
Yesterday afternoon, having been triumphantly received first by the 1922 and then his adoring new cohort, David Cameron announced the details of his reshuffle. You can picture the moment. A gleeful Prime Minister instructing an adviser to tweet out the
by Alex Wickham12 May 2015, 12:50 AM PST0

Kudos to the Labour politicians, most admirably Ed Balls, who reacted to their party’s incredible defeat with good grace. Others, not so much. Take one well known left-wing tweeter: “Most terrifying of all is the Tories won as the Nasty
by Alex Wickham8 May 2015, 2:15 AM PST0

For five years, Nick Clegg has been the most unpopular politician in Britain. The Liberal Democrat leader and his party have been vilified since he broke that infamous promise “to vote against any increase in tuition fees in the next
by Alex Wickham5 May 2015, 12:10 AM PST0

It does feel like something has changed this week. Labour started the election campaign very strongly, winning the first two weeks by dominating the narrative and succeeding in showing Ed Miliband in a better light than voters had previously seen
by Alex Wickham1 May 2015, 3:52 AM PST0

If you had said six months ago that Ed Miliband would be schooling Boris Johnson on live television two weeks before the election, even Justine would have raised an eyebrow. Yet that is exactly what the Labour leader did on
by Alex Wickham28 Apr 2015, 12:00 AM PST0

Labour certainly had the upper hand during the two weeks of the election campaign before this one, but there has been a shift in the fortunes of the parties over the last few days. This was supposed to be Labour’s
by Alex Wickham24 Apr 2015, 7:16 AM PST0

One of the lesser talked about themes of this mad election is the unusually large number of big-name politicians who could feasibly lose their seats. A couple of ‘Portillo moments’ can be always be expected, but in three weeks’ time
by Alex Wickham21 Apr 2015, 12:31 AM PST0

Monday brought Labour’s manifesto launch, which was policy-light and therefore tough for Ed Miliband’s opponents to unravel. You can’t really see the party making many gains from suddenly claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility three weeks before the
by Alex Wickham17 Apr 2015, 7:30 AM PST0

“Literally we would not know what we were voting for if we were going to vote for Labour.” That is the damning verdict of Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on Ed Miliband’s manifesto launch yesterday. It
by Alex Wickham14 Apr 2015, 12:31 AM PST0

This Bank Holiday week picked up on Tuesday as Tony Blair made an unusually peaceful intervention, criticising the Tories on Europe and declaring his unequivocal support for Ed Miliband. The former PM’s toxicity with some of the British public and
by Alex Wickham10 Apr 2015, 12:44 AM PST0

Georges Sorel, the French philosopher, believed that in politics ‘myths’ can often be more important than reality. If the people could be stirred by emotive social and political illusions, regardless of their basis in reality, Sorel argued, this was ultimately
by Alex Wickham7 Apr 2015, 12:45 AM PST0

Above all else, last night showed why no party will win a majority at the general election on May 7th. The snap polls were all over place. One said Ed Miliband was the winner, another said he came fourth. He
by Alex Wickham3 Apr 2015, 12:21 AM PST0

So, who won day one? Labour will feel they spent far too much of yesterday talking about their strained relationship with business, after the party’s advert in the Financial Times backfired spectacularly. Siemens and Kellogg’s both publicly expressed their dismay
by Alex Wickham31 Mar 2015, 1:08 AM PST0

The reaction in the press room at Sky HQ as last night’s leaders’ interviews came to a close was unanimous. Ed Miliband had, almost unbelievably, won. Of the two men vying to be Prime Minister, against all odds, it was
by Alex Wickham27 Mar 2015, 2:01 AM PST0

Earlier this month two prominent conservatives, Tim Montgomerie and Stephan Shakespeare, launched something called The Good Right. Despite boasting Michael Gove as a vocal supporter, much of what they proposed was unlikely to convince dry right-wingers. Luxury taxes and above-inflation
by Alex Wickham24 Mar 2015, 12:00 AM PST0

Well, that Budget was a bit of an anti-climax. There was some optimistic talk beforehand that George Osborne might produce some sort of game-changing policy that would transform the election campaign. In the end there was no fabled ‘rabbit in
by Alex Wickham18 Mar 2015, 9:04 AM PST0

Fifty days out from the election, Westminster is a strange mix of speculation, tedium and delusion. No one really has any idea who is going to win on May 7th. As frustrating as that is for pundits, it’s not really
by Alex Wickham17 Mar 2015, 12:10 AM PST0

There is a saying in the morally upstanding circles of Westminster in which I dwell: “leave the wives out of it”. Unless there is some particular significance to a great matter of state, or perhaps if taxpayers’ money is at
by Alex Wickham13 Mar 2015, 7:58 AM PST0

It feels like no one can divide the Labour Party quite like Tony Blair. The former Prime Minister has donated £106,000 to the candidates in his party’s top target seats ahead of the general election. Good news, or so you
by Alex Wickham10 Mar 2015, 2:11 AM PST0

Nigel Farage has this morning revealed UKIP’s policy on immigration going into the election. Gone is the party’s previous pledge to cap net migration at 50,000, instead they will not adopt an “arbitrary” target. Reading Farage’s explanation for this, it
by Alex Wickham4 Mar 2015, 4:09 AM PST0

Ahead of the 2001 General Election, William Hague’s Conservative Party secured a quite stellar cast of celebrity backers. Among them were some of the best of Britain: Jim Davidson, Peter Stringfellow, Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Frank Bruno, Mike Read and Bill Roache
by Alex Wickham3 Mar 2015, 1:07 AM PST0

It’s fair to say it has been a tough few weeks for UKIP. The party has tailed off in the polls recently, dropping from above 15 percent to around 13 percent as election campaign season gets underway. Nigel Farage’s trip
by Alex Wickham27 Feb 2015, 5:23 AM PST0

Last week, the BBC’s Newsnight programme aired the first in a series of focus groups looking at the political views of families across Britain. One of the families featured was from South Wales; a mother in her forties called Julia,
by Alex Wickham24 Feb 2015, 1:03 AM PST0

Donations are back in the news, with some £20 million being raised by political parties in the last quarter of 2014. These sorts of stories tend to hurt each party about the same – whether it is union gold lining
by Alex Wickham20 Feb 2015, 7:48 AM PST0

Try asking a politician to condemn an abuse of the MPs’ expenses system and you will get the same response from almost all of them: “sorry, not one for me”. In fact, newspaper stories about expenses scandals almost never carry
by Alex Wickham17 Feb 2015, 1:01 AM PST0