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Paul Waugh

Paul Waugh

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Boris Johnson has shown up David Cameron

David Cameron discovered the hard way this week that his much-vaunted presentational skills are not enough to get what he wants. Just days after the...

12.04.2024 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak’s attacks on 'foreign' courts are a gift to Nigel Farage

Whenever a politician says they have been “very clear” about a topic these days, it’s often a telltale sign that they’ve been as clear as mud....

05.04.2024 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

The Red Wall is over - towns like Harlow and Peterborough will decide the election

Amid the latest round of speculation that Rishi Sunak could opt for a summer general election, one particular line from a No 10 insider caught my eye...

29.03.2024 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Famine in Gaza is man-made, state-made - it's time to halt UK arms to Israel

There was a rare bit of good news in Gaza this week as more than 2,000 tonnes of UK food aid finally crossed the border into the strip. The...

23.03.2024 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Boris Johnson is paying for his biggest mistake - stepping down as an MP

After a pretty awful week, it’s fitting that Rishi Sunak ended it as he began it – by making news for not doing something. The Prime Minister’s...

16.03.2024 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rachel Reeves must show voters that her sums add up

“I’m afraid to tell you, there is no money.” When Liam Byrne wrote his infamous note to his successor as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in...

09.03.2024 5

iNews

Paul Waugh

What I learned by trying to stand as an MP

Right from the get-go, it’s safe to say that my newborn political career didn’t have an auspicious start. Arriving at the home of a Rochdale...

29.01.2024 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Journalist Paul Waugh on why he’s standing to become MP for his hometown Rochdale

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a proud Rochdalian, and they don’t have to look very far to find the clues. My online, and very offline, moans of...

25.01.2024 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

The hidden wasted spending in Westminster that no one wants to talk about

Earlier this week, just as Tory backbenchers were plotting and pantomiming over the Safety of Rwanda Bill, a much more interesting parliamentary event...

19.01.2024 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

Brexit-regretting ex-pats are ready to punish the Tories in next election

Over the past year, as the controversy over the Government’s voter-ID rules ebbed and flowed, critics accused the Tories of trying to deny the...

19.01.2024 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi rattled by Rwanda ridicule

There’s nothing that concentrates the minds of your average MP more than the prospect of losing their seat. And there’s nothing like Prime...

17.01.2024 5

iNews

Paul Waugh

The Rwanda rebellion is the Tory equivalent of The Traitors - without the fun

“I’m not a Traitor, you’re a Traitor. I’m 100 per cent Faithful.” In this grimly cold January, the BBC hit The Traitors is keeping millions...

16.01.2024 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Brexiteer boasts about global Britain were a mirage - UK-EU trade still matters

Sadiq Khan just can’t help ploughing his own furrow. From his controversial ultra low emissions zone to his dealings with trade unions and his...

11.01.2024 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

Tax cuts are no longer the electoral elixir the Tories think they are

From the first minutes of the first PMQs of 2024, it was obvious that Rishi Sunak was set to make a big announcement about the Post Office scandal. ...

10.01.2024 9

iNews

Paul Waugh

Mr Bates vs The Post Office proves Parliament can still be a force for good

In ITV’s compelling drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office , the first glimmer of hope comes over a cup of tea and cake. The then Tory MP James...

09.01.2024 5

iNews

Paul Waugh

Late flood response is another symptom of 'short-term Sunak'

As I drove into Oxford on Sunday, I couldn’t help but notice a police-escorted motorcade whizzing away in the opposite direction. On seeing the...

08.01.2024 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

Tone-deaf Howard Davies should remember NatWest wouldn’t exist without the taxpayer

NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies’s car-crash interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday was so bad that it made even tone deaf Cabinet...

05.01.2024 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Keir Starmer’s ‘radical realism’ is a plea for patience from voters

In his New Year speech and the Q&A afterwards, Keir Starmer carried the confidence, if not the swagger, of an Opposition leader who knows he’s on...

04.01.2024 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

Keir Starmer’s ‘radical realism’ is a plea for patience from voters

In his New Year speech and the Q&A afterwards, Keir Starmer carried the confidence, if not the swagger, of an Opposition leader who knows he’s on...

04.01.2024 5

iNews

Paul Waugh

Nigel Farage terrifies the Tories, but the Lib Dems will win more seats

For journalists gathered at Reform UK’s New Year press conference, the sense of disappointment was palpable. Party leader Richard Tice duly set out...

03.01.2024 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

The unexploded political bombs waiting for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in 2024

When Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer deliver their New Year messages to the nation next week, both will set out their visions for Britain in the secure...

25.12.2023 8

iNews

Paul Waugh

Watch out for a Boris Johnson comeback (if Donald Trump becomes president again)

When Donald Trump was first told that he may face criminal charges for the Capitol riots, he declared: “It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me...

21.12.2023 8

iNews

Paul Waugh

2024 will be the year the housing crisis dwarfs the cost of living

For Rishi Sunak, the latest sharp drop in inflation was the early Christmas present he’d been hoping for. The dip in the Consumer Prices Index...

20.12.2023 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

MPs' pay is going up to £92k next year – public sector workers will be scratching their heads

Every month, indeed every week, there are individual statistical releases that ministers and shadow ministers keep a beady eye on. From GDP to...

19.12.2023 5

iNews

Paul Waugh

Covid cases are spiking – it's time to get Chris Whitty back on our TV screens

As I sat on a bus this week, two twentysomething lads sat down behind me and started shooting the breeze. But it wasn’t their chat about uploading a...

