Coffee House Shots

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.

One week on from the end of Keir Starmer's premiership, Labour all but confirm an Andy Burnham coronation.

Produced by Joe Bedell-Brill.

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We are on course for yet another prime minister – our seventh in just ten years. With statistics like that, and after watching the now-familiar pattern of leaders arriving with promises of hopeful change only to collapse into inertia and scandal, it is little wonder that many assume Britain has become ungovernable. But is that really true? Or have we simply had a uniquely bad crop of prime ministers, each sent packing because of their own mistakes?

James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Luke Tryl.

Produced (for the final time) by Megan McElroy. We all wi...

Another agenda-setting cover piece from Tim Shipman has ruffled feathers in Westminster. The controversy centres on a line from a senior Labour source who told Shippers that Andy Burnham could be ‘Labour’s first woman prime minister’. The remark has been doing the rounds in Westminster WhatsApp chats – not least the women’s PLP group, whose members are up in arms. What exactly did the source mean?

Also today, Mike Tapp – the outspoken Home Office minister – is at the centre of a row between the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary. Shabana Mahmood wants to sack her number two ove...

Donna Ockenden's report on Nottingham NHS maternity scandal is out today, revealing 'horrendous' failings. It involves cases of negligence, cover ups, racial disparities and avoidable deaths. To discuss Britain's maternity services countrywide and whether change is really achievable, Natasha Feroze speaks to the Chair and Vice Chair of the APPG on Birth Trauma – Rosie Duffield and Jack Rankin.

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Supercharged by a by-election victory in Aberdeen South and Starmer’s resignation, Kemi Badenoch delivered a drive-by at PMQs today. She took aim at members of Starmer’s cabinet in succession: Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband and Bridget Phillipson. Starmer’s line is that he is handing over the country in a better position than he found it; Badenoch’s is that, if it is all going so well, why is he resigning? She has a point.

She also highlighted the spectacle of many in Starmer’s government posing for a photo with Andy Burnham on his return to Westmin...

Andy Burnham is back in Westminster, Sir Keir Starmer has resigned and Wes Streeting has said he will not contest the leadership election. Labour rebels will be celebrating that their plan has gone off without a hitch.

Now King Andy’s attention turns to the small matter of how he might run the country. He needs to assemble a team, and a set of proposals, that can appeal to the country and – more importantly – the PLP. Will he be afforded the time he wants to come up with a plan? Who is in line to be his chance...

It’s over. Sir Keir Starmer has finally done the deed and quit. After years spent berating the Tories for constantly changing leader, fighting among themselves and looking inwards, Labour has succumbed to the same fate in less than two years.

The path now looks clear for Andy Burnham to descend on Westminster and triumphantly assume the Labour leadership at the third time of asking. So what happens next? Will anyone contest Burnham’s bid to become prime minister? And will he be able to resist calls for a general election?

Megan McElroy speaks to Tim...

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.

Keir Starmer is on the brink. Is he announcing his departure on Monday?

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Andy Burnham has won what may come to be seen as the most consequential by-election in recent memory. Political journalism has a tendency towards hyperbole, but the situation is clear: Burnham is on his way to Westminster with significant backing to take on Keir Starmer; he has proved that he can beat Reform on a ‘stop Starmer’ ticket and will now look to translate that message nationally; he also appears to have united the left behind him, with the Lib Dems and Greens barely registering in Makerfield.

Meanwhile, the right is splintered. Reform’s momentum has been seriou...

In the end, it was not even close. Andy Burnham has won the Makerfield by-election by a landslide, putting him on course to be Britain’s next prime minister.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester managed to unite the left behind his ‘Stop Reform’ campaign, beating even the most optimistic polls with 24,937 votes (54.8 per cent). That put him more than 20 points ahead of Reform’s Robert Kenyon, who won 15,696 votes (34.5 per cent), and in a distant third came Restore Britain’s Rebecca Shepherd, who took 3,111 votes (6.8 per cent).

Now that Burnham has proved he is the man who ca...

