headlines are about rail strikes, bin men running
Is Rishi Sunak a low tax chancellor? He certainly likes to tell anyone who will listen that he is. Yet his actions tend to suggest the opposite. The tax burden is currently on track to reach its highest level since the early 1950s, and while Sunak unveiled one big tax slash in the Budget in the universal
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Rishi Sunak’s Budget, as much as it was trailed ahead of time, still had a couple of surprises – including a return of the 0.7 per cent aid budget and a cut to the universal credit taper rate. Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Kate Andrews about the high and lowlights from today’s Budget.
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Budget week rolls on. But today in the house the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle voiced his displeasure at how much had been told to the press before tomorrow’s unveiling in the Commons. Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about this tension, the budget, and the sewage situation.
Which departments will fare the worst from this week’s Budget? It won’t be the Department for Health and Social Care. Over the past few days, new funding announcements have appeared in the papers meaning the NHS will be handed another £5.9 billion. That’s in addition to the £12 billion a year investment it will receive as a
The green agenda is leading the news, with Boris Johnson on a PR mission to sell his environmental plans to the country (and sceptical Tory MPs) ahead of Cop26. Several documents were published last week, including the much-delayed Heat and Building strategy, the Net Zero strategy and the Net Zero review which is meant to offer
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It’s Budget Week and Rishi Sunak has already telegraphed a lot of what we can expect from it, branding it as a good news affair including NHS spending and minimum wage reform…but who stands to feel the pinch? Katy Balls sits down with James Forsyth and Kate Andrews to discuss the Budget as well as
12 min listen
Katy Balls talks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth about the prediction from the Bank of England’s chief economist that the UK’s inflation rate could hit 5%.
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The Chancellor is making final preparations to his Budget, announced next Wednesday. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the major themes coming up, and whether this is the moment when Rishi Sunak sees a turn in his popularity.
