New: JCB hand £200k apiece to Reform UK and the Conservatives Spox: "JCB has been backing Britain since 1945 and is supportive of pro-business political parties that create the conditions for these businesses to grow and prosper" www.spectator.co.uk/article/jcb-...

Denis Healey without the eyebrows – Rachel Reeves set to become the biggest tax-raising Chancellor of modern times if she repeats last year's Budget www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...

The successful Tory effort to box Labour in on tax during May 2024 must be looked upon as the political equivalent of Pearl Harbor – a stunning assault in an inevitably doomed campaign www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...

Defeats for the Conservative candidates in Badenoch, Stride and Jenrick's seats last night: www.spectator.co.uk/article/top-...

How green issues became the new ‘clear blue water’: • Warnings £300 energy savings won’t materialise • Coutinho to launch a ‘Cut My Bills’ push to take 20% off • Lib Dems eye communitarian Tories • Greens keen for local London pacts www.spectator.co.uk/article/west...

And the lucky man facing David Lammy at PMQs is… James Cartlidge, the Shadow Defence Secretary

Given Reeves' speech today, it's worth remembering that Budget broadcasts - followed by a response from Opposition parties – existed until 2012. Here's Gordon Brown in 2000, succinctly explaining his changes and broader thinking: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf1u...

Exc: Reform launch their own Research Department, to rival the Tories' famed CRD Up to a dozen hires are sought, with the party moving into opposition research Senior source: "The building of the party machine continues at pace" t.co/ci2fkLLJ5b

In his big speech in the City tomorrow, Nigel Farage will say that London ought to be a leading centre in digital assets. Column from this week's Spectator on how he has spent years championing the crypto craze: www.spectator.co.uk/article/whic...

Increasing chatter among Tory staff that they will soon vacate their Matthew Parker Street base. Lease is up next year… t.co/I3AybfjK9N

New: Lewis Cocking and Bradley Thomas were both elected to the 1922 Committee executive last night, defeating Alison Griffiths and Simon Hoare

Kwasi Kwarteng: ‘Bitcoin has been around for 16 years – digital currencies will only play a bigger role.’ Column in this week’s Spectator on policymakers scrambling to keep up with the crypto craze: t.co/SKqhqML3bt

Some wry Tory smiles tonight that Angela Rayner voted to keep stamp duty

Trying to find a wonderful Harold Macmillan quote. Involves a conversation with an official/minister who remarks on how national decline has quickened since they brought in all these statisticians. Supermac replies "Ah but the rate of decline has never been better recorded!" All help welcome!

Labour chair Anna Turley with a dreadful pun on Reform’s morning presser: “Their savings plans collapse at the first contact with reality. It's a serious case of Doge-ja vu.”

New: Danny Kruger expected to pledge a Reform UK government would - - Exit existing international legal obligations + prune back JR - Slash Whitehall head count and quit existing premises when leases end - Cite its democratic mandate when dealing with obstruction and unions t.co/fEkaeLn2Kt

Another busy week for Reform UK, with three press conferences set to be held. A key theme will be the work done by Zia Yusuf and Danny Kruger in preparing the party’s policy offering and readiness for government. More from this week’s Spectator here: www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Mervyn King to Trevor Phillips on Sky: "We haven't seen a Chancellor take a strategic look at the tax system for almost 40 years. It's been one kind of tinkering after another." Reeves shd set up a group to "look deeply at all aspects of the tax treatment" to improve coherence

A lovely man who was generous to a somewhat gauche 19 year old blogging on political history. RIP.

Rishi Sunak to the Times: "Clearly, I miss the levers of power. I’m proud I brought in the smoking ban for the young. I miss playing cricket in the garden with the England cricket team and the staff. But not much else."

Caerphilly offered the trailer for the Senedd movie next May: bitter attacks, tactical voting and a bad night for Welsh Labour www.spectator.co.uk/article/plai...

Very happy for my colleague Michael Simmons has launched his own show on SpecTV, mixing data with insight: First guest? Art Laffer on Reeves, Farage, Trump. You can read about it here: www.spectator.co.uk/article/intr...

The thinkers, politicians and institutes all jostling for influence in Reform UK: www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Farage set beside Arron Banks above Keir Starmer at today's PMQs to protest Reform's lack of questions: www.spectator.co.uk/article/fara...

White smoke in the Oxford Union ballot Total ballots: 1746 Votes for No confidence: 1228 Votes Against: 501 Spoilt/void: 17 Motion of no confidence in the President-Elect carried

The Foreign Office is now formally advertising for Peter Mandelson's replacement. Candidates are asked to not use AI in the drafting of applications for the £174k role www.spectator.co.uk/article/want...

Telegraph reports that James Orr has formally joined Reform UK and is now an advisor to Nigel Farage. He could prove to be a key force in the party’s thinking and policy making. A Cambridge academic, he is respected by many Tories - JD Vance calls him “his British Sherpa.”

Told this piece is circulating various Whitehall/CCHQ WhatsApp groups – more quotes in reaction: "Sheridan is a news alchemist who can spin gold out of the small print of a Valuation Office Agency document" "The best political operator I have ever had the pleasure to work with"

‘He just likes getting up in the morning and kicking socialists. He’s in it for the love of the game.’ Profile in this week’s Spectator of Sheridan Westlake, the man who has served ten successive Tory leaders: www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...

Think they've lost their bearings

New: At a black tie dinner held in Margaret Thatcher's honour last night, Boris Johnson took aim at Nigel Farage's Russia stance and called for ‘boots on the ground in Ukraine’ with immediate effect www.spectator.co.uk/article/bori...

For much of his first year in charge, international affairs offered Keir Starmer a relief from difficulties at home. But when the line between the foreign and the domestic becomes increasingly blurred, as on China, such escape looks impossible. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

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

Exc: leaked memo reveals how the Lib Dems are planning to woo Tory defectors via ‘Operation New Home’ www.spectator.co.uk/article/reve...

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...

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

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

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.