Watch The Brexit Debate in full at https://www.spectator.com/brexit

Ten years on from the Brexit referendum, Britain is far from taking flight. Was Brexit a mistake – or are its promised freedoms simply yet to be realised? With the government unwilling to act boldly, smoothing Brexit’s edges rather than seizing its opportunities, are we quietly edging back into Europe’s embrace?

This is a section of our special live event marking ten years since the referendum. Prominent critics of Brexit – barrister and former Conservative MP Dominic Grieve KC, and Spectator columnist Matthew Parris –...

Voters head to the polls tomorrow in Makerfield for what could be the most consequential by-election in modern British history. If Andy Burnham wins by a significant margin, he will be heralded as the man Labour need to beat Reform nationally – and Starmer could be forced out within days.

Yet the Prime Minister has come out fighting, warning Burnham that now is not the time for a challenge. What should we expect from what promises to be a febrile 72 hours in British politics? Will Starmer’s deposition be conducted with decorum, or will it descend into a bloo...

Westminster is braced for the Makerfield by-election at the end of this week but – as we get closer to polling day – opinion seems to have shifted. While at the start it looked as though Reform could challenge in the seat, the Andy Burnham factor appears to have changed the picture, and most are predicting that Labour’s prince across the water will make landfall.

One person familiar with the ground game is Gawain Towler, a longtime ally of Nigel Farage and now a member of the Reform UK board. He speaks to Noa Hoffman about why the contes...

Donald Trump has announced a deal to end the war between Iran and the US, but in Westminster, the relief comes with serious questions. What does the deal actually contain? Will the Strait of Hormuz reopen quickly enough to bring down oil prices? And could any economic boost come too late to save Keir Starmer?

Elsewhere, Keir Starmer has announced under-16s will be banned from social media by spring 2027. The policy may be popular with parents, but the details remain sketchy: how would it be enforced, would it require facial recognition or digital ID, and...

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.

John Healey's resignation puts Keir Starmer in trouble again. And Reform say British institutions treat white people unfairly.

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A second defence minister has resigned in protest at Keir Starmer’s failure to fund Britain’s armed forces. Al Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, has followed John Healey out of the Ministry of Defence, warning that the government is letting down those in uniform – and taking aim at both the defence investment plan and Labour’s handling of Northern Ireland veterans.

Starmer has now appointed Dan Jarvis as Defence Secretary, but the brief increasingly looks like a poisoned chalice. With the Strategic Defence Review still unfunded, ministers sent out to defend a plan they have not seen...

Britain’s defence review is now a year old – but the government is still arguing over how to pay for it. John Healey, the (now former) defence secretary, has resigned over the failure to set out an adequate plan to meet the need to modernise our armed forces.

General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the architects of the Strategic Defence Review, joins Coffee House Shots to explain why the funding row is about more than budgets. He warns that Britain’s armed forces have been hollowed out after decades of cuts, that modern war is moving at the sp...

John Healey has resigned as Defence Secretary. In a blistering letter to the Prime Minister, he said: ‘You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.’

This comes after Keir Starmer failed even to secure the derisory sum of money he had demanded from the Treasury and the cabinet to modernise Britain’s forces following the recommendations of the Strategic Defence Review. The timing is equally devastating, as Starmer is heading to the G7 summit on Monday, where he wil...

For the second week in a row, PMQs comes in light of a disturbing instance of violent crime. Last week, ministers were recoiling at the shocking bodycam footage from Henry Novak’s murder, and this week comes in the context of a knife attack by a Sudanese asylum seeker in Belfast.

Kemi Badenoch was impressive again, not just in condemning the Belfast violence but also pressing the PM on the much-delayed defence investment plan. She seems to have completed a remarkable turnaround in her fortunes: she’s polling well, looks much more assured and is taking the figh...

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was interviewed last night by The Spectator‘s Political Editor, Tim Shipman, in front of a live audience at Church House in Westminster. They discuss her shadow cabinet, her plan to revive the Tories, and how she thinks we can get the country growing.

To watch and listen to the full conversation you’ll need to be a spectator subscriber. Get three months for three pounds and access the full stream at spectator.com/kemi – your subscription isn’t just to this conversation: it also includes full access to The Spectator website and app...

