Katy Balls

Katy Balls is Diary Editor at The Spectator.

Viral videos, not leaders’ debates, could decide this election

7 December 2019 9:00 am

You might well expect the final election debate, Johnson vs Corbyn head-to-head on primetime BBC, to provide the most watched…

Nicola Sturgeon’s threat of Indyref2 could save the Scottish Tories

30 November 2019 9:00 am

In the village of Waterfoot on the outskirts of Glasgow, a lady in her thirties is explaining to her local…

Why YouGov’s MRP poll will worry the Conservatives

28 November 2019 9:56 am

When the 2017 snap election result came through, it proved a shock to many who had been covering the campaign…

Jeremy Corbyn’s credibility problem

22 November 2019 9:20 pm

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party manifesto has made the front of all the papers today. The response is mixed. While the…

Why trust is an election issue for Boris Johnson

21 November 2019 2:03 am

What is the main take away from ITV’s leaders’ debate? Listen to the news bulletins and it appears to be…

Jeremy Corbyn’s opportunity to unite the Remain vote

18 November 2019 11:59 pm

As the election campaign enters its third week, the Conservatives are enjoying a 17-point lead, according to a YouGov poll.…

The five groups of voters the Tories are targeting

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Tory MPs used to think they could rely on telltale signs while out on the campaign trail — a detached…

The voters the Conservatives plan to persuade to win a majority

16 November 2019 2:03 am

In this election, the Tories hope to persuade voters who have never backed the Conservative party before to turn blue.…

Farage’s ‘unilateral’ Leave alliance doesn’t guarantee the Tories a majority

11 November 2019 11:59 pm

Will a Leave alliance lead the Tories to victory in the snap election? Nigel Farage has today announced that the…

Why the Tories remain optimistic despite a shaky campaign start

9 November 2019 6:00 pm

The first official week of the Conservatives’ election campaign did not go as many inside CCHQ had hoped. A cabinet…

Will former Labour MPs help the Tories break the ‘red wall’?

7 November 2019 11:19 pm

Will former Labour MPs help the Tories break the red wall? A key plank of the Tory path to a majority…

Jo Swinson’s Corbyn problem

5 November 2019 11:33 pm

The Liberal Democrat election campaign launch was beset by technical difficulties which meant that Jo Swinson was at times hard…

Election 2019: how the Tories plan to break Labour’s ‘red wall’

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Of all those fighting this general election, the Conservatives are the only ones who need a majority. Labour just needs…

What Farage’s Brexit ultimatum means for the Tories

2 November 2019 2:18 am

There’s been much speculation this week about how the Brexit party will approach the incoming general election. Varying reports suggested…

Boris Johnson calls for December 12 election – will he succeed?

25 October 2019 3:31 am

Boris Johnson will make his third attempt to call a general election. In an interview with the BBC, the Prime…

The Tory push for an early election

24 October 2019 3:41 am

As EU leaders mull over what length of extension to grant the UK, talk in Westminster is focused on whether…

Boris Johnson’s Halloween deadline drifts further away

23 October 2019 6:15 am

Will the UK leave the EU on the 31 October? Barring the highly unlikely event of the EU refusing an…

The purpose of Boris Johnson’s Queen’s Speech

14 October 2019 7:20 am

Normally a Prime Minister uses a Queen’s Speech to lay out their government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead. However,…

Tories fret over further election delay

10 October 2019 2:48 am

Members of the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs met with Boris Johnson this afternoon over concerns the party could…

Is a Brexit deal now off the table?

7 October 2019 7:59 am

Is a Brexit deal agreed before October 31st a realistic possibility? Technically talks between the UK and EU are ongoing…

Why senior Conservatives are talking about a Brexit extension

1 October 2019 7:53 pm

Will the UK have left the EU by October 31st? At the Conservative party conference, ministers, MPs and activists are…

The torture chamber: how opposition MPs plan to humiliate Boris

28 September 2019 9:00 am

When Jeremy Corbyn declared at Labour conference that his party would only allow an election once no deal had been…

Corbyn makes the most of Boris Johnson’s misfortune

24 September 2019 8:30 pm

The Supreme Court ruling has provided Jeremy Corbyn with his most positive outing at Labour conference. On hearing the news…

What Corbyn’s Brexit policy means for a general election

18 September 2019 7:07 pm

Jeremy Corbyn has dashed the hopes of certain members of his shadow cabinet this morning with a Guardian op-ed in…

Boris Johnson’s frosty reception in Luxembourg

17 September 2019 2:00 am

Is Boris Johnson approaching a Brexit breakthrough? That’s the question being asked among Conservative MPs after there appeared to be…