There will be more inquiries into grooming gangs. After sustained pressure, the Home Secretary announced yesterday a series of local, government-backed inquiries, rather than a full public inquiry. Critics argue that this either doesn’t go far enough, or that Labour have been forced to go back on their word by certain figures on the right and are now making policy on the hoof. Will these new inquiries deliver an adequate resolution? Also on the podcast, Kemi Badenoch wasn't the only one giving a...
Jan 17, 2025•14 min
Keir Starmer is in Ukraine today, on his first visit to Kyiv since becoming Prime Minister. And he came bearing gifts: a 100-year partnership agreement between the UK and Ukraine, covering nine ‘pillars’ from culture to science. It is hoped that the new pact will define the relationship between the two countries well beyond the current conflict with Russia. This is all in the context of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, with his administration agitating for a peace deal. Is peace on the ...
Jan 16, 2025•13 min
With rumours swirling around Westminster and after Keir Starmer’s less than convincing defence of his Chancellor earlier in the week, Rachel Reeves has found some brief respite. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that inflation dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before. It’s welcome news for a Chancellor who is under pressure, so is she safe? Elsewhere, there is a fresh row emerging concerning Gerry Adams. The government is propo...
Jan 15, 2025•11 min
New voting intention polling today puts Reform neck and neck with Labour. The YouGov/ Times poll reveals that support for Starmer’s army has plummeted nine points, with just over a quarter of Brits backing the government – while Nigel Farage’s Reform party has seen its support soar by 10 points. Kemi Badenoch’s Tories have lost two points, while the canvassing of 2,279 adults – carried out between 12–13 January – shows the Lib Dems and the Greens both gained one. Perhaps the most damning news, h...
Jan 14, 2025•13 min
Former Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced she is separating from her husband Peter Murrell, former chief executive of the SNP. The announcement comes as the police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances remains ongoing, with Sturgeon and ex-SNP treasurer Colin Beattie under investigation while Murrell was charged with embezzlement in April 2024. Katy Balls is joined by The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove, and data editor Michael Simmons, to discuss the separation, why the inv...
Jan 13, 2025•12 min
It’s rare that a world leader knows the name of a junior minister in the British government – let alone calls for them to be sacked. Yet that is the feat achieved by Tulip Siddiq, No. 4 in Rachel Reeves’s Treasury team. The anti-corruption minister is now facing calls to resign from the leader of Bangladesh, who condemned the use of properties gifted to her and her family by its former regime. Elsewhere, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch joined the chorus of people calling for Siddiq to resign over the ...
Jan 13, 2025•18 min
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows. Fires continue to burn in LA, as Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term. Here in the UK, Labour is fighting its own fires, with anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq becoming part of a corruption investigation herself, and the Chancellor heading to China for investment as her budget comes under increasing pressure. Produced by Joe Bedell-Brill.
Jan 12, 2025•14 min
This week, MPs voted against a new national inquiry into grooming gangs. The vote followed weeks of pressure on Labour after Elon Musk brought grooming gangs back into the spotlight, after safeguarding minister Jess Phillips rejected a new national inquiry. If we did have a national inquiry, what would it achieve? We’ve had many in recent years; Iraq, Grenfell Covid, the Post Office. Do they achieve meaningful justice for victims, or are they a drawn-out way to avoid knotty legislative change? D...
Jan 11, 2025•20 min
The war between Labour and Elon Musk continues to rage. Today the Financial Times reports that the tech tycoon has had discussions about ousting Keir Starmer before the next election, while the Mirror holds a report that the Home Office has been assessing Elon Musk's tweets as a part of their efforts to tackle online extremism. Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and James Heale about whether Musk can really threaten Starmer's position. Produced by Cindy Yu.
Jan 10, 2025•11 min
Long term borrowing costs for the government have reached levels not seen since 1998, and 10 year UK gilts are now at their highest point since the 2008 financial crash. Both surpass the levels seen during the Liz Truss premiership - and this hasn't gone unnoticed by the former PM. A set of similar circumstances, but could the consequences be the same? What are the economic - and political - challenges facing Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves? James Heales speaks to Kate Andrews and Katy Balls to u...
