Jason Cowley

2 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Jason Cowley

After the turmoil created by the resignation of Zia Yusuf as chairman of Reform UK, and then his return 48 hours later in a new role, the risibly titled “leader of the DOGE unit”, Nigel Farage’s anti-system party started the week determined to regain control. While Yusuf was interviewed in the coveted 8.10am slot on the BBC’s Today programme on 9 June, Farage was in Wales. There he delivered a speech, fusing right and left populism, aimed at disaffected Labour voters.

3 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Jason Cowley

A few days before the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, John Healey, the Defence  Secretary, urged colleagues to campaign in a constituency that was in danger of being captured by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. It was, he told them, “too close to call”.

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jason Cowley

On Thursday, as Sir Keir Starmer denounced Nigel Farage’s “fantasy” economics in a speech in St Helens, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was having “final meetings” in London to agree departmental budget settlements before this month’s multi-year spending review, which will set the government’s priorities until 2029. Labour MPs, who often seem to prefer the luxury beliefs of opposition to the difficult compromises of power, are opposed to spending cuts.

4 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jason Cowley

Midway through my conversation with Andrea Jenkyns she becomes tearful. We’re in her new office at Lincoln county council — the Union Jack hanging beside the green, blue, red and yellow of the county flag. “I’m sorry for being emotional,” she says. The newly elected first mayor of Greater Lincolnshire is recalling the day, in July 2022, when Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister. Jenkyns describes herself as a “Boris loyalist”.

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Jason Cowley

When I visited Gary Lineker at home in west London in November last year, to interview him for my final issue as editor of the New Statesman, I found him in reflective mood and deeply troubled by the war in Gaza. He had announced that he was leaving the BBC and would stop presenting Match of the Day at the end of the current football season.