Katy Balls

Katy Balls

Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.

What does the latest ‘Dom bomb’ mean for Matt Hancock?

When Dominic Cummings gave seven hours of evidence to a Commons inquiry into the government’s Covid response, it was Matt Hancock who received the most criticism. The former No. 10 senior aide’s accusation that the Health Secretary was negligent – the most serious charge being that Hancock had misled the government over testing and care homes

The political advantages of the UK-Australia trade deal

The UK government has agreed its first bespoke trade deal since leaving the EU. After Boris Johnson met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday night, a deal has been agreed between the two sides. The deal on the table offers tariff free trade for all British goods, enhanced access for British tech companies

How long will political and public patience last?

11 min listen

It seems Freedom Day is no longer June 21st. The writing was clearly on the wall this morning, but now the Prime Minister has officially told the public, it is likely to be another four weeks of restrictions. ‘Conservative MPs are getting really agitated by this moving of the goal posts‘ – Isabel Hardman But after

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson delays the end of lockdown

Boris Johnson has this evening confirmed that he will delay the lifting of all Covid restrictions by four weeks to 19 July. Announcing the decision in a press conference, Johnson said the Indian variant – also known as the Delta variant – has changed the picture and meant the government was no longer able to proceed

Katy Balls

What Tory MPs fear most about a lockdown delay

As Boris Johnson prepares to announce a four-week delay to the final stage out of lockdown, he faces a mixed reaction. Labour plans to back the delay but make clear that it was avoidable and is down to bad leadership. The public is seen to be more forgiving — with a Times/YouGov poll over the weekend

Katy Balls

How can Boris justify delay?

18 min listen

Boris Johnson is expected to announce a delay to reopening later today. How will the Prime Minister make his case, and will his backbenchers support him? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth. On the podcast, Katy says uneasy Conservatives may give him the benefit of the doubt this time: ‘There are some Tory

Should we delay 21 June?

29 min listen

On Monday, the Prime Minister will announce whether the 21 June unlocking is to go ahead. Because of the increased transmissibility of the Delta Covid variant, cases in the UK are continuing to rise. Does it make sense to wait for data to confirm that the link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths has been broken,

Will lockdown be extended by a month?

As Boris Johnson wines and dines world leaders and their partners in Cornwall, ministers are increasingly pessimistic over the pace of the government roadmap out of lockdown. The Prime Minister isn’t due to make a final decision on whether the June 21 unlocking will proceed until Sunday with an announcement due on Monday. Yet in Whitehall, reports are circulating

Katy Balls

Can the G7 beat Russia and China’s vaccine diplomacy?

8 min listen

As the G7 rolls on and the world leaders learn where their peers stand on certain issues post Covid…  ‘There’s still a chance the Northern Ireland protocol could come up at the G7 and cause some problems…’ – Katy Balls …the wealthy western nations need to decide how best to help vaccinate the world’s poorer

Katy Balls

The Polly Morgan Edition

34 min listen

Polly Morgan is an artist whose trade is taxidermy. She recently won the First Plinth Award, and in her time has sold to celebrity clients including Kate Moss and Courtney Love. On the podcast, she tells Katy about her unusual childhood growing up on a farm with ostriches, goats and llamas; why she got fired

Could Brexit scupper the G7?

14 min listen

The long-anticipated G7 meeting in Cornwall has got off to a rocky start today, as it transpired that the US had lodged a ‘demarché’ – a diplomatic ultimatum – with David Frost, earlier in the week, over the UK’s position on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Could tensions spill over? James Forsyth points out that the

Katy Balls

Boris’s three unlocking options for 21 June

What will Boris Johnson announce on Monday? The Prime Minister is due to update the nation on whether the final stage of the roadmap out of lockdown can proceed on 21 June as planned. However, with cases on the rise and the Indian variant spreading, various government advisers have spent the past few weeks taking to

Are Brexit talks back to the bad old days?

10 min listen

Today, talks between David Frost and the EU’s negotiator Maroš Šefčovič ended with little agreement about how to move forward on the Northern Ireland Protocol. As James Forsyth says on the podcast: ‘it didn’t end with either man walking out of the meeting, but you probably can’t say much more for it than that.’ This is partly

Katy Balls

The ‘sausage war’ escalates between the UK and EU

Any hope that a solution to the Northern Ireland protocol could be found ahead of the G7 summit have been dashed. This morning, David Frost – the minister in charge of Brexit relations – met with European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič at Admiralty House on Whitehall to discuss the current impasse over Irish Sea

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s growing backbench problem

When will Boris Johnson reshuffle his Cabinet? It’s a question that’s asked every couple of weeks in Westminster with frequent briefings about who is up (Liz Truss, if recent ConservativeHome polls are anything to go by) and who is down (Gavin Williamson is the most recent minister to be tipped for the axe). Yet despite

Is the foreign aid row a sign of things to come?

13 min listen

Though the amendment on foreign aid was not selected by the Speaker yesterday, the row over the budget cut is not over yet. Today MPs will have an emergency debate about the policy, and Lindsey Hoyle has advised that the government should bring the matter in front of the House in the future. This is

Boris Johnson avoids a Commons vote on foreign aid

Update: Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has announced that a vote on the aid spending amendment has not been selected. Hoyle says the amendment is out of the scope of the current bill, meaning Boris Johnson will avoid a potentially difficult vote on the issue – for now. Hoyle suggested the government should give MPs an opportunity for

Can Rishi Sunak get the G7 on side?

13 min listen

With the G7 looming the range of subjects on the agenda is vast. One of the first items up is the proposal of a global corporate tax rate which President Joe Biden has already endorsed. The potential issue with this that James pointed out on the pod was: “For this to work, this global corporate

Boris clamps down on foreign travel over Covid variant fears

Those hoping for a holiday abroad this summer were dealt a blow this afternoon with the announcement of the government’s travel list update. A few weeks ago, there had been talk that this would be the moment that more tourist-friendly countries would be added to the green list which allows for quarantine-free travel. Instead, the

Katy Balls

Could travel this summer be stricter than last?

10 min listen

It’s been a stressful day for those who’ve booked foreign holidays, as the government updated the latest countries on its various coloured travel lists. No new countries were added to the green list, but some were moved to amber. On the podcast, James Forsyth explains how this decision is down to a desire to prioritise