James Heale

Mark Carney is Canada’s new PM

10 March 2025 4:57 pm

The race to replace Justin Trudeau has been not so much a contest, as a coronation. Mark Carney, the former…

Reform refer Rupert Lowe to the police

8 March 2025 5:19 am

After months of leading in the polls, Reform UK is now in meltdown. This afternoon, the party chairman, Zia Yusuf,…

Rupert Lowe’s warning shot to Nigel Farage

6 March 2025 10:12 pm

There is a striking interview in today’s Daily Mail between Andrew Pierce and Rupert Lowe. The Reform MP is known for speaking…

The Special Forces scandal is not going away

6 March 2025 3:31 am

What was the most important moment at Prime Minister’s Questions today? It was not the somewhat pedestrian back-and-forth between Keir…

Keir Starmer’s bridge to Trump is crumbling 

4 March 2025 9:37 pm

So it turns out he wasn’t bluffing after all. Six weeks after taking office, Donald Trump has made two big…

Priti Patel attacks Nigel Farage over Zelensky comments

4 March 2025 1:09 am

During the early days of the Gaza crisis, there was an unofficial refrain doing the rounds in the Foreign Office:…

Starmer timed his defence announcement to perfection

26 February 2025 1:06 am

Politics is a matter of timing – and Keir Starmer perfected today. Barely two hours after Kemi Badenoch’s big foreign…

Is there any substance to Kemi’s ‘conservative realism’?

25 February 2025 11:25 pm

Kemi Badenoch set out her world view in a speech this morning at Policy Exchange. As protesting tractors blared their…

Reform fancies its chances in Mike Amesbury’s seat

24 February 2025 11:46 pm

This afternoon Mike Amesbury was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. The ex-Labour MP for Runcorn and Helsby was handed…

Germany’s results are a relief for Starmer – for now

24 February 2025 9:27 pm

Over beer, pretzels and sausages, guests gathered last night at the German ambassador’s house in Belgravia to watch the federal…

Starmer’s Scottish headache

22 February 2025 9:00 am

What does a party get after nearly two decades in office, collapsing public services, an internal civil war and a…

What does Kemi Badenoch believe in?

17 February 2025 10:57 pm

Kemi Badenoch likes a good Thatcher comparison. The current Tory leader is presently reading Patrick Cosgrave’s account of the Iron…

Why JD Vance’s Munich speech matters

15 February 2025 11:14 pm

When was the last time a new U.S Vice President gave a truly memorable speech? The post has traditionally been…

Would Margaret Thatcher have joined Reform?

15 February 2025 9:00 am

It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Tory leader and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth…

Have Kemi Badenoch’s first 100 days been a success?

10 February 2025 10:38 pm

Leader of the opposition is regarded by many as the worst job in British politics. Peter Hennessy called the post…

Kemi let Keir off the hook on Chagos

6 February 2025 12:32 am

This is Keir Starmer’s worst week in politics since last week. With the Chagos deal eliciting criticism in cabinet, the…

Will Starmer choose Brussels or Trump?

4 February 2025 11:44 pm

Europe or America – the eternal British dilemma. Keir Starmer made clear he rejects such a binary approach in his…

Angela Rayner to create Islamophobia council

4 February 2025 9:12 pm

Today’s Telegraph splash could have been designed in a laboratory to trigger Tory tempers. After months of deliberation, the paper…

Bridget Phillipson tries to rebrand her education reforms

4 February 2025 12:36 am

Education has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, as the government’s Schools Bill makes it way through parliament. So…

Priti Patel’s migration defence was a serious misstep

1 February 2025 1:24 am

This week looks to be a significant one for polling in British politics. For the first time, every poll released…

Will Marco Rubio kibosh the Chagos deal?

29 January 2025 10:24 pm

There’s a new sheriff in town. Trump’s election means a new Secretary of State; the world’s most powerful foreign minister…

Home Office: ‘two-tier’ police claims are an ‘extreme right-wing’ narrative

28 January 2025 9:26 pm

You can tell a government report has gone down badly when ministers are distancing themselves before it has been officially…

How Pierre Poilievre led Canada’s Conservatives back from the wilderness

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Ottawa For the past fortnight, Canada’s parliament has been empty. When Justin Trudeau resigned as Liberal leader, he announced a…

John Healey hails Rolls-Royce’s £9bn nuclear submarine deal

25 January 2025 1:19 am

A £9 billion deal for nuclear submarine reactors was announced this morning between the Ministry of Defence and Rolls-Royce, the…

Can Reeves get Heathrow’s third runway off the ground?

22 January 2025 2:01 am

After last week’s bond market jitters, the Chancellor pledged to go ‘further and faster’ to improve the UK’s anaemic economic…