Jan 09, 2025•12 min
At PMQs today, the battle lines were drawn ahead of today’s vote on Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which aims to protect children within the education system. Its contents have galvanised opposition parties, who are using the legislation to force a fresh inquiry into grooming gangs. Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has also been on the airwaves today, attacking some of the reforms detailed in the plan, specifically on academies and free schools. The government is set to ta...
Jan 08, 2025•13 min
How do you solve a problem like Elon? We have spent much of the past week talking on the podcast about Labour vs Musk, and the tech billionaire’s vocal criticism of how the government is dealing with the grooming gang scandal. But Reform UK are having their own issues with the volatile owner of X. There have been questions over whether Musk could still bankroll the party after he called for Farage to step down following a disagreement over Musk’s support for the far-right activist Tommy Robinson...
Jan 07, 2025•18 min
In a speech this morning, the Prime Minister unveiled his plans to tackle the NHS backlog, and hit back at comments Elon Musk has made regarding grooming gangs, the government's response to them, and about the Prime Minister’s own role in their prosecution. Whilst the Prime Minister's speech was plagued by the familiar platitudes about the NHS it was shortly followed by the government's NHS elective recovery plan, which does include some interesting proposals to shift healthcare away from hospit...
Jan 06, 2025•17 min
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows. The fallout from Elon Musk's attacks continues. Wes Streeting calls Musk's comments 'a disgraceful smear', while Nigel Farage has a rather more sympathetic view. Chris Philp blames Labour local authorities for the grooming gangs cover-up, but a former Conservative advisor says Robert Jenrick could become the most divisive figure in British political history. Produced by Joe Bedell-Brill.
Jan 05, 2025•16 min
The grooming gangs scandal is back in the news this week after Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips rejected calls for a government inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, prompting a conservative backlash. Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Justice Secretary, called it ‘shameful’; Liz Truss, the former Prime Minister, labelled Phillips’s title ‘a perversion of the English language.’ Even Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter/X, has piled in, arguing that the Home Office minister ‘deserves to be in prison...
Jan 04, 2025•19 min
Happy New Year and – of course – happy new long-term social care plan. Not only has Labour announced a ‘longer-term’ solution to a problem the party itself has acknowledged is urgent by setting up a commission that won’t report until 2028, but it has also taken steps to make that reform even harder to realise by saying it is looking for a ‘cross-party solution’. Should we interpret this as Labour kicking the can down the road? And is Labour developing a reputation for shirking its responsibility...
Jan 03, 2025•14 min
Happy New Year! And it could prove to be a very happy new year for Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. They provided some of the stand-out political drama of 2024, with Lee Anderson’s defection and Farage’s return, before winning five seats at the general election (as well as a hefty chunk of the popular vote). They finished the year strong with a meeting with Elon Musk, where we understand that a possible donation was discussed. Farage also gave a memorable speech at The Spectator awards, warnin...
Jan 02, 2025•19 min
Santa will have had a tricky time this year fulfilling all the Christmas wish lists in Westminster. Keir Starmer is desperately hoping for a change in the political weather, and Kemi Badenoch would like an in with Donald Trump. Ed Davey dreams that Labour’s electoral troubles will get so bad that proportional representation starts to look appealing. Nigel Farage, meanwhile, wants to avoid what usually happens with him and keep his party from falling out – or perhaps Elon Musk will give him a Chr...
Dec 30, 2024•23 min
Kemi Badenoch is just over a month into her tenure as leader of the opposition, and already she has been criticised for her performances at PMQs and for failing to offer much in the way of policy proposals. It has been a consistent gripe of many of Badenoch’s detractors that she is a culture warrior or a one-trick pony. However, we might get a better idea of what the Conservatives will look like in the new year once her series of policy commissions get under way. So, how will she position her pa...
Dec 27, 2024•19 min
It’s been a historic year in British politics. At the start of 2024, the UK had a different Prime Minister, the Tories had a different leader, and The Spectator had a different editor! Michael Gove, Katy Balls, and Quentin Letts join Cindy Yu to review the biggest political stories of 2024. On the podcast, the panel discuss the rise of Reform UK and Nigel Farage as a political force, Labour’s adjustment to government, and Michael reveals his reaction to Rishi telling Cabinet that he was going fo...
