James Heale

A great Morten Morland mock-up in Industry recently...

Wonder which papers have featured the most in media/fiction. No film made the Telegraph Christmas party look better than "The Holiday"....

Revealed: the Lib Dems' plan for Tory defectors Reform UK’s momentum is influencing other parties too. The Greens voted overwhelmingly to elect Zack Polanski last month, partly on the basis that he would replicate Nigel Farage’s media success. Labo...

Exc: leaked memo reveals how the Lib Dems are planning to woo Tory defectors via ‘Operation New Home’

www.spectator.co.uk/article/reve...

Only when it rained, torrentially. Used once in 8 years!

Robert Jenrick steals the limelight at Tory conference It was a performance from Robert Jenrick that will – to borrow from Dora Gaitskell – have all the right people crying

For Jenrick’s aides, who would cross the street to have the right fight, bewailing will be read as a positive sign that they have cut through in a way that so many of his frontbench colleagues have manifestly failed to do

www.spectator.co.uk/article/robe...

Inside London's embassy parties Like the new school year, ambassadors to Britain usually change each September. Among those leaving this summer are the German, Swiss and Canadian representatives; their successors will shortly begin ...

Washington, Paris, London - the three preferred choices for any ambitious diplomat.

A look at the ambassadorial circuit and its glamorous parties here:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/insi...

Green Party of England & Wales now boasting more members than the Liberal Democrats: 83,500 versus 83,174 with "hundreds more joining daily"

On the eve of Tory conference, another defection as Keith Prince AM crosses over after 49 years as a Tory member to double Reform’s numbers at City Hall

The Israeli government has invited Tommy Robinson to visit the country in a fortnight's time. Post from Amichai Chikli, the Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism

Starmer has bought himself time. Can he use it wisely? The Labour conference in Liverpool was a curiously upbeat affair. Much of the good spirit came from schadenfreude at the misadventures of Andy Burnham. The Mayor of Greater Manchester scuttled out of ...

This week’s Spectator column:

- How Shrek sums up Welsh Labour
- Reform hope Budget can serve as ‘rocket boosters’
- Steve Reed + his 1,300 baseball caps ‘the breakout star’ of conference
- Risk of Liverpool simply being a ‘holiday from reality’

www.spectator.co.uk/article/star...

The ideas of relaxing fiscal rules for the second time in just over a year would raise the question of whether they can really be considered rules at all. Britain's already short-lived compared to its peers: www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

Some sad news this morning: Ming Campbell, the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has died at the age of 84

Ed Davey: "Ming was a fighter and a campaigner all of his life – whether that was on the sports track, in the court room, the House of Commons or the House of Lords."

Liz Truss is now dunking on Andy Burnham

What’s really behind Reform’s rise It is the question dominating bars and fringe debates this party conference season: what exactly is driving Reform UK’s popularity? Various explanations are proffered: the collapse of the two-party sy...

The internet might cause Reform UK to blow up. But it also helped make Nigel Farage in the first place:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/what...

Superb Spectator cover on the rise and rise of Shabana Mahmood:

Punchy, personal and, at times, puerile.

But Ed Davey’s speech is the one that liberals have been dreaming about all summer:

t.co/WRdZ9MzKGJ

Exc: James Roberts, who handled relations between LOTO and Tory MPs, will be leaving his post ahead of his second child’s birth

New: Danny Kruger’s first print interview

- How Reform will overhaul Whitehall
- One Tory MP sent him a rat emoji
- JD Vance’s interest in the British right
- Says Farage “more serious” than Boris

And why Edmund Burke would back Farage not Kemi….

t.co/UHwZqK9W2U

New: Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK as the party’s new head of ‘Preparing for Government’

Friday morning means another set of local by elections.

Reform won 4 out of 5 seats up for grabs yesterday - including one with a 27 per cent swing in the safest Tory ward in Walsall.

I think Polanski was probably the best candidate for the Greens to grow quicker. But having read all his interviews this summer, I think he lacks some of the nous or nuance which would help him build a longer-term project. His comments are often either platitudinous or poorly thought-out.

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty tells the House of Commons that Lord Mandelson "has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect"

The return of Keir vs Andy When Labour MPs met to hear from their leader on Monday, there was one group who felt particularly aggrieved. In the government’s reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner, the party’s powe...

This week's Spectator column on the battle for the north:

- Fears that Phillipson v Powell could turn into proxy war
- Pipe-smoking Farage hoping to be new Harold Wilson
- Labour looking at how to lean into northern identity

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Full information here on how Labour's deputy leadership contest will work:

A great point and as @kevinschofied.bsky.social notes, at least eight North West casualties in this reshuffle

Reshuffle wraps up with a raft of new appointments to the Whips' Office under the new Chief, Jonny Reynolds:

Starmer's reshuffle has Morgan McSweeney's fingerprints all over it After 48 hours, the final appointments have been made to complete the government's reshuffle

Reports of McSweeney's demise have been greatly exaggerated:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/star...

Some of Labour's brightest young MPs – Kanishka Narayan, Kate Dearden, Josh Simons, Josh McAlister – handed junior ministerial posts

Farage demands unity in his closing remarks:

"Can we please exercise discipline and air our disagreements not in public but in private?"

Reform to launch new campaign app Reform UK kicks off party conference season tomorrow. Thousands of attendees are expected to flock to the Birmingham NEC to hear from Nigel Farage, Zia Yusuf and others. A year after the last jamboree...

Exc: Reform UK to launch its own 'ReformGo' app as the party eyes further electoral gains next May

Senior insiders believe that it will show that they are most advanced ‘high tech’ party in Britain

www.spectator.co.uk/article/refo...