Monday

31 Oct 2022

Thursday

27 Oct 2022
The Edition
Is Rishi ready?
37 min listen

On this week's podcast:We have a new prime minister, but is Rishi Sunak ready to take on the numerous problems that James Forsyth outlines in his cover piece for The Spectator this week? James is joined by writer and pollster Matt Goodwin to debate whether the Conservatives can turn it around in time for 2024 (00:50). Also this week:Is the future of feminism conservative?Louise Perry writes for the magazine this week that there has been a rightward shift in feminist thought, spearheaded by mothers coalescing online. She is joined by Victoria Smith, author of Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women (15:30).And finally:The Spectator's diary editor James Heale and the Sun's political editor Harry Cole, are the authors of the new book Out of the Blue: The Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss.

Is Rishi ready?

Wednesday

26 Oct 2022
Will anyone buy my Liz Truss book?

‘If you’re having a bad day at work,’ read the Twitter meme, ‘at least you’re not Harry Cole or James Heale.’ The inglorious collapse of Liz Truss’s government put paid to many plans, but none more so than the biography of the lady herself, which Harry and I have been writing for the past ten weeks. Having started the project as her biographers, we ended it as her political obituarists, furiously rewriting copy as it became clear that our intended cliff-hanger could only have one ending. Our deadline was 29 October. Harry (who is the political editor of the Sun) and I signed the deal for Out of the Blue: The Astonishing Rise of Liz Truss on 20 August, so we had less than two months to throw ourselves into the madcap world of Truss.

Will anyone buy my Liz Truss book?

Saturday

22 Oct 2022

Friday

21 Oct 2022
Will Penny do better than last time?

This afternoon Penny Mordaunt became the first candidate to publicly declare themselves for the leadership of the Conservative party. Much of the talk in this contest has been about the 'death match' between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, both of whom are a known quantity in Westminster circles. Mordaunt's confirmed entry into the race changes the dynamics of the contest and offers her colleagues a different choice. She is something of an outsider – having only held a senior cabinet post for less than three months in 2019 – and was never someone in the inner counsels of the Cameron, May, Johnson or Truss premierships.The threshold of 100 nominations on Monday is a steep one and Mordaunt is currently well behind Sunak and Johnson in the number of confirmed public backers.

Will Penny do better than last time?

Wednesday

19 Oct 2022
Government wins fracking vote amid chaos

The government won tonight’s vote on fracking but it truly was a Pyrrhic victory. On paper, the numbers involved – 315 'noes' to ban fracking for shale gas versus 228 'ayes' – might suggest a well-oiled whipping machine. But it was the carnage within the House of Commons that everyone was talking about tonight. Opposition MPs are full of indignation at the scenes they claim to have seen in the voting lobbies tonight. Labour’s Chris Bryant told Sky that he saw four Tory MPs, including Deputy PM Thérèse Coffey and her colleague Jacob Rees-Mogg, physically man-handle a colleague of their party into their voting lobby. He added that he has photo evidence on his phone. The SNP’s David Linden tweeted that he saw Coffey ‘practically pick up a hesitant Tory MP and march him into the Government lobby.

Government wins fracking vote amid chaos

Monday

17 Oct 2022

Tuesday

27 Sep 2022

Monday

26 Sep 2022

Wednesday

7 Sep 2022
What does Truss’s cabinet tell us about her?

'Loyalty' remarked Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe is 'the Tory party's secret weapon.' The near constant blue-on-blue attacks of the last six years have made a mockery of this aphorism. But Liz Truss's first cabinet has demonstrated the importance which she places on loyalty when it comes to selecting her top team. Some 31 names are now attending cabinet; of those just one (Michael Ellis) backed Rishi Sunak. New leaders are entitled to select who they want –⁠ Boris Johnson fired half the ministers upon taking office in 2019 and ruthlessly purged Jeremy Hunt's supporters from his top team. But he, unlike Truss, surpassed expectations in the membership vote (winning 66 per cent) and came top of every round of the parliamentary stage, winning more than twice Hunt's total of MPs on the penultimate round.

