Tag Archives: Conservatives

Liz Truss can be beaten. I should know: I’ve defeated her twice

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Alex Grant

As I write, the field of candidates is being whittled down. It is Rishi Sunak’s contest to lose, and the best-placed “Stop Rishi” candidates, according to Westminster consensus, are Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss. Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch have caught … Continue reading →

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If Labour is ever going to win again, its warring factions need to get out of their trenches and venture into No Man’s Land

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Alex Grant

After the dam breaks, a flood of analysis and recrimination. More than ten days on from Labour’s catastrophic defeat in the general election, the pain is still raw, and many in the party don’t seem to have realised the enormity … Continue reading →

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Labour is falling into Johnson’s trap. If only it had backed May’s Brexit deal in January

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Alex Grant

I am writing this as Members of Parliament are gathered in Westminster, on the first Saturday since the Falklands conflict of 1982, for yet another “make or break” day of reckoning on Brexit. MPs have just voted narrowly to pass … Continue reading →

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Northamptonshire may no longer be bankrupt. But splitting the county in two does nothing to solve its identity crisis

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Alex Grant

Brexit, and the ongoing Conservative leadership contest, dominate. Other stories rarely get a hearing. The fact that despite her imminent resignation as Prime Minister, Theresa May remains ahead of Jeremy Corbyn in the personal approval ratings. The ongoing political crisis … Continue reading →

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The Rory Stewart I knew: why it was inevitable he’d be knocked out of the Tory leadership contest

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Alex Grant

I’ve been following the Conservative leadership race with uncommon interest: I knew Rory Stewart quite well about 25 years ago. We were students a year apart at Balliol College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, and though we moved in different … Continue reading →

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To win next time, Labour must overcome its Midland problem

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Alex Grant

Theresa May is utterly humiliated, forced to rely on the Democratic Unionists for a majority. Jeremy Corbyn has exceeded all expectations. Far from losing ground, Labour made a net gain of 30 seats – not just in the north and … Continue reading →

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The big surprise of this election campaign? Not how badly Theresa May has fared, but how well

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Alex Grant

A screeching U-turn on long-term care bills. Uninspiring, robotic TV appearances – and several non-appearances at leadership debates and Today programme interviews. An inability to think on her feet, answer unscripted questions from the public, show herself as a team … Continue reading →

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Five reasons why cutting the number of MPs from 650 to 600 is a bad idea – and one silver lining

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Alex Grant

Constituency boundary changes don’t just matter to map anoraks or political obsessives (I’m a bit of both). And the proposals won’t just mean a cull of MPs: they will reshape our politics by disenfranchising millions of voters. With no suggestion … Continue reading →

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Brexit is not a working class revolt, or a resurgence of racists. It was an Oldie rebellion, pure and simple

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Alex Grant

One Saturday morning a few weeks before the referendum there were two Vote Leave stalls on the streets of Thrapston, the Northamptonshire market town a few miles from my home. I was in a hurry, buying eggs and vegetables at … Continue reading →

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The demise of Boris Johnson – the Quintin Hogg of our times – shows that the age of Balliol superiority is now over

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Alex Grant

The spectacular collapse of Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministerial hopes earlier today have a striking historical parallel. Boris is not – and never has been – the Donald Trump or Winston Churchill of contemporary British politics, or even the Falstaff or … Continue reading →

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