Patrick O’Flynn

Could a return to its ‘nasty party’ roots save the Tories?

11 September 2023 10:07 pm

Next year’s general election could either be a 1992 or a 1997, commentators have speculated: a slender Tory win or…

Kemi Badenoch’s growing popularity makes her vulnerable

6 September 2023 8:59 pm

The news is grim for supporters of Kemi Badenoch: our heroine has climbed to the top of the Conservative Home…

Sunak has resorted to relying on rain to stop the boats

4 September 2023 8:57 pm

There is something curious about even the very modest degree of success the Prime Minister has been able to herald…

Might a Tory defeat in 2024 be something to celebrate?

2 September 2023 4:00 pm

When a party’s own natural supporters decide they have good reason to turn against it then the writing is normally…

Ulez could mark the end of the road for Sadiq Khan

30 August 2023 5:14 pm

The metropolitan bohemian Withnail, played by Richard E Grant in the film Withnail & I, is so appalled by life…

Sunak said he’d stop the boats. He’s failing abysmally

25 August 2023 2:11 am

Rishi Sunak has led voters to believe that his new Illegal Migration Act will mean no illegal migrants will be…

Is the Home Office working against the Tories?

21 August 2023 8:59 pm

It has long been suggested by senior politicians from both main parties that civil servants in the Home Office pick…

After Sunak, who?

20 August 2023 5:54 pm

Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens, the author Fay Weldon once declared. This observation about life’s tendency…

The UK’s immigration impotence

11 August 2023 11:51 pm

We will never know precisely who Channel migrant number 100,000 was, but we do know he was one of around…

Suella Braverman’s Turkey deal won’t stop the boats

9 August 2023 9:43 pm

It hardly takes a genius to work out that whoever is in charge of the government’s media grid over the…

Suella’s Ascension Island plan doesn’t go far enough

7 August 2023 10:11 pm

There is nothing new under the sun. The idea of opening an asylum processing centre on the British overseas territory…

Rishi Sunak won’t regret giving up on liberal Conservatism

5 August 2023 4:30 pm

It will not come as much of a shock to learn that people who voted Conservative in 2019 generally think…

Why Starmer is no heir to Blair

30 July 2023 9:40 pm

How big is a 20 point opinion poll lead and what word should we use to describe it – insurmountable,…

Will Sunak’s identity makeover pay off?

26 July 2023 10:16 pm

After claiming that Labour is on the same side as criminal people-trafficking gangs, Rishi Sunak clearly owes a rival party…

Will the Tories learn from Coutts’ mistake in taking on Nigel Farage?

26 July 2023 12:06 am

Not for the first time in his colourful life, the perennial rebel Nigel Farage has the establishment on the run.…

Going soft on Net Zero could save Rishi Sunak

23 July 2023 6:19 pm

The Tory green brigade now tends to be heavily concentrated in the House of Lords, where Zac Goldsmith recently joined…

A nagging doubt about Keir Starmer has been exposed

21 July 2023 5:22 pm

‘One out of three ain’t bad’ isn’t a saying you hear often. Yet avoiding a clean sweep of by-election defeats…

Is Sunak any closer to implementing his Rwanda plan?

18 July 2023 7:36 pm

When the Lib Dem peer Brian Paddick complained on social media last month that the House of Lords was keeping…

Sunak needs a plan B for illegal migration

10 July 2023 11:55 pm

When Rishi Sunak made ‘stop the boats’ one of his key pledges at the start of the year he mentioned…

Have the Tories given up?

8 July 2023 7:30 am

When confronted with a list of problems and setbacks afflicting the Government, a minister recently told me: ‘The darkest hour…

Project drear: Starmer’s plan to bore his way to power

1 July 2023 5:15 pm

The very modest poll ‘bounce’ that Rishi Sunak delivered for the Tories after the farcical Liz Truss premiership has proved…

How will Rishi Sunak ‘stop the boats’ now?

29 June 2023 9:05 pm

If Rishi Sunak’s five key pledges already looked in terrible shape at the start of the week – which they…

Could the election herald the rise of the small party?

24 June 2023 5:00 pm

These are heady times for Britain’s smaller political parties. Seldom has there been as much interest from voters in breaking…

Keir Starmer has let slip the truth about his plan to abolish the Lords

17 June 2023 5:15 pm

Can a political leader keep getting exposed for conveying obvious untruths and yet be judged a fit person to occupy…

Let’s not follow Boris down his path as ‘Britain’s Trump’

15 June 2023 9:02 pm

The Commons privileges committee report into the conduct of Boris Johnson is completely damning. All the kerfuffle about whether the…