What does Truss’s cabinet tell us about her?

Friday

2 Sep 2022

Thursday

1 Sep 2022
Carol Vorderman: My maths manifesto for the nation

A glittering TV career, an MBE, various honorary degrees, tens of thousands of TikTok followers and the only person to win the (now cancelled) Rear of the Year award multiple times. There are many accolades that Carol Vorderman has been afforded during her 40-year career, yet few mean more to her than her claim to having possibly taught more people alive in Britain than anyone else. Through books, tapes and online classes, the former Countdown star has – according, at least, to my remedial fag-pack maths – educated more than a million people since the late 1980s. She started when the national curriculum was introduced in 1988 with instructional classes on VHS, and she’s subsequently taught generations of adults and children.

Carol Vorderman: My maths manifesto for the nation

Thursday

28 Jul 2022

Friday

15 Jul 2022
Truss tries to boost her campaign

Ahead of tonight’s Channel 4 debate, the five remaining Tory leadership candidates appeared on Zoom for the first public hustings, hosted by the ConservativeHome website. But none really secured a knockout blow, owing in part to the format of the debate – and the reluctance of each to launch into out and out attacks.Instead, the main fight was on policy, not personality, following some hostile briefings in newspapers over the past 48 hours. And the most ambitious candidate on the policy front was Liz Truss, keen to regain momentum after finishing third behind Penny Mordaunt on the first two ballots. The Truss camp is conscious that Rishi Sunak will almost certainly bag one of the two top slots next week and that they need to lock up much of the right-wing vote in order to join him in the membership ballot.

Truss tries to boost her campaign

Tuesday

12 Jul 2022
How far will Tugendhat go?

There were three leadership launches in Westminster this morning. Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner, spoke at the QEII Centre; Kemi Badenoch, the rising star, pitched to Policy Exchange. But what of Tom Tugendhat, the longtime backbencher, kicking off his campaign at the BBC's Westminster studios? How best to describe his place in the Tory leadership race?The former army officer's appearance this morning epitomised his strengths and weaknesses within a crowded field. His speech was prepared and heavy on policy: his pitch stressed integrity and the need to win public trust. Having won the backing of Jake Berry, the Northern Research Group chairman, Tugendhat detailed his support for the 'levelling up' agenda: a sensible move, given how few leadership candidates have emphasised this to an electorate full of northern Tories uncertain about who to back.

How far will Tugendhat go?

Wednesday

6 Jul 2022
Zahawi: I will go for growth

The big winner from yesterday's drama was Nadhim Zahawi. Just ten months ago he was a junior minister: now he holds the second most powerful position in government. The newly-appointed Chancellor has today done his first round of interviews, appearing across a range of outlets to outline his plans for the Treasury. As Kate Andrews write elsewhere on Coffee House, a key faultline between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson was fiscal responsibility. The former was unwilling to support spending increases without corresponding tax hikes: the latter is keen to cut taxes without slashing spending. Zahawi has already signalled he will be less evangelical about these issues than Sunak, hinting on Sky News this morning that next year's planned corporation tax rise could be shelved.

Zahawi: I will go for growth

Thursday

30 Jun 2022
Inside the clash between Boris and Charles

Boris Johnson is the kind of prime minister who believes that rules are there to be broken. This certainly seems to apply to his relations with the Crown. Conversation between the government and the monarchy is, by convention, kept strictly confidential. But when Prince Charles privately described the government’s Rwanda deportation policy as ‘appalling’ within political earshot, word leaked out suspiciously quickly – via Westminster channels. Johnson then chose to fuel the story at the Commonwealth summit in Kigali by telling broadcasters that Charles should keep ‘an open mind’. Given that the Prince was standing in for the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, it was remarkable to have the Prime Minister revealing in advance what he planned to say to the acting sovereign – especially given that it was critical.

