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James Heale

James Heale

The Spectator

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Crunch time / How Pierre Poilievre led Canada’s Conservatives back from the wilderness

yesterday 8

The Spectator

James Heale

John Healey hails Rolls-Royce’s £9bn nuclear submarine deal

24.01.2025 4

The Spectator

James Heale

How Pierre Poilievre led Canada’s Conservatives back from the wilderness

24.01.2025 10

The Spectator

James Heale

How Pierre Poilievre led Canada’s Conservatives back from the wilderness

23.01.2025 20

The Spectator

James Heale

Can Reeves get Heathrow’s third runway off the ground?

Can Reeves get Heathrow’s third runway off the ground?
21.01.2025 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Trudeau’s assassin could be Canada’s next leader

Trudeau’s assassin could be Canada’s next leader
17.01.2025 6

The Spectator

James Heale

Mark Carney launches bid to succeed Trudeau

Mark Carney launches bid to succeed Trudeau
17.01.2025 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Why Labour is cosying up to China

Why Labour is cosying up to China
10.01.2025 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Keir Starmer defends his record on grooming gangs

Keir Starmer defends his record on grooming gangs

Keir Starmer’s speech this morning served as a neat microcosm of his six-month premiership. There he was, all primed to explain his plans for...

06.01.2025 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Justin Trudeau’s rule could end this week

Justin Trudeau’s rule could end this week

The next 48 hours could well spell the end of Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Prime Minister – the last major western leader of the pre-Trump era –...

06.01.2025 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Jimmy Carter offered dignity in failure

He was the peanut farmer from Georgia who rose to become the leader of the free world. Jimmy Carter, who has died at the age of 100, served as...

30.12.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Mandelson to be named US ambassador

Peter Mandelson is expected to shortly be named the next UK ambassador to Washington. The announcement – broken by the Times – comes ahead of...

19.12.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Rayner’s revolution enrages Reform

This afternoon Angela Rayner will unveil potentially the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s. The Housing Secretary will speak at...

16.12.2024 5

The Spectator

James Heale

The role of political spouse has changed completely

The changing nature of political power was neatly demonstrated in Westminster yesterday. In the House of Lords, members debated Labour’s plans to...

12.12.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Gaza independents to register new party

There has been much focus in recent weeks on Reform’s potential impact on British politics. But a rival quintet of insurgents has been quietly...

10.12.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Why the Welsh Tory leader has quit

Andrew RT Davies has quit this lunchtime as the leader of the Conservative group in the Welsh parliament. It follows a confidence vote among the 16...

03.12.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Labour risks death by consultation

After 14 years in opposition, you might have expected Labour to come into government bursting with plans for Britain. Yet the first four months of...

02.12.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Sir Chris Wormald is the new cabinet secretary

Keir Starmer has today resolved one of his longstanding headaches: who to appoint to lead the civil service. The man chosen to replace Simon Case...

02.12.2024 5

The Spectator

James Heale

Starmer attacks ‘open border’ Tories

Anyone else want to do a Westminster press conference? Keir Starmer made it a hat-trick this afternoon when he gave his reply to the new...

28.11.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Reform hits 100,000 members

There was a business-like manner in Nigel Farage’s response to the news that net migration was more than 900,000 in 2023. Speaking this morning at...

28.11.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Politics / Why Reform has Wales in its sights

A spectre is haunting Wales. Fresh from Reform’s election victories in Westminster, Nigel Farage is turning his attention westwards, to Cardiff...

28.11.2024 20

The Spectator

James Heale

David Cameron u-turns on assisted dying

David Cameron has today become the first former prime minister to come out in support of assisted dying, having previously voted against it in...

28.11.2024 1

The Spectator

James Heale

William Hague is the new Chancellor of Oxford

Congratulations to William Hague, who has today triumphed in the race to succeed Chris Patten and become the 168th Chancellor of Oxford. Hague,...

27.11.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Can Starmer’s jobs push get Britain back to work?

The UK isn’t working. That’s the official view of the government as Keir Starmer launches his latest effort to get Britons back into work. A...

26.11.2024 10

The Spectator

James Heale

RIP / John Prescott was a titan of the Labour movement

John Prescott, Britain’s longest serving Deputy Prime Minister, has died at the age of 86. For 40 years he variously enlivened, enraged and...

21.11.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Badenoch brings the newbies into her team

It is just over a fortnight since the Tory leadership result and Kemi Badenoch is now putting the final touches to her first front bench team. With...

18.11.2024 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Tax / Get ready for farmageddon

Is Westminster ready for farmageddon? Tomorrow will see the greatest political demonstration for a rural cause since the repeal of the Hunting Act...

