James Heale

Why Keir Starmer is worried about Wales

28 June 2025 10:26 pm

Keir Starmer’s address to the Welsh Labour conference this morning was exactly the kind of speech we expected. With eleven…

Small boats are causing Labour big problems

28 June 2025 9:00 am

Summer is here – and for some in Labour it cannot come soon enough. After a tricky first year in…

The knives are out after Labour’s welfare debacle

27 June 2025 9:35 pm

If the Labour party were a cinema, then it would currently be showing a double billing: Groundhog Day and Knives…

Keir Starmer climbs down on welfare cuts

27 June 2025 6:14 am

At last, Keir Starmer has bowed to the inevitable. Having first adopted a posture of defiance, then conciliation, the Prime…

Can Keir Starmer save his Welfare Bill?

26 June 2025 10:56 pm

The Prime Minister has never been a huge fan of the press. But there is an apt Fleet Street phrase…

Starmer stands by his welfare bill

26 June 2025 1:52 am

Keir Starmer is in the Netherlands to attend the Nato summit – but that is not the subject which is…

Angela Rayner had a bad PMQs

26 June 2025 12:11 am

With Keir Starmer at Nato, the hospital pass of this week’s PMQs was handed instead to Angela Rayner. The welfare…

Labour rebels declare war over Starmer’s welfare cuts

24 June 2025 8:04 pm

It is a year next week since the general election and Labour is marking the occasion with the biggest backbench…

Badenoch: Tories are ‘the adults in the room’

24 June 2025 3:03 am

It is a year of two major anniversaries for the Tories. The first is the centenary of Margaret Thatcher’s birth;…

Farage makes his pitch to non-doms

23 June 2025 11:14 pm

Reform UK are on the rise – quite literally. The party is planning to move one floor up in their…

Farage’s latest hero? Benjamin Disraeli

23 June 2025 7:32 am

At 9 a.m on Monday morning, Nigel Farage will march into a central London venue to make one of his…

Keir Starmer is not having a good war

22 June 2025 10:09 pm

This is not been Keir Starmer’s finest week on the world stage. At the G7 on Tuesday, the Prime Minister…

America hits Iran’s nuclear sites

22 June 2025 11:13 am

Just before 1 a.m GMT on Sunday morning, Donald Trump announced that the United States had bombed three nuclear sites…

Tories will remember this assisted dying vote

21 June 2025 10:44 pm

‘I judge a man by one thing, which side would he have liked his ancestors to fight on at Marston…

Commons passes the assisted dying bill

21 June 2025 1:35 am

The House of Commons has voted in favour of assisted dying by a narrow majority of 23. After four and…

The understudied importance of political slogans

20 June 2025 12:05 am

‘Make America Great Again’. ‘Take Back Control’. ‘Yes We Can’. There are many political slogans – but only a handful…

Assisted dying risks being Labour’s Brexit

18 June 2025 9:22 pm

On Friday, the Commons will vote on the third reading of the assisted dying bill. Most MPs expect it to…

Kemi Badenoch defends the Tories’ record on grooming gangs

17 June 2025 11:48 pm

Kemi Badenoch said that ‘survivors and their families’ have been ‘ignored for far too long’ as she appeared alongside those…

The British right is embracing direct action

15 June 2025 1:18 am

First, it was Robert Jenrick tackling fare dodgers. Then it was Gareth Davies pursuing a thief. You might be forgiven…

Rachel Reeves, the Iron Chancer

14 June 2025 9:00 am

Gordon Brown may not be every teenager’s political pin-up. But as an Oxford student, Rachel Reeves proudly kept a framed…

David Bull is Reform UK’s new chairman

10 June 2025 11:15 pm

‘There are no disasters, only opportunities.’ Boris Johnson’s famous mantra is being embraced by Nigel Farage as he tries to…

Reeves cannot afford more episodes like the winter fuel U-turn

10 June 2025 12:22 am

This afternoon Rachel Reeves finally completed the longest U-turn in British politics. Ahead of her spending review on Wednesday, the…

Why Zia Yusuf changed his mind about quitting Reform

8 June 2025 5:33 am

Well, that was quick. Within 48 hours of his resignation as party chairman, Zia Yusuf has returned to the Reform…

Nigel’s army: Reform’s plans for victory

7 June 2025 9:00 am

‘I’ve changed my mind!’ It is a year this week since Nigel Farage uttered those fateful words, marking his decision…

The Tories are edging towards ECHR exit

7 June 2025 12:06 am

Following last month’s local elections disaster, Kemi Badenoch’s team promised a ‘step change’. So just 24 hours after Shadow Chancellor…