With the Makerfield by-election next week, Keir Starmer is in the business of legacy-building. In a speech this morning to coincide with London Tech Week, the Prime Minister announced a clampdown on social media usage among under-18s, and in particular on the circulation of naked images on smartphones and other devices among under-18s.

The intention is to shift emphasis on to tech companies such as Apple and Google, requiring them to prevent children from seeing sexually explicit images on their phones and other devices. But, in true Starmer fashion, no new law was announced – only a...

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.

This week, politicians debate the appropriate response to the shocking murder of Henry Nowak, and whether 'two-tier policing' is a problem in the UK.

Produced by Joe Bedell-Brill.

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James Heale is in Makerfield ahead of one of the most consequential by-elections of all time, where Andy Burnham is hoping to return to Westminster and stop Reform’s Robert Kenyon – the local plumber backed by Nigel Farage. On the ground, James hears from voters split between Labour and Reform, with some hoping Burnham can hold the line and others asking what he has really done for the area.

He also sits down with Nigel Farage to discuss Reform’s chances, the party’s NHS policy, Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain challenge, and why Farage thinks Burnham wo...

Last night, candidates from the five main parties in Makerfield came together for a special episode of Question Time. With four non-politicians taking on Andy Burnham, who came out on top?

Tim Shipman, James Heale and Noa Hoffman digest the debate, assess Burnham’s performance, and discuss the main newsline – one that sent less than enormous shockwaves through Westminster: Burnham confirming that he would run in a Labour leadership contest.

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For...

The second tranche of messages related to the vetting of Peter Mandelson to be UK ambassador to the US were released on Monday – the gift that keeps on giving. Tim Shipman joins Patrick Gibbons to discuss his political column, which reveals some of the messages from Darren Jones MP which should have been included... yet they weren't – why? Tim talks to Patrick about how embarrassing the latest messages are for Labour, what they reveal about Keir Starmer's government and what he thinks more broadly about 'government by WhatsApp'.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

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In PMQs today, Kemi Badenoch strategically chose not to talk about the Henry Nowak case given the sensitivity surrounding the subject. Instead she opted for welfare – asking the PM why spending has grown during Labour's government. A statistic some Labour MPs seemed proud of...

Nigel Farage however didn’t hold back and clashed with Keir Starmer over the police's handling of the murder of student Henry Nowak. Oscar Edmondson is joined by Noa Hoffman and Michael Simmons. 

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Canvassing in Makerfield continues at pace ahead of the by-election in two weeks time, so we dispatched Megan McElroy and James Heale to the north to report from the ground. They discuss each party’s ground game, why it looks like a Labour–Reform shoot-out, whether Restore will split the vote on the right and – most importantly – Nigel Farage’s Desert Island Discs.

This comes after revelations in Lord Ashcroft’s book claimed that Farage has effectively been banned from appearing on the programme, a story that has dominated the papers over the last 48 hours, evidencing the continued in...

As Parliament returns from recess, the latest files related to Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US are due to be released today. How bad could they be for Labour? Tim Shipman joins James Heale to discuss – has the self-styled 'Prince of Darkness' proven to be more a ghost of Christmas past for the government?

Plus: Mandelson isn't the only ghost haunting British politics today. Tim and James discuss the ghost of Christmas present, the scandal facing the SNP. Former party treasurer – and husband to Nicola Sturgeon – Peter Murrell pled guilty to charges of embezz...

There have been a number of critiques of Tony Blair’s 5,000-word intervention on Labour and the country this week, but none more astute than Lord Wood’s. One of Labour’s foremost thinkers, Lord Wood joins James Heale for this special edition of Saturday Shots to discuss where Blair is right, where he is wrong, and why neither the Labour or Conservative Party have recovered from the financial crash.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

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When it comes to political vision, Keir Starmer’s premiership has been something of a vacuum – and power abhors a vacuum. So cue Tony Blair, who this week has rushed in with a 5,000-word essay on what is wrong with Labour and, depending on who you listen to, either an outdated or radical view of where Britain should be as a country.

This has galvanised Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and (finally) Keir Starmer to put down on paper their vision for the country and how to solve the biggest issues we face. But whose is more convincing?

