Katy Balls

Katy Balls

Katy Balls is The Spectator's deputy political editor.

Yesterday

21 Oct 2022

Thursday

20 Oct 2022
‘The ultimate death match’: Will it be Boris vs Rishi?

It will take 100 MP nominations to qualify for the next Tory leadership race and the clock is ticking – with Boris Johnson out in front with 51 supporters so far. Rishi Sunak has 44 and Penny Mordaunt 20. It will go to the membership for a swift decision unless the finalists come to a gentleman’s agreement. So how will it unfold? I set out four scenarios of how this might unfold in The Spectator earlier this month. There are two that MPs have most recently got in touch about: Rishi by Christmas or the Boris restoration. A week is a long time in politics – and next week could be one of the most dramatic yet. Let’s start with the first. Sunak, who was runner-up in the last leadership contest, has been notably quiet as the Truss premiership unravelled.

‘The ultimate death match’: Will it be Boris vs Rishi?

Wednesday

19 Oct 2022
The Liz Truss survival plan

At the first stage of the Conservative leadership race, when Liz Truss was trying to win MPs’ support, her message was that she was the one who could ‘unite the right’. Now, her plan to survive in No. 10 relies on dividing the Tory left. Regicide is a messy business. ‘It’s very hard to push her out,’ says a former cabinet minister. ‘We would need to change the rules. It could be seen as an establishment stitch-up. I think she needs to do the right thing and resign.’ Everyone in the Tory party agrees that there needs to be a unity candidate when Truss goes, but there is absolutely no unity on who that should be. ‘Until we know who to replace her with, we shouldn’t move,’ says a former government member. The Tories know the country cannot be subjected to another drawn-out leadership contest, so a new leader would be chosen either by an MPs’ vote – cutting out the broader party membership from the process – or by a coronation.

The Liz Truss survival plan

Tuesday

18 Oct 2022

Monday

17 Oct 2022
Will there be a revolt on the Tory right?

What is the point of Liz Truss's government? Expect more MPs to ask that question today after Jeremy Hunt's statement tearing up the not-so-mini Budget. The new chancellor has just announced in an address that he will be scrapping every tax cut in Truss and her then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's fiscal event bar the reversal of the national insurance hike and the cut to stamp duty. Both would have been particularly tricky to row back from given stamp duty has already happened and the NI hike has already been legislated for – with MPs voting last week. The energy support package has also been watered down. In his message to the public – and the markets – Hunt pressed the need for economic stability. He suggested the income tax cut was off the table indefinitely – until the public finances allowed.

Will there be a revolt on the Tory right?

Sunday

16 Oct 2022
How long can Liz Truss hold on?

How much trouble is Liz Truss in? Just six weeks into her premiership, the Prime Minister's economic plans are in tatters after she axed her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, reversed on her campaign pledge to scrap the scheduled corporation tax hike and brought in Jeremy Hunt as his successor. Now Hunt is calling the shots on the economy and he plans to reverse much of what the Truss government have announced so far, with tax rises and public spending cuts to come. Truss's own supporters are privately asking what the point of her government is now. Unsurprisingly, this has all led to talk among Tory MPs that the end is nigh. One Tory MP, Crispin Blunt, has come out publicly to call for Truss to go. The mood in the party soured last week after Truss's difficult 1922 committee appearance and her painful press conference on Friday where she refused to offer an apology or engage with questions on why Kwarteng had been sacked.

How long can Liz Truss hold on?

Saturday

15 Oct 2022
Jeremy Hunt: there are ‘very difficult decisions’ ahead

Liz Truss made two big moves on Friday in a bid to calm the markets and save her premiership. The first was to announce that she was ditching plans to cancel the scheduled corporation tax rise. The second was that she had sacked her chancellor and long standing ally Kwasi Kwarteng – bringing Jeremy Hunt in as his successor. There have been lots of problems when it comes to the fallout from the not-so-mini Budget but the thing that really focussed minds in No. 10 was a preview of the OBR forecast last Friday which pointed to a financial blackhole as a result of unfunded tax cuts and the energy package. It was viewed as so bad that something needed to change when it came to the government's plans. That change appears to now mean an entirely new economic outlook.

Jeremy Hunt: there are ‘very difficult decisions’ ahead

Friday

14 Oct 2022
Five ways the Liz Truss saga could end

How does this end? That's the question being asked by Tory MPs as Liz Truss’s government finds itself in turmoil once again. The Prime Minister’s decision to axe her chancellor and U-turn on a plan to ditch the corporation tax has only added to nerves in the Conservative party as to how sustainable the current situation is in.It's clear that different wings of the party are incredibly unhappy with the current leadership. Yet Truss is technically safe from challenge for another year. What's more, it's not clear who exactly the party could agree on. Earlier this month, I wrote for the magazine on the scenarios being war-gamed by ministers, MPs and aides. As talk of an attempt to oust Truss rises once again, it seems like a good time to revisit them and how they meet with the current temperature in the Tory party.

Five ways the Liz Truss saga could end

Thursday

13 Oct 2022

Wednesday

12 Oct 2022
‘Election campaigns are like voodoo’: Fiona Hill breaks her silence

Not so long ago, Fiona Hill was the most powerful woman in Whitehall. She ran Downing Street with an iron grip for the first year of Theresa May’s premiership alongside her co-chief of staff Nick Timothy. Ministers bowed to their authority, civil servants feared them, Tory MPs complained of a power grab by a duo of unelected officials. As the former Labour MP Frank Field put it: ‘People know that Fiona is not someone you mess around with.’ But after the Tories fell short of a majority in the 2017 snap election, she and Timothy were forced to resign. Hill flew to America and disappeared from public life. We meet in The Spectator’s offices to record an episode of my podcast, Women with Balls. She is bright-eyed and dressed in a red two-piece suit.

‘Election campaigns are like voodoo’: Fiona Hill breaks her silence

Tuesday

11 Oct 2022
Labour prepares to fire up its election machine

Could a snap election be around the corner? That’s the message Keir Starmer relayed to party staff in a conference call this morning. He told those assembled that the economic turmoil following the Chancellor’s not-so-mini Budget means the government ‘could fall at any time’. As a result, his party needs to be election ready: ‘We have to recognise it is that unstable. We need to be ready. We need to get on an election footing straight away’.This isn’t the first time in recent months that figures in Labour have said they’re on an election footing – it’s a useful line to garner attention and rally the base. But this time Starmer’s words are accompanied with a number of significant changes. The party is being relocated to a new headquarters (rumoured to be south London) and a shake-up of his team is underway.

Labour prepares to fire up its election machine

Monday

10 Oct 2022
Truss U-turns on Treasury appointment

When Kwasi Kwarteng sacked Tom Scholar as permanent secretary at the Treasury, it was taken as the clearest indication yet that he was determined to shake up the so-called Treasury orthodoxy. Unlike previous Tory governments, Liz Truss and her Chancellor would take on the economic consensus. Only one month in and they appear to be having second thoughts.Scholar’s hasty departure was cited as one of several factors that contributed to the markets responding badly to the Chancellor’s not-so-mini-Budget. Now the government have announced Scholar’s successor: James Bowler, currently Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Trade (DIT). Bowler can’t exactly be described as an insurgent. He has plenty of Treasury experience, having previously worked there for more than 20 years.

Truss U-turns on Treasury appointment