When he delivers his autumn statement later today, George Osborne will inevitably highlight any good economic news he can. With a general election barely five months away he will ride the jeers of Labour…
The Labor Party that Bill Shorten leads is much more professionalised in its MP make-up than its earlier incarnations.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
For British Labour leader Ed Miliband, defeat was yet again snatched from the jaws of victory. With the UK general election less than six months away, the recent Rochester and Strood by-election was a…
Eunice Goes, Richmond American International University
As prime minister David Cameron works on the finishing touches of his much-awaited speech on Europe and immigration he is under considerable pressure from his backbenchers and some frontbenchers to signal…
Brown was undoubtedly a big beast, but could have been so much more.
10 Downing Street
Gordon Brown will retire from the Commons viewed on the one hand as a giant of Scottish Labour who spent 13 years at the pinnacle of frontline UK politics as chancellor and prime minister: the son of the…
Did he just say he agrees with Natalie?
Gareth Fuller/PA
A YouGov poll showing the Green Party has more support than the Liberal Democrats raises yet more questions as to why the party is being excluded from a planned series of debates ahead of next year’s election…
Don’t worry, Ed. We still believe.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
There can be no doubt that Ed Miliband’s leadership is in trouble. After a squeaker of a by-election in Heywood and Middleton, which in turn followed a near-disastrous turn at the party’s Manchester conference…
By the skin of their teeth: Ed Miliband and Liz McInnes.
Lynne Cameron/PA Wire
“Something big is happening here.” Those were the words of Nigel Farage following the news that Douglas Carswell had become UKIP’s first member of parliament by attracting 21,113 votes in the Clacton by-election…
That’s right friends, a free Mr Whippy for every defector.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
The Conservative party is shortly to face a high-profile by-election this week in the wake of the defection of Clacton MP, Douglas Carswell. Senior figures in the party are understood to be deeply concerned…
Someone needs to catch up on their polling.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
In his speech at the Conservative party conference David Cameron claimed that a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour, an argument likely to be heard with greater frequency as the general election approaches…
So no rabbit then. But plenty of friends. Probably too many, if truth be told; and maybe too many promises, too. The six-part plan unveiled by Ed Miliband in his Labour conference speech is at least one…
Ed Miliband is trying to wrestle back the political initiative in Manchester. The leader of the opposition must avoid becoming mired in deeply complex constitutional questions of devolution at his party’s…
Ed Balls or Margaret Thatcher? It’s sometimes hard to tell.
Peter Byrne/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Ed Balls has kicked off the annual Labour conference in Manchester with an ill-judged announcement that his party would increase child benefits by just 1% a year until 2017 if elected to government next…
Time for Labour to get romantic.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
When Ed Miliband rises to address the Labour conference for the last time before the 2015 General Election, he will have to deliver the speech of his life. Amid persistent doubts about his ability to lead…
The collective sigh of relief will be almost audible in Manchester this week as the Labour party gathers for its annual conference. The minds of the party leadership have been thoroughly distracted in…
Time to move more power to the provinces.
Mark Andrew
Britain faces an economic divide between North and South and the government and opposition are at loggerheads over how to address it. George Osborne wants to build a high-speed rail link and the Labour…
Here ‘til we’re 16? Really, sir?
Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, via Wikimedia Commons
Seventy years on from its passage into law, the Education Act of 1944 is often remembered as a monument to political consensus – the art of the possible, in the words of its chief architect, R A “Rab…
Eunice Goes, Richmond American International University
Ed Miliband’s recent proposal to hold regular Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) with members of the public was met with derision from some commentators. In typical critical fashion, Telegraph blogger Dan…
What might have been? John Smith, Margaret Beckett and Tony Blair.
John Giles/PA Archive
It is 20 years since Tony Blair took over as leader of the Labour Party. There has been much comment about his legacy, a great deal of it uncomplimentary. But it could have been so different… It’s the…
“Brand Miliband” has had a rough few weeks and is looking pretty sad, at a time when the opposition leader should be riding high in the polls against a relatively unpopular prime minister who has just…
Few academics can aspire to transcend university boundaries, reach deep into a mainstream audience and find Westminster’s doors opening, inviting conversation with politicians. Thomas Piketty is now one…