James Heale

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 the regions. In her place stands the Irishman who won the No. 10 power struggle: Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s first chief of staff in opposition, is back on top.

It seems that one of the great posts in British politics has been filled at last. The title of ‘Minister for Sticky Wickets’ was held by the likes of David Gauke and Michael Ellis during the Tory years. Now, with Keir Starmer on the back foot over freebies, it is Ellie Reeves filling that role.

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 course – he defined it as ‘the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised’. A lot has changed in the past 70 years. The

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 New York, the Governor of the Bank of England channelled the mythological Cassandra, whose warnings were accurate, but ignored. He told his audience today that ‘Cassandra was fated by the

Jenrick's team has demanded more debates – which his rivals suggest is a tacit acknowledgement that he is running a 'catch up' campaign.

With a week to go until Rachel Reeves's first Budget, Andrew Bailey has today sounded a note of gloomy caution.

As the post-Budget scrutiny gets underway, there is one clear group of obvious losers from today’s statement: farmers. The rural community is up in arms about Rachel Reeves’ changes to tax relief on farmland. From April 2026 this will be capped at 50 per cent for assets over £1 million – which works out at

The end is in sight. The polls have closed. On Saturday, the result of the Tory leadership contest will be announced. Both Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are adamant that the race is closer than polling suggests. What’s making backers of the bookies’ favourite Badenoch nervous is the number of undecided voters throughout this contest,

The end is in sight. The polls have closed. On Saturday, the result of the Tory leadership contest will be announced.

Keir Starmer will use his speech at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow today to set out Labour's plans to 'smash' the criminal gangs