Conservatives
How to waste an 80-seat majority
Cast your mind back to Channel 4’s election night programme. The 2019 exit poll results flash up on screen. Realising…
Tory backlash over Channel 4 privatisation
Downing Street’s plan to privatise Channel 4 is already facing a Tory revolt – less than 24 hours after the…
No. 10 is gearing up for the next election
As the Conservative party’s Spring Forum gets underway in Blackpool, attention is turning back to domestic politics, with cabinet ministers…
Ending restrictions won't save Boris
Boris Johnson certainly managed to rally the troops on their first day back from recess this afternoon as he told…
Boris Johnson's fightback has been cut short
Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, has this morning announced that he is sending a letter to…
Did Johnson mislead the Commons?
Boris Johnson had hoped to move attention this week from parties — with a series of policy announcements planned as part of…
Can Boris really blame the press for his defeat?
When asked what went wrong in North Shropshire, Boris Johnson gave a fascinating answer: journalists. Apparently, they have been reporting…
Stratton resigns – but the row isn't over
The row over the Downing Street ‘party’ has claimed its first victim. On Wednesday Allegra Stratton announced that she was…
Could there be a Tory upset in North Shropshire?
As the government turns its attention to the new Covid variant, the ramifications of the Owen Paterson sleaze row are…
The vaccine cheer is gone
I am 45, which means I’ve now had my third Covid vaccine. The experience of getting that injection crystallises a…
The sleaze row isn't finished yet
Number 10 will have been relieved that the weekend did not bring new stories about Conservative MPs raking in lots…
Gove gets into gear
‘This government ends if the red wall reverts back to type and we lose 45 seats then end up in…
Will the Tories cut taxes before the next election?
The Tory party has reached a fork in the road, I say in the Times today. One path involves sticking…
Andrew Mitchell relives the agony of Plebgate
Andrew Mitchell, as he readily admits, was born into the British Establishment. Almost from birth, his path was marked out:…
Rishi Sunak's low tax pitch to MPs
Is Rishi Sunak a low tax chancellor? He certainly likes to tell anyone who will listen that he is. Yet…
Why did we decide that Covid was over?
Look, I don’t know much epidemiology. Can’t pretend to. So what follows is, necessarily, a personal finger to the wind.…
Why Covid means the big state is back
History suggests that when the state expands in a crisis, it doesn’t go back to its pre-crisis level once the…
David Frost's protocol diplomacy
As a general rule in post-Brexit politics, when David Frost makes a public intervention on the Northern Ireland protocol, it…
The Tories will pay a price for Boris's housing strategy
One of the themes of Conservative conference was that the government has dropped plans for a radical reform of the…
Build Back Boris!
As a clarion call, a sounding of hosannas, a piece of fiery rhetoric to hold puissance over the soul of…
Levelling up is Johnsonian cakeism
Until this morning, few people in Britain will have heard of the works of Wilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). Now, thanks to…
Sunak faces the free-marketeers
Rishi Sunak didn’t give too much away tonight when he spoke at the ThinkTent Conservative Party Conference. The Chancellor is…
Priti Patel strikes a bullish tone
The theme of Priti Patel’s party conference speech this afternoon was very much ‘large and in charge’. She devoted much…
WhatsApp collapse throws Tory plots into chaos
The world’s oldest democratic party has had a few problems with technology in recent years. Famously it was the 2018…
Boris's tetchy Marr interview showed the risks he is taking
Boris Johnson’s rather testy interview with Andrew Marr this morning revealed the political gamble that he is taking. Johnson is calculating…
