Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.
It’s only days before the Holyrood election campaign gets underway and Nicola Sturgeon is facing one of the most testing weeks of her political career. Two verdicts are due in the coming days on whether the First Minister broke the ministerial code over the Alex Salmond inquiry. One is the finding of Scottish parliament’s Alex Salmond committee which is due
Is the UK about to be forced into a vaccine war? That’s the concern in Westminster after Brussels upped the ante over a potential vaccine export ban. Ursula von der Leyen suggested last week that the European Commission could block vaccine exports to countries with a high volume of jabs already. Now an EU official has said
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America has belatedly joined the vaccine diplomacy arena, the progress of which by Russia and China has been covered by The Spectator. On this episode of Saturday’s Coffee House Shots, Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls, James Forsyth, Kate Andrews and Fraser Nelson about the latest developments in the race and whether Britain should be
Since the pandemic began, Nicola Sturgeon has been a regular sight at the daily Covid press conferences in Scotland. Where Boris Johnson’s appearances at the Westminster version are infrequent at best, Sturgeon rarely misses a day. But today the First Minister was nowhere to be seen. Following reports overnight that a majority of MSPs on
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Nicola Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament, a special Holyrood committee concluded yesterday. In a defiant response, the First Minister said that ‘opposition members… made their minds up before I uttered a single word of evidence.’ Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the fallout.
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Elif Shafak is an award-winning Turkish-British novellist, essayist and activist. On the episode, she talks to Katy about what it was like to grow up in conservative Ankara under the strong women in her family; her prosecution by the Turkish government; and why she thinks too much information is not necessarily a virtue.
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The European Medicines Agency has announced that the Oxford-Astrazeneca jab is safe after all. In light of this, will the European Commission go through with its threat of banning vaccines from leaving the bloc? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.
The message from Boris Johnson’s press conference this evening was one of reassurance. Following the decision by several EU member states to suspend use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns about a potential link with blood clots, the Prime Minister said that the vaccine is safe and that ‘the benefits of the vaccine in preventing
What is Keir Starmer thinking? His approach might baffle Tory MPs, who wonder if he will ever spring to life. The answer, though, is that he’s playing a long game. He hopes he will be a strong opposition leader when the time is right. For now, it is time to offer support to Boris Johnson’s
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Ursula von der Leyen today said that the EU could block vaccine shipments to the UK if it doesn’t export AstraZeneca jabs to the bloc. The Commission’s head is under pressure to fix a rollout programme that continues to flounder – just 12 per cent of EU citizens have received a dose compared to 39
Dominic Cummings has been giving evidence this morning to the Commons science committee. Ahead of his appearance, there was much speculation about what problems the session would bring up for his former boss, Boris Johnson. Since leaving government, there has been concern across government over what Johnson’s former righthand man might do or say – his
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Starting ‘a new Cold War on China’ would be ‘a mistake’, Boris Johnson said today as he set out the government’s integrated defence review. The military reassessment – the biggest in decades – also outlined plans to lift the UK’s cap on the number of nuclear warheads from 180 to 260. Why does the review
Boris Johnson will today unveil the government’s integrated review which promises to set out the blueprint for ‘Global Britain’. The 100-page document – titled ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age’ – has been heralded as the most radical reassessment of Britain’s place in the world since the Cold War. The Prime Minister is due to
After the widespread backlash against the policing of the Sarah Everard vigil over the weekend, the government and Labour have managed to find some common ground. While both parties raised concerns over the handling of the event, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer agreed that the Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick should not resign. However, any hopes for cross-party
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Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick is facing calls to resign after women were forcibly removed from Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard. It comes as a bill that gives police more powers to crack down on protests will soon come before Parliament. How big will the backbench rebellion be? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and
Unionists are finding reasons for optimism when it comes to saving the union. As Nicola Sturgeon comes under fire north of the border over her handling of the Alex Salmond inquiry, ‘No’ has taken the lead in several recent independence polls. A poll this week for the Scotsman also suggested the SNP is no longer set for a majority
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Britain’s exports to the EU fell by 40 per cent in January 2021, new figures from the ONS show. Are the numbers a real reflection of post-Brexit trade, or should they be treated with caution? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
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A number of polls in recent days have shown a majority support for Scotland staying in the UK. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about how Scottish independence is not inevitable.
Boris Johnson took the opportunity at PMQs to admonish the EU’s claim that the UK had brought in a vaccine export ban. The Prime Minister said of European Council president Charles Michel’s claim that ‘we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine, or vaccine components’. It comes after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab wrote to Michel to
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Keir Starmer pushed the PM on the 1 per cent pay rise for nurses at PMQS today. Did shorter, snappier questions bring results for the Labour leader? Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.