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Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman

Independent

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MPs needs a proper HR service

The most damning bit of the lurid Mark Menzies case is that the Conservatives had been aware of the allegations for three months before they story...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Keir Starmer's David dilemma: Lammy, Cameron or Miliband?

David Lammy has taken many political shapes in his long career. He’s one of the few members of the Shadow Cabinet who can remember life in a Labour...

previous day 7

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Sunak had a strong comeback to Starmer’s Truss attack at PMQs

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was a classic knockabout between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clearly written by their respective attack units....

wednesday 6

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

What Liz Truss got right

It’s easy to laugh at Liz Truss bringing out a book, much harder to ask whether there are points she makes that Westminster can actually learn from....

wednesday 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Parliament votes for smoking ban

In the past few minutes, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has passed its second reading by 383 votes to 67, with at least six Conservative ministers voting...

wednesday 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Parliament votes for smoking ban

In the past few minutes, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has passed its second reading by 383 votes to 67, with at least six Conservative ministers voting...

16.04.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

What Liz Truss got right

It’s easy to laugh at Liz Truss bringing out a book, much harder to ask whether there are points she makes that Westminster can actually learn from....

16.04.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

When will the Rwanda ping-pong end?

MPs once again rejected all the changes made by peers to the Safety of Rwanda Bill last night, with the ping-pong continuing this afternoon. There...

16.04.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Starmer: Israel should show ‘strength and courage’ to de-escalate

Rishi Sunak wants this weekend’s attempt by Iran to attack Israel to mark a de-escalation in the region. He told MPs this afternoon that he would be...

15.04.2024 2

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

A new generation of MPs is just what Westminster needs

Whatever happens at the next election, one thing is guaranteed. There are going to be a lot of new MPs in Parliament. So far, 100 have said they are...

14.04.2024 3

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Rayner promises to quit if convicted

Angela Rayner has this evening announced that she would quit if convicted of breaking electoral law, saying: ‘If I committed a criminal offence, I...

13.04.2024 6

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Another public threat of rebellion for Rishi Sunak – what a mess

Rishi Sunak has many unpleasant fights with his party waiting for him when MPs return to Westminster next week. The Rwanda bill, the European...

11.04.2024 3

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Parliament easily exploits weakness - Wragg's honeytrap is the sad result

Why did he do it? Why would anyone be so stupid? That’s the question everyone started asking as soon as William Wragg revealed he had been part of a...

05.04.2024 2

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak’s reset week is a media disaster

The Downing Street grid for this week – the Government’s media plan of the initiatives it wants to focus the public’s attention on – is...

01.04.2024 1

iNews

Isabel Hardman

A Labour government will have five years to fix the NHS or face the unthinkable

In the NHS’s long lifetime, people have consistently made the same two assumptions. The first is that the health service could at any minute...

31.03.2024 5

The Guardian

Isabel Hardman

I’ve done very well, says Rishi Sunak at select committee grilling

Normally when a select committee hearing or interview is described as ‘wide-ranging’, it’s because a lot was said, but none of it of much note....

26.03.2024 8

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

The Waspi women won’t be compensated any time soon

If the ‘Waspi women’ (women against state pension inequality) were hoping that last week’s ombudsman report into the maladministration of the...

26.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Is the UK’s China policy about to change?

What difference is the revelation that China was behind two cyber attacks – on the Electoral Commission and UK parliamentarians – really going to...

25.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Like Barbie, there are many Rishis. Which is the real Sunak is beyond even his supporters’ grasp

When Rishi Sunak told his MPs to unite behind him last week, many were left scratching their heads. Both the subject and object of the sentence...

24.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak has gifted Labour the perfect attack line

The latest incarnation of Rishi Sunak – national insurance-abolishing Rishi, in case you hadn’t kept pace – is a real gift to Labour. Keir...

23.03.2024 6

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak's smoking bill will define him – just not in the way he hopes

Political leaders often signal what they are about by defining themselves against their parties on key issues. David Cameron pursued equal marriage a...

20.03.2024 5

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Will Sunak or Starmer ever say anything new at PMQs?

Rishi Sunak will have been grateful to have got through Prime Minister’s Questions today with little criticism – at least from his own side. The...

20.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Does Rachel Reeves have the answers?

19.03.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves is making mischief for the Tories

Rachel Reeves has a busy day: the shadow chancellor is giving her big speech tonight, where she is expected to outline the broad brush of her economic...

19.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Could a fight over Rwanda get Sunak the poll boost he needs?

Downing Street has warned that peers will show a lack of ‘compassion’ if they do not pass the Rwanda Bill unamended. At this morning’s lobby...