Inside the clash between Boris and Charles

Friday

17 Jun 2022
Tory MPs split on Johnson’s absence

Boris Johnson has left the country - but that hasn’t stopped him from annoying his backbenchers. The Prime Minister is visiting Ukraine today to meet with President Zelensky. He’s announced that the UK will expand its training capacity for Ukrainian forces to process up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.That ought to be a visit that wins universal applause within the Tory party. Yet while there is near-unanimity across the Conservative parliamentary party at the need to support Kyiv’s struggle against Russia, some are unhappy with the timing of Johnson’s announcement and sudden trip abroad.The Prime Minister was due to speak today at the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs. The caucus boasts a membership of around 55 and is headed by onetime Boris backer Jake Berry.

Tory MPs split on Johnson’s absence

Friday

20 May 2022

Thursday

19 May 2022
Changing channels: the new war for political broadcasting

It’s hard to step outside nowadays without being confronted with a massive picture of Piers Morgan. In the adverts for his new TalkTV show he can be seen crushing the House of Commons in his hands or pointing to an address for the channel’s complaints department. ‘Love him or hate him,’ the adverts declare, ‘you won’t want to miss him.’ Actually, it seems, people don’t mind if they do. At the last count, barely 40,000 tuned in. In contrast, Morgan’s final appearance on Good Morning Britain drew almost two million viewers. So what’s going on? One answer is that TalkTV, like any new channel, will take a while to establish itself. But the other point is that Piers Morgan Uncensored is vying with lots of other big-name chat-show presenters across a variety of platforms for a limited amount of public attention.

Changing channels: the new war for political broadcasting

Tuesday

17 May 2022
Tory MP arrested for rape

A Conservative MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault offences. According to the Sun, which broke the story today, the unnamed male Tory currently remains in custody, after being arrested for alleged sexual offences committed between 2002 and 2009 in London. Police first received a report of the allegations in January 2020 and have conducted a two-year investigation into the claims. The unnamed MP faces suspension from the party while detectives from the Central Specialist Crime unit investigate. The Chief Whip, Chris Heaton Harris, has already asked the MP to stay away from the House of Commons while an investigation is being carried out. A whips office spokesman has said: 'The Chief Whip has asked that the MP concerned does not attend the parliamentary estate while an investigation is ongoing.

Tory MP arrested for rape

Friday

6 May 2022

Thursday

5 May 2022
Eton mess: inside the battle to run Britain’s top public school

Speak to Tory ministers of a certain background and the question of succession soon arises. But the position they’re talking about is in Windsor, not Westminster – and it has nothing to do with skipping a generation of the monarchy. Pretty soon there will be a new Provost of Eton and, thanks to a quirk of history, it’s a Crown appointment. With so many Old Etonians in this government, including the Business Secretary, Brexit Opportunities Minister and the Prime Minister himself, there’s no shortage of opinions. The incumbent, Lord Waldegrave, is expected to leave his post shortly, after 13 years – and at a time when a battle is being waged for Eton’s soul. When exercising their power to advise the monarch on her choice, recent premiers have deferred to the school’s preferred successor, but with Boris Johnson nothing is ever conventional.

Eton mess: inside the battle to run Britain’s top public school

Thursday

21 Apr 2022
The missing mandarins: why won’t civil servants go back to work?

‘Mother nature,’ says Boris Johnson, ‘does not like working from home.’ The Prime Minister wants workers to return to offices so they can have the ‘stimulus of exchange and competition’. His ministers are just as evangelical. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, says he favours ‘being able to interact directly’ with colleagues and Rishi Sunak has spoken about how young people need the office space to learn. The nation’s employers should, they say, get their staff back to their desks. Yet nine months since the end of lockdown and tumbleweed is still blowing through the corridors of power. When Jacob Rees-Mogg conducted an audit to see how many Whitehall desks were occupied on 4 April, it found the answer was just a quarter at the Education and the Work and Pensions departments.

The missing mandarins: why won’t civil servants go back to work?