Coffee House Shots

Chris Philp joins James Heale to discuss what the Conservatives got wrong on immigration – and how they plan to fix it. The shadow Home Secretary argues that mass immigration risks making Britain ‘ungovernable’, says the last Tory government made a ‘catastrophic mistake’ after 2020 and explains why he thinks Reform still lacks a credible plan for government. He also lifts the lid on his time insid...

After his first PMQs Andy Burnham came away relatively unscathed, although his dream of a 'new politics' may be rapidly falling apart. To dissect what went on in the chamber, James Heale is joined by Tim Shipman and Isabel Hardman to go over today's more feisty exchanges. Produced by Oscar Edmondson Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/a...

Politics is back – and it’s a bumper day in Westminster. Kemi Badenoch got ahead of the field yesterday by reshuffling her top team a day earlier than expected, and the changes are much more comprehensive than first thought. James Cleverly is off to run for the London mayoralty, while Priti Patel and Mel Stride have both been given the boot. Katie Lam takes over Cleverly’s housing brief, while And...

To listen to more from the Reality Check podcast, go to spectator.com/reality-check With two months to go until Andy Burnham and John Healey’s first Budget, speculation about tax rises is already beginning. But how much should we believe? Michael Simmons looks at five facts about Britain’s tax system that should shape the debate – from a tax burden heading towards post-war highs to the surprising...

Reform has spent the summer taking lumps out of itself, with the battles leaking into public view, and it's position in the polls slipping to around 25 percent. Just in time for conference season, James Heale is joined by Nick Tyrone, whose new book The Rise of Reform is the product of 18 months trailing the party's candidates and activists, to discuss whether Nigel Farage can get the show back on...

Andy Burnham's first overseas trip as Prime Minister took him to Ukraine this week, offering the first real glimpse of what his foreign policy might look like. But with a budget and a party conference ahead, how much time can a PM elected on a domestic agenda really give to the world stage? Oscar Edmondson is joined by James Heale and the foreign policy analyst, Sophia Gaston, to assess Ed Miliban...

Former veterans minister Al Carns joins James Heale to discuss the government’s handling of Northern Ireland legacy cases – and why the issue helped drive him to resign. Writing in The Spectator this week, Al attacks the ‘two-track approach’ to legacy cases, which he says could cost taxpayers billions, and warns against allowing the history of the Troubles to be ‘rewritten through the courts’. He...

With Parliament returning next week, the Conservatives are in a much stronger position than they were this time last year. That said, questions remain – not least when it comes to Kemi Badenoch’s top team. A reshuffle is apparently scheduled and, while it won’t be a total overhaul, there could be a few surprises. James Heale and Lord Goodman join Oscar Edmondson to discuss Badenoch’s improving pos...

Lee Anderson and Richard Tice fronted another Reform presser yesterday, this time on their plans for council housing, should they be elected to government. Included in the announcement was the desire to prioritise council housing for married couples with children, as well as 'British-born' citizens. To analyse this fresh distinction, Oscar Edmondson and James Heale are joined by Ameer Kotecha to g...

After spending his Saturday afternoon watching Everton win at home, Andy Burnham showed up in Kyiv this morning to hand a gift to President Zelenskyy in the form of missile blueprints. To dissect the PM's trip to the eastern Europe, James Heale is joined by Mark Galeotti to discuss the impact of the Storm Shadow plans, both for Kyiv, and for Moscow. Produced by Henry Lloyd Become a Spectator subsc...

One month on from Andy Burnham entering Downing Street and a lot has changed at the top of government. Starmer's old guard have been reshuffled or replaced, and Burnham's government have announced dozens of new projects, but the big challenges that he faces are largely the same. Noa Hoffman is joined by Baroness Thangam Debbonaire, the former shadow culture secretary, to review Andy's report card....

There’s more gloomy economic news for Andy Burnham as unemployment disappoints, inflation rises and the public finances take another hit. With welfare spending and debt interest climbing, how much room does the government really have to deliver on its promises? Meanwhile, Burnham has pledged to be the ‘cost of living’ Prime Minister – but one Treasury insider tells Michael Simmons that there is ‘n...

