Conservative party
The tax-and-spend Tories
When you ask a government minister why something hasn’t happened, you get a one-word answer: ‘Covid’. It has become the…
Can Boris crack the unwhippables?
‘Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won,’ wrote the Duke of Wellington after…
Nanny Boris: the PM’s alarming flight from liberalism
Has Covid killed the PM’s liberalism?
In defence of levelling up
Modern pragmatist political leaders are generally keen to reassure us that there is a unifying philosophy to be found running…
Life is about to get harder for Boris Johnson
Covid restrictions are meant to end on 19 July. But parliament will not return to normal until September. The Commons…
The Tories, Islam, and the importance of pluralism
The Conservatives will be relieved that an independent investigation has not found the party to be institutionally racist, though relief…
Boris’s Tory enemies don’t know how lucky they are
It is often said that most Conservative MPs have a highly ‘transactional’ relationship with Boris Johnson. The inference is that…
Keir Starmer isn’t Labour’s biggest problem
Keir Starmer has turned a drama into a crisis. The local elections were always going to be difficult for Labour.…
Why the Tories won’t let me display a local election poster
Being told by the Tories not to put a local election poster in my window because it will only remind…
Inside the Tory party's China split
Back in 2005, Boris Johnson wrote that among geopolitical gloomsters, China was becoming the ‘fashionable new dread’. They were obsessed…
Where is the Conservatives’ post-Brexit agenda?
What’s the point of Brexit? We are told it is to take back control, but that is a means to…
Letters: Labour’s left vs left struggle
Left vs left Sir: Your leading article (‘Comfort spending’, 28 November) makes the classic mistake about modern politics which prevents…
Boris in a spin: can the PM find his way again?
With Cummings gone, which way will the PM turn now?
Boris's eco-optimism will get the better of him
Vote blue for green jobs in the red wall. That’s the message we’re supposed to take from Boris Johnson’s ten…
Does Boris have a supporters’ club left in Parliament?
Boris Johnson needs to use the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain to repair relations with his Parliamentary party.…
Why I’m ducking the Rashford debate
Moments arrive when it becomes clear you’re losing the zeitgeist. Whatever might be the spirit of the era, you don’t…
The morality of free school meals
The main problem with the government giving in over free school meals during the holidays — other than that it…
What will post-pandemic politics look like?
A few days ago, I came across a group of Tory MPs in a House of Commons corridor looking rather…
Divided nation: will Covid rules tear the country apart?
The Covid divide is triggering political tensions
How Thérèse Coffey plans to help millions back to work
Thérèse Coffey on stemming the unemployment tide
Prime ministers can’t pick the crises that define them
In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage…
Is this the start of a conservative comeback?
Will the Moore and Dacre appointments be a turning point?
Laurence Fox is a political force to be reckoned with
From the moment I started criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis people have been urging me to start…
Boris the builder mustn’t buckle over planning reform
The government will pass the test it has set itself: schools in England will return next week. Pupils may well…
The difficult balance of public vs political agony
Fear is the politician’s friend. When terror grips the public, an opportunity arises for those in power to step forward…
