Coffee House Shots

Can Kemi hoover up votes with benefits reform?

After fresh polling from YouGov put the Tories ahead of Reform UK today, the leader of the opposition has set out plans to get people off of unemployment benefits, and li

Chagos U-turn: has Burnham seen sense?

Donald Trump has forced a rethink of the Chagos deal, after publicly criticising the agreement during his meeting with Andy Burnham. Is Labour preparing to abandon one of

Will Trump give Burnham the time of day?

Andy Burnham is off to meet Donald Trump. What can he expect from his first face-to-face with the US president? Tim Shipman and Freddy Gray discuss the diplomatic choreog

What's the mood at Lib Dem conference?

Patrick Gibbons is joined from Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton by deputy political editor James Heale and Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at RUSI and

Calum Miller on growth, Burnham & closer EU defence ties

From the hallways of the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, the Spectator's deputy political editor James Heale speaks to foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller MP

Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 20/09/2026

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows. Ed Davey talks popularity contests, and Bridget Phillipson defends the government ahead of Andy

Is Burnham ready to talk about war?

Military and intelligence chiefs across Europe are sounding increasingly stark warnings about the threat posed by Russia, from cyber attacks and sabotage to drones and hy

Have women ever had it so good? | with Julie Bindel & Miriam Cates

In this episode, we return to a live Spectator event asking: have women ever had it so good? The Spectator’s commissioning editor Lara Brown is joined by Zoe Strimpel, a

Have we found Reform's achilles heel? – with Luke Tryl

More voters than ever before say they are willing to vote tactically at the next election, according to new polling from More in Common, and the trend is not running Refo

How bad is the economy, Healey?

New inflation figures – showing the highest increase for several months – have done little to insulate John Healey from the stormy weather of the British economy. James H

The battle for (rural) Britain

Labour is facing growing criticism from rural Britain, with the Countryside Alliance calling for a ‘rural reset’ between the government and the countryside. Noa Hoffman

Reform's £72m donation – how will they spend it?

Reform UK received a record-breaking £72 million in donations over the weekend from two crypto billionaires – meaning the party has received almost twice as much in 24 ho

Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 13/09/2026

Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows. Reform have newfound riches. What does this mean for the future of political donations in the U

Holy Smoke: Catholic Burnham barred – should the law change?

Andy Burnham has announced his intention to change a law which bars him from advising the King on appointments to the Church of England. The Victorian-era law explicitly

Laura Trott: 'Labour are kowtowing to the unions'

England's 15-year-olds came eighth in the world for science, ninth for reading and tenth for maths in Tuesday's Pisa results, though it took the education secretary, Lucy

Assisted dying dead – for now

James Heale joins Patrick Gibbons to react to the news that MPs have voted against Assisted Dying. The vote was close – 286 vs 270 – but not a knife-edge, and several MPs

Assisted dying is back: what does Burnham think?

The topic of assisted dying returns to Parliament today, with a vote scheduled in the Commons this afternoon. Labour MP Lauren Evans has used her private member's bill to

The most powerful woman in Britain

After plans emerged for the Cabinet Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo, to consolidate power across the civil service this week, Oscar Edmondson is joined by James Heale and T

Burnham’s BIG blunder

It's only Burnham's second PMQs and he's already dropped a clanger. He may have handed the Conservatives their next election slogan after declaring that ‘national securit

Why Ed Miliband is taking on Israel

Ed Miliband has made his first major intervention as Foreign Secretary, with Britain set to announce a trade ban on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The move comes a