It continues – thankfully – to be an interesting summer: there’s devolution news, Reform taking lumps out of each other and Sue Gray has broken her silence. But first, Andy Burnham is shifting the machinery of government north, promising to put growth at the heart of his new Manchester operation. Will moving power out of Whitehall actually make a difference? Elsewhere, tensions inside Reform spill...

There was never an expectation that Zack Polanski's alliance between the progressive left, the ecological environmentalists, and the conservative muslim factions of the Green Party would last forever, but today it seems that the war of dissolution may have finally begun. Noa Hoffman is joined by Andrew Gilligan to discuss what has been going down inside the Greens under Polanski, and how a boiling...

After saying that Zia Yusuf needed to 'become a team player' in an interview on Coffee House yesterday, Reform UK responded, and decided that they would rather Tim Montgomerie were not in their squad at all. After the story broke this morning that Montgomerie had his membership of the party suspended, Noa Hoffman is joined by Tim Shipman and James Heale to react to the latest developments on the r...

Reform UK's Zia Yusuf spent last week putting a few noses out of joint, not least by calling the former Conservative defence secretary, Sir Ben Wallace, a traitor, a tweet Nigel Farage took the unusual step of criticising in public and which Yusuf declined to take down. Tim Shipman and James Heale are joined by Tim Montgomerie, founder of Conservative Home and now a Reform UK member, to ask whethe...

Almost one year on from his election as leader of the Green Party, has Zack Polanski broadened its appeal? Communications strategist and Green Party insider Russell Warfield joins Noa Hoffman to discuss his new book The Green Socialist: Zack Polanski & the Battle for Britain’s Future. In it, Warfield makes the argument that Polanski marks more of a continuum for the modern British Green Party – a...

Shock horror: Nigel Farage has won the by-election in Calcton. Although you may be shocked by the scale of the victory.  The Reform leader received 22,239 votes – 1,000 more than his total at the 2024 general election. His main rival, Count Binface – the ‘uniparty candidate’ as Farage says – secured a respectable 9,455 votes, a 26.7 per cent share. Turnout stood at 44.37 per cent, the constit...

Politicians are increasingly turning on the journalists who scrutinise them. After investigations into Nigel Farage’s finances, Reform figures have accused reporters of waging a political ‘war’ – while Arron Banks has hired private investigators to look into Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund. Is hostility towards the media becoming a feature of modern politics? And is the relationship between polit...

Andy Burnham's summer bonanza continues as he announces plans to empower local councils and hopefully improve Britain's High Streets. The government wants to make it easier for councils to refuse certain types of businesses – but is the plethora of vape shops, betting shops and barbers a cause of Britain's High Street decline, or just a symptom? If there are no businesses to replace those, will th...

Nigel Farage is heading back to the polls in Clacton after resigning to trigger a by-election over questions surrounding his £5 million gift. With the main parties refusing to stand, Farage looks set for a comfortable victory – but will his popularity in Clacton translate to the rest of the country? And have voters simply stopped caring about the controversy? Meanwhile, Andy Burnham is facing the...

Nigel Farage is trying to seize the summer agenda with a new crackdown on crime and immigration. Reform wants to send foreign national prisoners to countries such as El Salvador, deploy the Navy in the Channel and leave the ECHR – but how much of the plan could actually work? Meanwhile, hopes of a reconciliation between Reform and Rupert Lowe’s Restore appear to be fading. Farage has ruled out a d...

Jonathan Ashworth is a former Labour MP and shadow cabinet minister. On today's podcast James Heale and Jonathan discuss Andy's first few weeks as Prime Minister, how he's changed since the Blair-Brown era, whether Burnham's promises in devolution stack up and they discuss whether Morgan McSweeney is right to change his mind on the Conservatives, rather than Reform being the greatest threat to Lab...

Andy Burnham has made it clear that social care is at the top of his agenda, as are pensions. Michael Simmons is joined by James Heale and Spectator contributor James Kirkup to discuss so called 'death tax', cross party efforts on tackling social care, and whether the government can get round the thorny issue of who will pay for this. Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast with...

Kemi Badenoch found herself in warmer water this week after backing a former neo-Nazi to stand as a local council candidate, before he subsequently pulled out – he has now been appointed as an anti-extremism advisor to the Conservative Party's Culture and Integration Commission. Natasha Feroze is joined by The Spectator's William Atkinson, and the former Editor of Conservative Home, Paul Goodman,...