James Heale

Will Sunak’s charm offensive with Macron yield results?

11 March 2023 2:39 am

Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron held a press conference together at the Élysée Palace today to mark their new deal…

Four things we learnt from the Boris Partygate probe

4 March 2023 12:34 am

Today the privileges committee has published its initial report into whether Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons about…

Rishi Sunak is not out of the woods yet

1 March 2023 1:01 am

The reaction to Rishi Sunak’s Protocol changes has so far been at the upper end of expectations in No. 10.…

How does the ‘Stormont Brake’ affect the Protocol?

28 February 2023 3:33 am

After months of negotiating, Rishi Sunak has today unveiled his changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. They focus on three…

Rishi risks another asylum outcry

23 February 2023 8:34 pm

With the likelihood of a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol fading this week, a new issue has emerged to…

Corporation tax could be one of Hunt’s biggest Budget headaches

23 February 2023 12:49 am

Public sector pay. Re-negotiating the energy price guarantee. Another fuel duty freeze. Jeremy Hunt’s first Budget on 15 March is…

Damian Green’s rejection is a sign of things to come

22 February 2023 3:03 am

Much has been written about Damian Green’s failure on Saturday to be selected for the new Weald of Kent seat.…

Why China could be Truss’s best hope for rehabilitation

17 February 2023 7:45 pm

This week two former Foreign Secretaries offered competing visions for how Britain should engage with China. On Wednesday, Philip Hammond…

Labour gets its house in order

15 February 2023 7:13 pm

After 839 days, the Labour party has today been let out of special measures by the equalities watchdog over its…

‘I’m not some toffee-nosed Tory’

11 February 2023 9:00 am

Lee Anderson on poverty, immigration and the death penalty

Four things we learnt from Richard Sharp’s BBC grilling

7 February 2023 11:13 pm

This morning Richard Sharp, the BBC’s Chairman, appeared before the Culture select committee of MPs. It was a difficult session…

What Liz Truss gets right (and wrong)

7 February 2023 5:19 am

After three months of silence, Liz Truss has spoken out – first in a 4,000-word article for the Telegraph and…

The anti-strike bill shows the Tories can still unite

31 January 2023 11:56 pm

The House of Commons voted to pass the government’s flagship trade union legislation on 30 January. By 315 to 246…

Welfare reform is back on the agenda

12 January 2023 11:23 pm

This week Jonathan Ashworth set out Labour’s answer to the 5.2 million on out-of-work benefits – a figure which The…

Simon Clarke: What the PM can learn from Liz Truss

7 January 2023 9:00 am

Simon Clarke on what the PM can learn from ‘radical’ Liz Truss

Can the House of Lords survive?

10 December 2022 9:00 am

Can the Lords survive?

Trading places: George Eustice on Brexit, Sunak and the Australian deal 

26 November 2022 9:00 am

Former environment secretary George Eustice on the PM’s deal dilemma

Will anyone buy my Liz Truss book?

29 October 2022 9:00 am

The horror of writing Liz Truss’s biography

Government wins fracking vote amid chaos

20 October 2022 5:36 am

The government won tonight’s vote on fracking but it truly was a Pyrrhic victory. On paper, the numbers involved –…

What does the new cabinet tell us about Truss?

7 September 2022 4:10 pm

”Loyalty’ remarked Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe is ‘the Tory party’s secret weapon.’ The near constant blue-on-blue attacks of the last six…

How far will Tugendhat go?

12 July 2022 10:05 pm

There were three leadership launches in Westminster this morning. Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner, spoke at the QEII Centre; Kemi Badenoch,…

Zahawi: I will go for growth

6 July 2022 5:37 pm

The big winner from yesterday’s drama was Nadhim Zahawi. Just ten months ago he was a junior minister: now he…

Inside the clash between Boris and Charles

2 July 2022 9:00 am

Boris and Charles have had slightly fractious dealings so far

Tory MPs split on Johnson’s absence

18 June 2022 4:00 am

Boris Johnson has left the country – but that hasn’t stopped him from annoying his backbenchers. The Prime Minister is…

Changing channels: the new war for political broadcasting

21 May 2022 9:00 am

The television will be revolutionised