Dec 21, 2024•28 min
Last night we got the news that Peter Mandelson is expected to be named the next UK ambassador to Washington. Despite months of speculation, Labour held firm on making a decision until the results of the US election, and with Trump entering the White House in the new year they have gone with an experienced diplomat and a political appointment. A government source is quoted as telling the BBC: ‘The fact the Prime Minister has chosen to make a political appointment and sent Lord Mandelson to Washi...
Dec 20, 2024•14 min
The Bank of England have voted to hold UK interest rates at 4.75%. The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews joins Katy Balls and Freddy Gray to discuss the decision and what this means for the UK economy. Also on the podcast they discuss how a potential donation from Elon Musk to Reform UK has rattled politicians across the political spectrum. Could Labour seek to reform political donation rules to limit donations from foreign owned companies? And is this a sensible move, or could those in ...
Dec 19, 2024•9 min
New figures have shown that, for the year to November, inflation rose by 2.6%. While unsurprising, how much will this impact the Chancellor's plans going into the new year? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman about the impact on Labour, especially given their October budget. Also on the podcast: do the WASPI women deserve compensation? The team discuss Liz Kendall's announcement that Labour will not recompense women who faced pension changes; they also discuss the last PMQs of 2...
Dec 18, 2024•12 min
After days of speculation online, the alleged Chinese spy has been named as Yang Tegbo. This latest example of Chinese espionage has opened up a number of debates in Westminster, firstly around Labour's push to ‘reset’ its relationship with China, as well as the conversation around the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme – a number of China hawks such as IDS and Tom Tugendhat are pushing for it to be implemented sooner than summer 2025. Can Labour's China policy survive this latest wave of Sin...
Dec 17, 2024•11 min
Labour will reveal plans today to re-design local government, with district councils set to be abolished, and more elected mayors introduced across England. The plans could be the biggest reforms of their type since the 1970s, but with the May 2025 local elections set to be Labour’s first big electoral test since the general election, how will they be impacted? Local government minister Jim McMahon didn’t deny that the elections could be affected, or some even cancelled. Reform UK have called fo...
Dec 16, 2024•13 min
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning’s political shows. In the final Sunday roundup of the year, we hear about immigration and Chinese espionage through the views of Yvette Cooper, Angela Eagle, Kemi Badenoch and Andy Burnham. Produced by Joe Bedell-Brill.
Dec 15, 2024•16 min
New research this week suggested that a majority of Brexit voters would accept the return of freedom of movement in exchange for access to the EU single market. The poll, conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), found that 54% of Brexit voters – and 68% of all respondents – would accept this. Facing their own changing domestic concerns, how close can the UK and EU governments really get? Could Defence hold the key for collaboration? And how much is this driven by a more vol...
Dec 14, 2024•18 min
Labour is supposed to be going for growth, so Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves will be disappointed with the news today that the economy unexpectedly shrank in October, and for the second month in a row. Rachel Reeves's mood seems to have visibly changed in the last month or so, is she having her George Osborne moment? And can she turn things around, or have the dynamics of the Labour–UK plc relationship changed irreversibly? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Patrick...
Dec 13, 2024•18 min
Today Downing Street has continued its reset – that is definitely not a reset – by providing more details on Labour’s plan to cut the planning red tape and deliver a housing revolution. Their target is to build one and a half million new homes over the next five years by building on green belt land and giving councils mandatory targets. This has predictably been met with robust opposition from several groups who are concerned about the plan, which involves building on a green belt area the size ...
Dec 12, 2024•16 min
Labour are planning to publish a 10-year plan to get on the front foot when it comes to the prisons crisis. Shifting from the previous government’s preference to run the system hot to a policy of early release and carving out more places, the headline figure is that there will be 14,000 more prison places by 2031. But the fear today is that these won’t be enough to tackle the critical lack of space in UK jails. So, will Labour’s ongoing sentencing review advocate for greater leniency for certain...
Dec 11, 2024•13 min
