Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and edits the Coffee House blog. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

Boris’s desperate tearoom tour

6 July 2022 2:05 am

This afternoon, a text message went out to certain Tory MPs telling them that the Prime Minister was going to…

Boris ‘forgot’ about Pincher allegations, claims minister

5 July 2022 11:55 pm

The government’s line yesterday on what Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher’s behaviour kept changing. Today, it’s quite hard to find…

Boost defence spending to prepare for Putin, Wallace demands

28 June 2022 10:42 pm

Ben Wallace is giving a speech this afternoon in which he will urge Boris Johnson to increase defence spending. The…

The Northern Ireland Protocol: the real fight is yet to come

28 June 2022 7:23 pm

Last night’s vote on the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill didn’t turn into an open revolt from Tory MPs – but…

Boris’s unapologetic by-election response

25 June 2022 2:20 am

Boris Johnson has not accepted responsibility for the two by-election defeats. You could have written this line at any point…

How long can Boris hold the line on railway strikes?

22 June 2022 4:31 am

Is the government’s approach to strikes and public sector pay too blunt? Today Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak took the…

Should Starmer be worried about the rail strikes?

22 June 2022 1:52 am

Sir Keir Starmer has ended up in a very Starmer-esque pickle over the rail strikes this week. Yesterday he instructed…

Starmer’s PMQs performance was oddly flat

8 June 2022 10:35 pm

It’s not unusual for a Labour leader to attack the government over the NHS at Prime Minister’s Questions. Neither is…

Boris: It's not over. Rebels: Yes, it is

7 June 2022 6:49 am

Boris Johnson has just insisted that he has had ‘an extremely positive’ and ‘decisive result’ in the vote of confidence…

The Sue Gray report makes for grim reading for No. 10

25 May 2022 8:27 pm

In the past few minutes, Sue Gray’s final report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street has been published. It makes…

Johnson's partygate apology ploy

20 April 2022 4:30 am

Boris Johnson bundled his Commons apology for breaking Covid laws together with an update on Ukraine because he wanted to…

Boris thinks he can ride this scandal out

13 April 2022 3:45 am

Boris Johnson has now apologised for receiving a fixed penalty notice for attending a lockdown-busting party. In a clearly very…

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak fined over partygate

12 April 2022 10:55 pm

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are both to receive fixed penalty notices for attending lockdown parties, it has just emerged.…

Boris and Scholz parade the new Europe

9 April 2022 3:00 pm

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed Europe forever. That was the argument that Boris Johnson made on Friday when he…

Are we falling out of love with the NHS?

30 March 2022 9:20 pm

Clap for carers now feels like ancient history. Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest since 1997, according…

Labour is falling into the Tim Farron trap on sex and gender

29 March 2022 11:54 pm

What do you remember about Tim Farron’s time as Lib Dem leader? Was it the position he created for his…

What lessons can Britain learn from Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ordeal?

22 March 2022 12:01 am

‘How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five?’ Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has spoken for the first…

Why is Britain so useless at helping Ukrainian refugees?

9 March 2022 9:05 pm

Some MPs were in tears yesterday when President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the House of Commons, and understandably so, given the…

No-fly zones won’t work, but what about aid to Ukraine?

2 March 2022 9:43 pm

Vladimir Putin’s forces are encircling the cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol, and a 40 mile-long convoy of Russian armoured vehicles…

Ending restrictions won't save Boris

22 February 2022 4:37 am

Boris Johnson certainly managed to rally the troops on their first day back from recess this afternoon as he told…

PMQs: Boris's anger over new partygate picture

10 February 2022 12:20 am

The takeaway moment from today’s PMQs came not in the main exchanges between Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer but…

Boris Johnson is running out of options

8 February 2022 9:24 pm

The No. 10 operation’s decision to double down on the Starmer/Savile row after the Labour leader was accosted in the…

Boris is finished — it’s when, not if

4 February 2022 7:13 am

This week, Michael Gove’s lengthy Levelling Up white paper talked about the ancient city of Jericho. This was largely because…

PMQs: Boris doubles down on Jimmy Savile claims

3 February 2022 12:35 am

Today’s PMQs suggests that some of the immediate heat has gone the partygate crisis, if only temporarily. Sir Keir Starmer…

Johnson's defence deteriorates

1 February 2022 3:50 am

That Boris Johnson regards the Gray update as an opportunity to come up for air was very clear from his…