James Forsyth

James Forsyth is Political Editor of the Spectator. He is also a columnist in The Sun.

A year is a long time in politics

17 December 2022 9:00 am

The year of the three emperors in Prussia changed world history. In 1888, Wilhelm I died and was succeeded by…

Rishi Sunak is about to feel winter’s sting

10 December 2022 9:00 am

During the Tory leadership contest this summer, it was frequently said that whoever won would face the most politically difficult…

Why Japan and Britain are teaming up to build a fighter jet

10 December 2022 12:50 am

The UK will partner with Italy and Japan to develop a new generation of fighter aircraft with the aim of…

Three reasons Labour wants to talk about Lords reform

5 December 2022 9:48 pm

There are reasons why Labour wants to talk about constitutional reform despite all the other challenges facing the country. First,…

Why Tories are taking early retirement

3 December 2022 9:00 am

Conservative party strategists face nervous days ahead as they wait to see how many Tory MPs will announce they are…

Why Starmer’s going after the Lords

26 November 2022 9:00 am

It’s not just the government that’s now beholden to forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Keir Starmer told the…

The contours of the next election have been set

19 November 2022 9:00 am

Since the 2008 financial crash, British politics has been moving faster and faster, and becoming less stable. This frenzy reached…

Britain needs its missing workers back

19 November 2022 12:02 am

Amid all the economic gloom at the moment, the unemployment figure is one bright spot. It is just 3.6 per…

Three ways Hunt’s Autumn Statement will be judged

17 November 2022 11:55 pm

The government expects its Autumn Statement to be judged on three tests. First of all, how do the markets react?…

Nato to meet amid uncertainty over missile that hit Poland

16 November 2022 9:41 pm

Uncertainty still surrounds what happened with the missile that struck the village of Przewodów in Poland, around four miles from…

Has the next cold war been put on hold?

15 November 2022 4:22 am

The Biden-Xi meeting at the G20 seems to have been relatively productive, and has at least improved the lines of…

What Liz Truss got right

12 November 2022 9:00 am

Soon after Kwasi Kwarteng’s not-so-mini-Budget, I found myself in conversation with former aides to David Cameron and Boris Johnson respectively.…

Cop27: Sunak’s first overseas trip as PM

8 November 2022 11:28 pm

Rishi Sunak is back from his first overseas trip as Prime Minister. Despite Downing Street having initially said he wouldn’t…

How to balance immigration and jobs

5 November 2022 9:00 am

Immigration is now at the top of the political agenda in a way that it hasn’t been since the vote…

Sunak and Starmer clash over ‘broken’ asylum system

3 November 2022 12:25 am

Short questions are always best at PMQs – and Keir Starmer’s first one was very short indeed. He asked Rishi…

Is Rishi ready? Sunak’s first test will be getting through winter

29 October 2022 9:00 am

Sunak’s first test will be getting through winter

Penny drops, Rishi wins

25 October 2022 12:01 am

Rishi Sunak has been elected leader of the Tory party and will be the next prime minister after Penny Mordaunt pulled…

Boris has avoided a nightmare scenario

24 October 2022 7:37 am

Boris Johnson’s decision to pull out of the Tory leadership contest averts a nightmare scenario where he had got the…

The lady vanishes: the Truss agenda is dead

22 October 2022 9:00 am

The Truss agenda is dead

Will Boris get the numbers he needs?

21 October 2022 5:20 am

The question on everyone’s lips tonight is whether Boris Johnson can get 100 MP nominations by Monday. This is the…

More mini-Budget U-turns coming today

17 October 2022 4:54 pm

In a sign of how nervous the government still is about the state of the gilts market, the Treasury has…

Kwasi vs the markets

15 October 2022 9:00 am

Warren Buffett famously said that ‘when the tide goes out, you see who is swimming naked’. Now that the tide…

Crash course: how the Truss revolution came off the road

8 October 2022 9:00 am

Where does the Truss revolution go from here?

Opec's oil cut spells more bad news for Brits

6 October 2022 7:17 pm

Liz Truss joins other European leaders in Prague today at the first meeting of the European Political Community. Truss’s presence…

How high a price will Truss pay?

1 October 2022 9:00 am

This year’s Conservative party conference was supposed to be a moment of celebration for the new Tory leader. Instead there…