More than 600,000 16 to 24-year-olds are neither in work nor looking for a job. Youth worklessness is now costing Britain £125 billion a year – almost double the country’s entire defence budget.

Those are the findings of Alan Milburn’s new review into youth worklessness, who warns that the UK is facing an ‘urgent national crisis’. But is it already too late?

Noa Hoffman is joined by James Heale and Michael Simmons to discuss.

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Andy Burnham is the man on everyone’s lips in Westminster. As he campaigns to return to parliament in the Makerfield by-election, Tim and James bring you the definitive guide to Burnham – and what could happen next.

They’re joined by Joshi Herrmann, founder and editor of Mill Media, whose profile of Burnham had Westminster buzzing over the weekend. He shares his view of the Greater Manchester mayor’s ‘unusual gifts and glaring weaknesses’, whether ‘Burnhamism’ really exists, and if Burnham’s emotional style of politics could survive the brutality of No. 10.

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Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, has admitted embezzling £400,000 in party funds. The guilty plea has revived questions about what senior figures in the SNP knew, how long the scandal had been going on, and what happens next. To discuss the story, including some of the ridiculous purchases including a couple of hairdryers (for a bald man) and £2600 salt and pepper shakers, James Heale and Michael Simmons join Megan McElroy.

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The Labour leadership contest may be rumbling on in the background, but today Coffee House turns to the Conservatives – and whether Kemi Badenoch can really revive a party still reeling from electoral collapse.

Her allies argue that Badenoch is beginning to cut through: from her conference speech to her response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget, and her decision to sack Robert Jenrick. Her personal ratings have improved, even as the Tory brand remains deeply damaged. But is that enough? Can Badenoch turn the Conservatives into a serious vehicle for change? Is the Tory brand beyond repair? And coul...

Andy Burnham has officially launched his campaign today to be MP for Makerfield (read: Prime Minister). But what does he actually stand for? We’ve had briefings that, despite being the candidate of the soft left, he will stick to Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules and keep Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms. He’s flirted with nationalisation of utilities, but which exactly? What’s the big pitch?

Burnham’s launch comes the day after some good news for the government, after net migration hit its lowest level since the pandemic. The number of people moving to Britain dropped to 1...

For nearly two decades, net zero has sat at the heart of Britain’s policy agenda. Once framed as a clear moral imperative, it saw political parties promising to slash carbon emissions and ministers racing to position the UK as a leader on the international stage. But as economic pressures and global instability mount, that consensus is beginning to fray.

Recent shocks – from the pandemic to war-driven energy crises – have exposed the fragility of supply chains and the risks of overreliance on external energy sources. While renewables like wind and solar can supplement carbon fuels, they also raise...

After a turbulent few weeks, Westminster is in limbo. Keir Starmer appears safe – for now – after Wes Streeting’s underwhelming resignation speech, and all eyes are turning to the Makerfield by-election on 18 June. Until then, the drama seems to have temporarily gone out of Labour’s leadership turmoil.

Isabel Hardman and Noa Hoffman join Megan McElroy to discuss Starmer’s ‘pompous’ tone at PMQs, what is really going on with Wes Streeting, and the Essex icon causing a storm on Twitter and inside the Department for Education.

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Andy Burnham’s campaign for Makerfield is already gathering pace, complete with Oasis soundtrack to a new campaign video. But as Labour’s would-be challenger tries to pitch himself as the man to replace Keir Starmer, questions remain over his economic credibility.

Michael Simmons and Tim Shipman join Noa Hoffman to Burnham, the bond markets, and if Starmer can really dig in if Burnham wins the by-election.

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The by-election in Makerfield is shaping up to be one of the most consequential contests in recent political history. On paper, the seat should be fertile ground for Reform: heavily Leave-voting, older than average and exactly the sort of ‘left behind’ constituency Nigel Farage hopes to win. But there is one complicating factor: Andy Burnham.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester is hoping that his personal popularity can defy the political gravity of the seat and carry him back to Westminster – where, if he wins, Labour MPs may well carry him straight towards No. 10. But can Burnham survive Reform...

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.

Lisa Nandy backs Keir Starmer, as ministers resign and potential leadership challengers circle.

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