Priti Patel
Priti and Truss back MPs over Beijing’s threats
Most Tories are focusing on the leadership race but for some there are other concerns. Take the five MPs who…
Why the Met Police keeps failing
Much has been made of the decision to place the Metropolitan Police in what is often referred to as special…
Why is Britain so useless at helping Ukrainian refugees?
Some MPs were in tears yesterday when President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the House of Commons, and understandably so, given the…
Priti Patel and the progressive language police
There was an exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon that ought to be a scandal but won’t.…
Rishi in, Keir out: 2020's most popular baby names
Once the popularity of politicians was judged by how many babies they were asked to kiss – now it’s by…
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…
The powerlessness of Priti Patel
It is hard not to feel sorry for Priti Patel. She would surely have been a Tory conference darling at the…
Boris and Priti can't blame France for the Channel migrant crisis
The sun is beating down again, the waves are less choppy in the English Channel and the small boats full…
Talk tough and do nothing: The abject failure of Patel's migrant strategy
It is somehow fitting that during an Olympic Games a department of Her Majesty’s government is busy smashing records. In…
Labour is picking the wrong fight with Priti Patel
The position of Home Secretary Priti Patel is clearly untenable. Presumably this means she must resign. Who says so? Why,…
Why do those who abuse Priti Patel get a free pass?
Remember when Labour MP Clive Lewis got into trouble for saying, ‘On your knees, bitch’? It was at a fringe…
Does it matter if Priti Patel drops her Gs?
In 1923 in Whose Body? we were introduced to Lord Peter Wimsey on his way to an auction where he…
Priti Patel is running out of excuses for the Channel migrant crisis
When immigration minister Chris Philp announced last summer that he was in the process of agreeing a ‘new operational plan’ with…
Can Priti Patel’s asylum shake-up help Britain take back control?
Every Home Secretary is forced to confront the cold political realities of the office. What they set out to deliver…
A Priti poem: an ode to the Home Secretary
Priti Patel, Ms Priti Patel, Burnished by sunshine of far Israel, How we all cheered when on Marr you did…
Do civil servants need to be 'robust' or 'resilient'?
‘Why do they keep saying they need Brazilians?’ asked my husband, coming up for air from a hazy mixture of…
The trouble with ‘taking back control’
I sympathised with Leave voters who yearned to ‘take back control’ of British borders. After all, if being a country…
Was Priti Patel really ‘gaslighting’ MPs?
Gaslight has been a useful word meaning ‘to manipulate a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own…
The success of British Indians is troubling for some. Why?
The success of British Indians is troubling for some. Why?
Britain has its first punk-rock government
The most surprising thing about the letter from Guardian and Observer journalists moaning about Suzanne Moore’s supposed ‘transphobia’ is that…
Cartoonists have a right to free speech
I’m no fan of Steve Bell, the Guardiancartoonist. I can’t say I’ve ever laughed at one of his squibs, which…
The Tories cannot afford a war with the civil service
Thirteen years ago, when John Reid became Home Secretary, he declared the ministry he presided over ‘not fit for purpose’.…
The unbearable lightness of Boris Johnson
Months ago, not long after Boris Johnson’s 2019 general election triumph, I wrote a Times column of a cautiously hopeful…
Will Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings be knocked off course by Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation?
There are a handful of big things to watch out for following Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation as Home Office Permanent Secretary:…
In defence of Priti Patel
We will rue the day we all decided bullying was a bad thing. The consequence is that the inept, the…