18.11.2024 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Biden allows Kyiv to strike inside Russia with US missiles

Joe Biden has 64 days left in the White House – and clearly he intends to make the most of them. The President has tonight allowed Ukraine to use...

18.11.2024 7

The Spectator

James Heale

Labour’s war with Elon Musk

How do you solve a problem like Elon? That is the dilemma facing Keir Starmer. Musk seems particularly exercised about the state of the UK and is...

14.11.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Badenoch puts the punch back in PMQs

It was a strong start for Kemi Badenoch in her debut performance at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). After the obligatory pledge to be a ‘...

06.11.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Andrew Bailey’s pessimistic pre-Budget warning

With a week to go until Rachel Reeves’s first Budget, Andrew Bailey has today sounded a note of gloomy caution. Speaking at a Bloomberg event in...

22.10.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Inside the race for the Chancellor of Oxford

What do we mean these days when we talk about the British ‘establishment’? When Henry Fairlie coined the term in 1955 – in The Spectator, of...

17.10.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Politics / Can Morgan McSweeney reboot the government machine?

The Queen is dead: long live the King. This week brought an end to Downing Street’s unhappy experiment in dyarchy. Out goes Sue Gray, banished to...

11.10.2024 1

The Spectator

James Heale

James Cleverly storms into the lead

It’s official: the Tories believe in JC. Following last week’s party conference in Birmingham, James Cleverly has this afternoon topped the...

08.10.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Politics / Cleverly gains momentum as Tory MPs prepare to vote

Tory MPs are today preparing to cast their votes in the next round of the party’s leadership contest. The final four will become three, ahead of...

08.10.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Can Keir Starmer sell carbon capture?

The Prime Minister is in Liverpool today, outlining plans for green investment. Nearly £22billion is pledged for projects to capture and store...

04.10.2024 4

The Spectator

James Heale

Indian Ocean / Britain could regret handing back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius

The United Kingdom will shortly be ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under the terms of a new treaty, there will be a 99-year-...

03.10.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Tory leadership race / Robert Jenrick promises a ‘new Conservative party’

The Tory front runner was third up in Birmingham. Throughout this race, Robert Jenrick has sought to position himself as someone with the polish of...

02.10.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Tory conference / Kemi Badenoch comes out fighting

It has been a busy Conservative conference for Kemi Badenoch, whose comments on Sunday about maternity pay have dominated the last few days. Each...

01.10.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Liz Truss remains defiant in defeat

There are noticeably less people here at Tory conference in Birmingham this week. But one former MP can still reliably pack in the punters. Despite...

30.09.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Rishi Sunak urges unity farewell as Tory leader

It was a curious farewell for Rishi Sunak this afternoon. The Tory leader has just finished his final speech to the party faithful before handing...

29.09.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Will ‘flatgate’ damage Keir Starmer?

Labour conference has been and gone and still Lord Alli remains in the headlines. The latest claims regarding the multimillionaire peer surround his...

27.09.2024 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Politics / Inside Labour’s love affair with Lord Alli

As a peer who hates publicity, Lord Alli might have been expected to dodge the Labour conference – given the near-constant coverage of...

26.09.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Labour conference / Keir Starmer is in the mood to fight

Keir Starmer’s first conference speech as Prime Minister neatly embodied the past three days in Liverpool: patchy, uninspiring, with a strong...

24.09.2024 10

The Spectator

James Heale

Two takeaways from Ed Davey’s conference speech

Sir Ed Davey has just finished his conference speech in Brighton. No party is likely to hold a more upbeat political jamboree this year than the...

17.09.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale

Labour’s winter fuel woes are a sign of things to come

On paper, the result was a success for Labour. Despite excited reports, government whips managed to keep their party’s great winter fuel revolt...

10.09.2024 7

The Spectator

James Heale

Starmer knows these select committee elections matter

It’s not just the Tories facing a big vote next week. Across the House of Commons, MPs will be choosing which of their number should chair the 26...

06.09.2024 3

The Spectator

James Heale

Interview / The ‘British Muslim patriot’ on a mission to get Farage into No. 10

Few people had heard of Zia Yusuf before he spoke at Reform’s final campaign rally in Birmingham. But after a stirring speech to 4,000 supporters,...

05.09.2024 20

The Spectator

James Heale

Inside the 1922 hustings for Tory leader

This evening Tory MPs have filed into Committee Room 14 of parliament to hear from each of the six hopefuls aspiring to lead their party. Each...

03.09.2024 1

The Spectator

James Heale

Tom Tugendhat’s pitch: I’m a proper conservative, honest guv

Tom Tugendhat finally launched his leadership campaign today with a big speech in Whitehall – the third he has made in as many weeks. After...

03.09.2024 2

The Spectator

James Heale