Isabel Hardman

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer had a much more awkward Prime Minister’s Questions than he is accustomed to. This was largely because Kemi Badenoch was armed with the latest unemployment figures, but also because the Conservative leader was agile in dealing with the Prime Minister’s responses. However, the overall lesson from the session was that Starmer now wants to frame the next election as being a battle between Labour and Reform, with the Tories a ‘finished party’.

1 month ago | inews.co.uk | Isabel Hardman

Politics is often like chemistry: you can start with two apparently inert substances which are minding their own business, before mixing them and causing an almighty reaction. Two separate policies might, on their own, seem benign – sensible, even – but combine them, and you end up with the equivalent of dropping caesium into water: a big explosive mess.

1 month ago | spectator.com.au | Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer wanted to spend Prime Minister’s Questions talking about the UK’s trade deal with India, while Kemi Badenoch – and later SNP leader Stephen Flynn – wanted to attack the government’s energy and welfare policies. Neither side really succeeded in its aims: Starmer ended up shoehorning the trade deal into random answers, while Badenoch didn’t exactly get the prime minister on the ropes.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer wanted to spend Prime Minister’s Questions talking about the UK’s trade deal with India, while Kemi Badenoch – and later SNP leader Stephen Flynn – wanted to attack the government’s energy and welfare policies. Neither side really succeeded in its aims: Starmer ended up shoehorning the trade deal into random answers, while Badenoch didn’t exactly get the prime minister on the ropes. But the session did show how many bruises Labour has available for its critics to punch.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Isabel Hardman

In normal political times, local election and by-election results would show a bad night for the government and a good night for the official opposition. Not so with this set of results in English councils and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, where both Labour and the Conservatives have been given bloody noses and Nigel Farage is celebrating the best set of results for Reform in both its history and that of its predecessor party, Ukip.