Katy Balls is The Spectator’s former political editor.
The Tory racism row looks set to run on for some time. West Yorkshire Police today launched an investigation into alleged racist comments made by top Tory donor, Frank Hester. Officers are to investigate reports that Hester, a Leeds businessman who has given £10 million to the Tories, said former Labour MP Diane Abbott made
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Leo Varadkar resigned as Ireland’s Taoiseach this week, and as Fine Gael leader. ‘Personal and political reasons’ informed his decision, he said. Will his party now call an election? Katy Balls speaks to Ben Scallen, from Gript Media, in Dublin.
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A new YouGov poll has Reform just four points behind the Conservatives. Richard Tice’s party is on 15 per cent, and Rishi Sunak’s party is on 19 per cent. What is driving the Tory decline? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and to James Johnson of JL Partners.
On Wednesday night, Rishi Sunak urged his party to ‘dig deep and fight’ in the face of difficult polling. The Prime Minister will be hoping this morning that the message landed as another damaging poll has been released. The latest from YouGov/Times puts the Labour lead at 25 points. But the part that will worry
There’s an old Russian joke about the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in Moscow. The pessimist believes that things cannot get any worse. The optimist replies: ‘Of course they could!’ These days the same joke could be made about the Tory party. As it slumps to its worst polling result since the dying
After a bruising few weeks for Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister this evening appeared before the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers to make his case. As MPs prepare to go into the Easter recess, Sunak tried to encourage his party to unite rather than descend further into plotting. He told MPs: This battle will define
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to step down as Ireland’s prime minister and as the leader of his party, Fine Gael. In an announcement this lunchtime in Dublin, Varadkar said he would quit as party leader with immediate effect, but stay in the role of Taoiseach until his successor is appointed. Explaining his decision, Varadkar
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Inflation has fallen to 3.4 per cent, it was announced this morning. Jeremy Hunt said it was a sign that the government’s economic plan is working. Is he right? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews.
14 min listen
All ten of the amendments to the Rwanda bill, put in by the House of Lords, were rejected by the House of Commons last night. The bill will head back to the Lords tomorrow, where they will decide whether to continue the process of ‘ping pong’ (putting more amendments in and sending the bill back
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Over the weekend, speculation about a plot to oust Rishi Sunak and replace him with Penny Mordaunt circulated the papers. It came after one of the worst weeks of the Prime Minister’s premiership and the looming May elections. This morning, key Cabinet ministers including Kemi Badenoch and Ben Wallace have come out in support of
Rishi Sunak goes into the week hoping it will be better than the one that came before. Last week, the Prime Minister suffered one of his worst weeks since entering 10 Downing Street with Lee Anderson defecting to Reform, a racism row over a donor, and MPs on the right discussing whether they ought to
Could Penny Mordaunt lead the Tories into the election? This is the talk this weekend after several papers splashed on a push by Conservative MPs on the right of the party to oust Sunak and replace him with his former leadership rival. The Daily Mail reports that these MPs met with supporters of Mordaunt this
Rishi Sunak has finally confirmed what most MPs already knew: there won’t be a May general election. Speaking to ITV News West Country on Thursday night, the Prime Minister was asked if there would be a general election at the same time as the local elections on 2 May. He replied: ‘There won’t be a
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Rishi Sunak has finally confirmed what most MPs already knew: there won’t be a May general election. Speaking to ITV News West Country on Thursday night, the Prime Minister was asked if there would be a general election at the same time as the local elections on 2 May. He replied: ‘There won’t be a
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When it comes to retirement, working out how much you will need to set aside can seem like a monumental task. The average person has between 8 to 10 jobs over their lifetime. People are living longer – with the median retirement age at 65 and life expectancy at 80. What should people think about
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Michael Gove has unveiled the government’s new legal definition of extremism, which will decide whether organisations can receive government money. Conservative MPs, and three former Conservative home secretaries, have said doing would be a mistake. Is Gove doing more harm than good? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and Paul Goodman, former editor of Conservative
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On the podcast this week: is Rishi ready for a Red Wall rebellion? Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform is an indication of the final collapse of the Tories’ 2019 electoral coalition and the new split in the right, writes Katy Balls in her cover story. For the first time in many years the Tories are
Michael Gove’s extremism crackdown has been the talk of the Tory party for weeks now, with three former Conservative home secretaries warning ahead of today’s official announcement not to use the issue to score political points. Gove, the Levelling Up secretary, has drawn up a new definition of non-violent extremism which, he told the Commons
On Monday night Tories gathered on the Terrace Pavilion at parliament for the 1922 Committee’s spring reception, to which every backbencher was invited. The crowd was small, largely made up of Rishi Sunak loyalists eating steak and chips and drinking sparkling wine. The Prime Minister chose not to give opening remarks and instead chatted to
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At Prime Minister’s Questions today Rishi Sunak refused to commit to returning the £10 million donor Frank Hester gave to the Conservative party. Hester allegedly said that Diane Abbott made him ‘hate all black women.’ Sunak now says that Hester’s alleged comments were ‘racist’ and ‘wrong’, after a spokesperson initially only described them as ‘unacceptable’.