18.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Binning Blackpool’s sleazy MP is the easy bit - tackling its poverty is harder

Blackpool has got used to being used and abused over the years. From stag-do drunks to snobbish critics, the town’s reputation has taken a hammering...

15.12.2023 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

Kemi Badenoch is her own worst enemy

When a classroom of cute kids today asked Rishi Sunak for his favourite ice cream flavour, the Prime Minister replied: “It’s quite boring…...

14.12.2023 9

iNews

Paul Waugh

Kemi Badenoch is her own worst enemy

When a classroom of cute kids today asked Rishi Sunak for his favourite ice cream flavour, the Prime Minister replied: “It’s quite boring…...

14.12.2023 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

‘Spreadsheet Sunak’ is turning into ‘Stagnation Sunak’

As a former financier, Rishi Sunak knows that money talks. And after Wednesday’s grim economic growth figures prompted traders to dump sterling, the...

13.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak avoids Rwanda headache – but mega migraine is looming

During debates of great import in the Commons, it’s often said that the contributions show “Parliament at its best”. Sadly, the second reading...

12.12.2023 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

The problem with Keir Starmer's austerity-lite message

Another week, another “big speech” from Keir Starmer and another Tory immigration row. Just eight days ago, the Labour leader’s thoughts on the...

12.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak's Covid inquiry evidence was squarely aimed at one group of MPs

Detailed, unflustered, and consistent, Rishi Sunak’s early evidence to the Covid Inquiry was everything that Boris Johnson’s was not. But just as...

11.12.2023 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

The Rwanda backlash has buried Boris Johnson’s most disturbing Covid evidence

The timing was uncanny. At the exact moment that Rishi Sunak was becoming tetchy in his “emergency” press conference about his Rwanda plans this...

08.12.2023 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

The tougher Rishi Sunak talks on migration, the weaker he looks

No more Mr Nice Guy. That was the message from Rishi Sunak as he struggled to reassert his authority over a fractious Tory party with a hardline...

07.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Boris Johnson’s 'can’t remember' act on Covid won’t be forgotten by the public

Right from the get-go, it was obvious that Boris Johnson was treating the Covid inquiry as a giant operation in reputation management. From the way...

06.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Boris Johnson’s 'can’t remember' act on Covid won’t be forgotten by the public

Right from the get-go, it was obvious that Boris Johnson was treating the Covid inquiry as a giant operation in reputation management. From the way...

06.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak’s migration ‘crackdown’ shows Suella Braverman’s ghost lives on

As Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick did his morning media round on the Government’s new crackdown on legal migration, he was unapologetically...

05.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

A Labour landslide will force the Tories to embrace Nigel Farage

Just as the British public can’t escape Nigel Farage even when he’s on the other side of the world, Rishi Sunak couldn’t avoid being asked about...

04.12.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

The growing phenomenon of 'retired renters' is a ticking time bomb for the Tories

Amid the current blizzard of news, both foreign and domestic, some of Britain’s most chronic problems risk getting buried under the avalanche. And,...

30.11.2023 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

Starmer and Sunak need to admit there are no quick fixes for our flagging economy

In politics, as in comedy, timing is everything. From measuring progress on policies to the deadlines leaders set themselves, the “when” is often...

23.11.2023 4

iNews

Paul Waugh

Look at the hidden small print behind Jeremy Hunt's panicked tax cuts

In the very first sentence of his Autumn Statement, Jeremy Hunt declared he had “put our economy back on track”. After Covid, the war in Europe...

22.11.2023 30

iNews

Paul Waugh

Labour voters will punish Starmer if he short-changes the NHS

When Victoria Atkins was appointed as the new Health and Social Care Secretary this week, two things were instantly apparent. First, the top job had...

18.11.2023 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Suella Braverman’s scathing letter to Rishi Sunak is the ultimate gift for Labour

Revenge is meant to be a dish best served cold, but Suella Braverman clearly believes the hot stuff is more powerful. Her open letter to Rishi Sunak,...

14.11.2023 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

Cameron comeback lays bare the Tories' identity crisis

The long-awaited “Rishuffle” was supposed to be all about Rishi Sunak finally stamping his authority on his party. Just as his party conference...

13.11.2023 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak is more right-wing than his polite image suggests

How do you solve a problem like Suella? Nearly 48 hours after the Home Secretary accused the police of “playing favourites” with pro-Palestinian...

10.11.2023 7

iNews

Paul Waugh

Boris Johnson’s lethal loathing of Rishi Sunak makes a Labour landslide more likely

If you’re someone who doesn’t have the time or inclination to read Nadine Dorries’s 350-page book, The Plot: The Assassination of Boris Johnson,...

10.11.2023 6

iNews

Paul Waugh

Keir Starmer is making a mistake by waiting for America's lead on Gaza

When Sadiq Khan, Anas Sarwar and Andy Burnham came out in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, it’s fair to say Keir Starmer’s allies were not exactly...

27.10.2023 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

Starmer must learn to listen to those who disagree with him, after backlash over Gaza

When shadow minister Yasmin Qureshi got up in Prime Minister’s Question Time to raise the plight of the people of Gaza, her words were impassioned...

26.10.2023 2

iNews

Paul Waugh

Reports of the death of the SNP may be greatly exaggerated

When SNP MP Dr Lisa Cameron announced her sudden defection to the Conservatives on Thursday, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf joked that it...

13.10.2023 3

iNews

Paul Waugh

Rishi Sunak’s image as a numbers man is now in question after this scathing report

If revenge is a dish best served cold, Rishi Sunak’s recent attacks on the Climate Change Committee (CCC) got some very chilly just deserts...

13.10.2023 20

iNews

Paul Waugh

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