Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and edits the Coffee House blog. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

Tory backbenchers are outshining Kemi Badenoch at PMQs

13 February 2025 12:00 am

Prime Minister’s Questions is rapidly becoming a challenge for Kemi Badenoch to come up with a topic that the Tories…

Why has Labour dropped so many NHS targets?

12 February 2025 1:01 am

Does the Labour government still care about mental health? Recently, it dropped its NHS targets for mental health, along with…

Where Kemi Badenoch keeps going wrong at PMQs

30 January 2025 12:26 am

Kemi Badenoch may well have been right in the points that she made at Prime Minister’s Questions, but she managed…

Rachel Reeves tries to reverse Labour’s economic gloom

29 January 2025 11:19 pm

As expected, Rachel Reeves used her big – and long – growth speech this morning to back the expansion of…

The NHS isn’t solely to blame for its failure to reform

29 January 2025 7:41 pm

Can the NHS reform itself? MPs on the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC) say it doesn’t know how to. It…

Ministers are clearly concerned about school reform row

28 January 2025 5:10 am

You could tell from this afternoon’s Education Questions in the Commons that ministers are worried about the row over their…

This was Badenoch’s best PMQs yet

23 January 2025 1:36 am

Kemi Badenoch had her best Prime Minister’s Questions yet today. She alighted on a topic that Keir Starmer really struggled…

Cooper announces Southport public inquiry

21 January 2025 7:08 am

Yvette Cooper has this evening announced that the government will be setting up a public inquiry looking for ‘answers’ on…

Starmer saved his favourite attack until the end at PMQs

16 January 2025 1:22 am

Kemi Badenoch continued with her theme of ‘why can you trust anything the Prime Minister says’ at Prime Minister’s Questions…

Is Westminster forgetting about the grooming gangs already?

14 January 2025 3:36 am

Remember grooming gangs? Last week’s big story has amazingly already been superseded by other political rows, but they came up…

The Natural History Museum’s new Evolution Garden is inspired

11 January 2025 9:00 am

The Natural History Museum is one of the most beautiful buildings in London, but its gardens have long been a…

Reform and Tories accused of weaponising grooming gangs scandal

9 January 2025 7:37 am

Unsurprisingly, the Conservative attempt to amend/kill off the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill failed tonight, with MPs voting 364 to…

Kemi Badenoch must ask better questions

9 January 2025 1:00 am

Keir Starmer has not seemed in control of the grooming gangs story since it broke, but at Prime Minister’s Questions,…

Sarah Champion and the grooming gang attention span problem

7 January 2025 9:50 pm

There are now two debates underway about grooming gangs and how the government should investigate them further. The first is…

Wes Streeting’s ‘care plans’ are old news

7 January 2025 6:02 am

There is much that is good in today’s NHS elective recovery announcement: changes to incentives for trusts so that they…

Grooming gang row overshadows Keir Starmer’s NHS speech

6 January 2025 11:04 pm

Keir Starmer spent a significant time this morning arguing that the last thing we need is another review and report…

What’s the point of a social care review?

3 January 2025 10:11 pm

Whack! That’s the sound of social care reform once again being hit into the long grass. Thud! Another hit sends…

Kemi Badenoch failed to pin down Starmer at PMQs – again

19 December 2024 12:26 am

Kemi Badenoch has become fixated on accusing Keir Starmer of not telling the truth at Prime Minister’s Questions, to the…

The finger-pointing over Yang Tengbo begins

17 December 2024 5:47 am

The threatened Commons drama of an MP using parliamentary privilege to name the alleged Chinese spy was dampened rather after…

Starmer and Badenoch clash over immigration at PMQs

12 December 2024 12:15 am

Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch had quite an angry clash at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. The Tory leader attacked on…

Will Labour engage with HTS?

10 December 2024 7:10 am

Is the fall of Bashar al-Assad really cause for celebration in Syria and across the world? UK government politicians have…

Justin Welby says goodbye

6 December 2024 3:29 am

Justin Welby has given his valedictory speech in the House of Lords, his first public remarks since his resignation. It…

The problem with Keir Starmer’s pledges

6 December 2024 12:05 am

Keir Starmer still clearly misses opposition. He spent almost as much of his reset speech complaining about the Tories and…

Named and shamed: the PMQs time wasters

5 December 2024 3:53 am

You’re an ambitious backbench Labour MP with a weighty constituency caseload, legislation that you’re interested in improving, and a few…

PMQs has become painfully predictable

4 December 2024 11:56 pm

Kemi Badenoch had an odd line of attack at Prime Minister’s Questions: she chose to pursue Keir Starmer over what…