Coffee House Shots

It continues – thankfully – to be an interesting summer: there’s devolution news, Reform taking lumps out of each other and Sue Gray has broken her silence.But first, Andy Burnham is shifting the machinery of government north, promising to put growth at the heart of his new Manchester operation. Will moving power out of Whitehall actually make a difference?Elsewhere, tensions inside Reform spill into the open as Zia Yusuf takes aim at Shippers over his latest Spectator column.Oscar Edmondson, Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss.

There was never an expectation that Zack Polanski's alliance between the progressive left, the ecological environmentalists, and the conservative muslim factions of the Green Party would last forever, but today it seems that the war of dissolution may have finally begun. Noa Hoffman is joined by Andrew Gilligan to discuss what has been going down inside the Greens under Polanski, and how a boiling division in Bolton may well spill over into the rest of England and Wales.Produced by Henry Lloyd

After saying that Zia Yusuf needed to 'become a team player' in an interview on Coffee House yesterday, Reform UK responded, and decided that they would rather Tim Montgomerie were not in their squad at all. After the story broke this morning that Montgomerie had his membership of the party suspended, Noa Hoffman is joined by Tim Shipman and James Heale to react to the latest developments on the right of British politics.Produced by Henry Lloyd

Reform UK's Zia Yusuf spent last week putting a few noses out of joint, not least by calling the former Conservative defence secretary, Sir Ben Wallace, a traitor, a tweet Nigel Farage took the unusual step of criticising in public and which Yusuf declined to take down. Tim Shipman and James Heale are joined by Tim Montgomerie, founder of Conservative Home and now a Reform UK member, to ask whether Farage has fallen out of love with his home affairs spokesman.In another exclusive for The Spectator, Montgomerie also announces the upcoming launch of 900 Days, the publication he is launching as a new independent online home for Reform UK.Produced by Henry Lloyd and Oscar Edmondson

Almost one year on from his election as leader of the Green Party, has Zack Polanski broadened its appeal? Communications strategist and Green Party insider Russell Warfield joins Noa Hoffman to discuss his new book The Green Socialist: Zack Polanski & the Battle for Britain’s Future. In it, Warfield makes the argument that Polanski marks more of a continuum for the modern British Green Party – a natural next step for a party seeking to broaden its appeal, rather than the more radical change candidate he has been portrayed as across parts of the media.Polanski undoubtably achieved new heights for the party – Gorton & Denton was their first ever by-election win – but recent polls show them losing momentum, and the election of Andy Burnham as Labour leader is seen to have stunted their progress. What should Polanski do next?Produced by Henry Lloyd and Patrick Gibbons.

Shock horror: Nigel Farage has won the by-election in Calcton. Although you may be shocked by the scale of the victory. The Reform leader received 22,239 votes – 1,000 more than his total at the 2024 general election. His main rival, Count Binface – the ‘uniparty candidate’ as Farage says – secured a respectable 9,455 votes, a 26.7 per cent share.Turnout stood at 44.37 per cent, the constituency’s lowest since 2010, but still pretty good for a by-election and such an unusual one at that. But the big questions remains: did Farage get what he wanted out of this by-election? Or is this the farcical end to an undignified episode in British politics? Oscar Edmondson, Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman discuss. Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

Politicians are increasingly turning on the journalists who scrutinise them. After investigations into Nigel Farage’s finances, Reform figures have accused reporters of waging a political ‘war’ – while Arron Banks has hired private investigators to look into Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund. Is hostility towards the media becoming a feature of modern politics? And is the relationship between politicians and the press becoming more poisonous?Gabriel joins Oscar Edmondson and Tim Shipman, who writes for the magazine this week about the fraying contract between society and its fourth estate.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Andy Burnham's summer bonanza continues as he announces plans to empower local councils and hopefully improve Britain's High Streets. The government wants to make it easier for councils to refuse certain types of businesses – but is the plethora of vape shops, betting shops and barbers a cause of Britain's High Street decline, or just a symptom? If there are no businesses to replace those, will the public prefer empty shops to those they see as less desirable? Noa Hoffman and Michael Simmons join Tim Shipman to discuss. Plus: the Prime Minister attempts to grip the migration crisis, as small boats numbers rise across the summer – but can he get his facts straight?Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.