19.03.2024 6

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Has Labour spied an opportunity in the Tory National Insurance pledge?

A curious attack from Labour in the Commons this afternoon: shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall used her slot at the regular departmental...

18.03.2024 7

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Penny Mordaunt as next Tory leader? It's not as mad as it sounds

Of all the mad things that the Conservative Party has done over the past few years, surely switching leader again just months before an election would...

18.03.2024 3

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Starmer made life miserable for Sunak at PMQs

An ugly Prime Minister’s Questions today which will probably make the Tories wish they didn’t have to call an election for at least five years –...

13.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Kemi Badenoch refuses to toe the line – again

12.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Can the Tories actually make their free extra childcare plan work?

Is the government’s expansion of free childcare actually going to work? The early years sector says not. They have warned that parents of two year...

11.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May's departure is a damning indictment of the Tory party

Theresa May was not a good prime minister. There’s no way around it. She believes in public service and hard work, but she didn’t achieve her own...

08.03.2024 3

iNews

Isabel Hardman

The NHS step count app could help people back to work

Is there really any point to the NHS app monitoring people’s step count? This is the latest announcement from Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, who...

08.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Justin Welby: why shouldn’t bishops be political?

Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1960s and early 1970s, would start his day by banging his head against his desk three times while...

07.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Starmer offers little in response to Hunt’s Budget

Keir Starmer’s response to the Budget was delayed a little because the SNP forced a division on the immediate measures announced by the Chancellor....

06.03.2024 7

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Half-hearted / Jeremy Hunt’s low-key Budget

If Jeremy Hunt’s Budget was the final flourish before a May election, it’s going to be a very low-key campaign indeed. The Chancellor did announce...

06.03.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Starmer accuses Sunak of inaction post-Everard murder

Prime Minister’s Questions today was a weighty affair, with Keir Starmer focusing on the murder of Sarah Everard following the Angiolini Report into...

06.03.2024 6

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Will Jeremy Hunt play it safe today?

This Budget is probably Jeremy Hunt’s last fiscal event before the election, and the Chancellor will want to at least set a fair wind for the...

06.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

A desperate Jeremy Hunt is asking voters to suspend disbelief

Budgets are as much about the political theatre as they are about the pounds. Jeremy Hunt isn’t the greatest showman in Parliament, but he is...

04.03.2024 3

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Labour will find it hard to get tough on benefits seekers

Liz Kendall gave a speech this morning in which she promised to ‘build a better future’ for young people, with better mental health support and...

04.03.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Starmer and Sunak argue over who has the bigger racism problem

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was less about Rishi Sunak and more about the Tories around him. Keir Starmer opened his attack by describing...

28.02.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

David Neal vs the Home Office

‘I’ve been sacked for doing my job. I think I’ve been sacked for doing what the law asks of me and I’ve breached, I’ve fallen down over a...

27.02.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Linsday Hoyle has wound up the SNP again

Will Lindsay Hoyle really last as Speaker? Today he managed to enrage the SNP once again by refusing the party’s application for an emergency...

26.02.2024 1

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Westminster has no right to laugh at Liz Truss

Liz Truss still seems as busy as during the (brief) time she held power. Scarcely a day goes by without a Truss-related headline, with a book on the...

23.02.2024 6

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak is becoming very unimportant

What was the most striking thing about Rishi Sunak’s appearance at the National Farmers Union conference this week? It wasn’t that this was the...

22.02.2024 10

iNews

Isabel Hardman

Lindsay Hoyle’s attempt to defend MPs from the mob has backfired

Lindsay Hoyle’s justification for tearing up convention on the Gaza vote was that he had become worried for MPs’ safety and was trying to give...

22.02.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Lindsay Hoyle apologises amid Commons chaos

The Commons has gone into meltdown this evening over the Speaker’s handling of the Gaza ceasefire motion, with the Speaker expressing ‘regret’...

21.02.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Why are Labour going after Kemi Badenoch?

One person dominated Prime Minister’s Questions, and it wasn’t Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer. It was Kemi Badenoch, who appears to be going deeper...

21.02.2024 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

What’s behind the party disagreements on Gaza?

The government has now tabled its own amendment to the SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. This change to the text calls for ‘negotiations...

21.02.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Is Starmer changing his mind on Gaza?

Labour has significantly shifted its language on Israel’s conflict with Hamas over the past 24 hours. But has it changed its position? Yesterday...

19.02.2024 4

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Politics / Kemi Badenoch is a one-woman attack unit

Kemi Badenoch has been launching a few more grenades into the Post Office row, with a bullish statement in the House of Commons dismissing the...

19.02.2024 3

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

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