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.

Only 11 Tories vote against Rwanda Bill

18 January 2024 8:49 am

As expected, the Commons has backed the Safety of Rwanda Bill at third reading by 320 votes to 276. Just…

Sunak and Starmer can’t help but trade identical insults

18 January 2024 12:31 am

Another week, another Prime Minister’s Questions featuring the two party leaders trading exactly the same insult: you don’t believe in…

Tory rebels defy No. 10 over the Rwanda Bill

17 January 2024 6:27 am

It’s always a mistake for Downing Street to pretend it knows backbenchers’ minds better than they do It turns out…

Houthi attacks are nothing to do with Gaza, says Sunak

16 January 2024 5:46 am

Rishi Sunak has updated MPs on the strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, just as a missile reportedly from the…

We don’t need targets to know the NHS is failing

12 January 2024 4:32 am

How has the NHS missed most of its key targets for the past seven years? Some parts of the UK-wide…

Are the Tories cooling on their support for Israel?

11 January 2024 11:54 pm

The language in the government and parliament over Israel has changed a lot this week. Ministers are no longer mounting…

Starmer chooses not to probe Sunak on Post Office

11 January 2024 12:13 am

Keir Starmer clearly judged that while the Post Office scandal is the hot topic today, voters will be thinking about…

Sunak to ‘swiftly’ exonerate Post Office scandal victims

10 January 2024 11:25 pm

Rishi Sunak used the start of Prime Minister’s Questions today to announce that the government will be introducing legislation to…

The Post Office scandal was too boring for politicians to fix

8 January 2024 5:14 am

The government is now ‘under pressure’ over the Post Office Horizon IT scandal. The pressure comes in the form of…

Sunak plays it safe with election announcement

5 January 2024 3:21 am

Rishi Sunak is – not unusually – playing it safe by saying his ‘working assumption’ is that the election will…

Sunak gets tetchy during Rwanda and Israel grilling

20 December 2023 2:56 am

If Rishi Sunak still doesn’t recognise the description of himself as ‘tetchy’, then he could do worse than to watch…

Sunak’s strange Covid Inquiry appearance

12 December 2023 4:25 am

Rishi Sunak had a strange pandemic. He spent a lot of it in government meetings, the details of which he…

Was Sunak oblivious to No. 10’s Covid dysfunction?

12 December 2023 1:07 am

Rishi Sunak has already provided a statement of evidence to the Covid Inquiry, but this morning’s hearing spent more time…

Boris defends partygate yet again

8 December 2023 4:37 am

What does Boris Johnson want to come out of the Covid Inquiry? At the end of his second day of…

Robert Jenrick resigns as immigration minister

7 December 2023 5:57 am

In the past few minutes, James Cleverly has confirmed that Robert Jenrick has resigned as immigration minister. He was asked…

Boris argues that Covid mistakes were inevitable. Is he right?

7 December 2023 4:25 am

Boris Johnson had clearly come to the Covid Inquiry intending to be magnanimous about everyone, even advisers like Dominic Cummings…

Cleverly’s battle to send flights to Rwanda is not over yet

6 December 2023 1:27 am

James Cleverly has just signed a new treaty with Rwanda that the UK government hopes will lead to the deportation…

Sunak loses Commons vote for first time as PM

5 December 2023 9:04 am

The government has just been defeated in the Commons for the first time since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister. It…

Starmer has no vision. Is that a bad thing?

5 December 2023 3:01 am

Keir Starmer seems to be most comfortable when he’s pointing out how badly the Tories are doing, rather than when…

Do the Tories have a migration plan?

28 November 2023 4:19 am

What is the Tory party’s policy on immigration after record-breaking net migration figures and the failure of its Rwanda policy…

Hunt’s Autumn Statement was surprisingly upbeat

23 November 2023 12:57 am

Jeremy Hunt has just finished the most upbeat economic statement we’ve heard in a good while – certainly since the…

Will the Tories’ ‘carrot and stick’ benefits plan work?

22 November 2023 4:22 am

Rishi Sunak wants to frame a benefits crackdown in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement in compassionate terms, with ministers saying people with…

Tory MPs want a sense of vision from the PM

20 November 2023 8:59 pm

The Autumn Statement marks the latest in Rishi Sunak’s series of (often contradictory) relaunches Jeremy Hunt has started the week…

Suella Braverman’s clumsiness makes Met reform less likely

11 November 2023 3:40 am

Suella Braverman’s career as Home Secretary may be over very soon. But a long tail of it will be the…

Sunak has no easy options in the Suella Braverman row

10 November 2023 3:44 am

Tory whips are doing a ring around of their MPs to find out what they think of the row over…