After the silly season comes the serious stuff. On Monday, parliament returns after a bumper five-party conference season. But while both Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch can claim to have cemented thei...

After a tricky few months for Nigel Farage’s party, Reform UK is fighting back. Senior figures have spent the summer discussing how best to tell their side of the story, amid a wave of negative headli...

Labour has comfortably won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election with 45 per cent of the vote, leaving Zack Polanski a distant second on 32.7 per cent. In the contest caused by Sir Keir Starmer’s dec...

FT estimates show inflation and soaring borrowing costs have slashed chancellor John Healey’s headroom in half

Most conference speeches are significant for only one moment. Kemi Badenoch’s address to the Tory faithful today had two of note. The first was a highly energised, full-throated assault on Reform UK i...

Kemi Badenoch often likes to claim that the Conservative Party is her ‘family’ and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that members feel the same way. After four days in Birmingham, one of the most...

Kemi Badenoch often likes to claim that the Conservative Party is her ‘family’ and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that members feel the same way. After four days in Birmingham, one of the most...

The Conservative Party conference is well underway in Birmingham, with Kemi Badenoch making the first of two speeches to the party faithful. Part of the upbeat feeling is down to the recent shadow cab...

Zack Polanski has just finished his leader’s speech at the Green party conference in Brighton. It has been an extraordinary 12 months for his party, which shot up like a rocket at the beginning of the...

After Andy Burnham’s speech at the Labour party conference on Tuesday, one veteran factionalist declared: ‘We are all Burnhamites now.’ Romantics love the rhetoric; cynics respect the ruthlessness. ‘G...

The prime minister compares the allegations against Man City to the plight of his own club Everton.

After Andy Burnham’s speech at the Labour party conference on Tuesday, one veteran factionalist declared: ‘We are all Burnhamites now.’ Romantics love the rhetoric; cynics respect the ruthlessness. ‘G...

Burnham’s emotive display explained the ‘why’ of his politics better than perhaps any Labour leader since Tony Blair.

The Prime Minister seems to have a clear sense of what he believes is the promised land: even if, at this stage, it seems to be more a land of promises.