51 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Mrs Badenoch was perkier than usual. Does she finally glimpse hope?

Mrs Badenoch can be a dull performer. This time she was perkier. Maybe it was because she could say wonkish things and know that the audience would follow.

Politics

3 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: One Labour MP sat with pen poised to write down all the Chancellor's thrilling announcements. It was soon lowered

Save perhaps in those first days after the general election, Rachel Reeves's Chancellorship has yet to have its time of pomp. QUENTIN LETTS asks: Will it ever?

Politics

5 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Criticising Red China is a moreish activity. You try some and before long hanker for another plateful

China's vice-premier He Lifeng, a big yam, is in London and spent his morning with Rachel Reeves.

Politics

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: Pop! Mount Kemi blew her top like Etna ... vulcanologists in Geneva may have picked up a blip on their seismographs

Mount Etna erupted this week. Kemi Badenoch did something similar at PMQs. Blew her top. Pop!

Politics

1 week ago When Yvette Cooper speaks it all feels so formulaic, it conveys nothing: QUENTIN LETTS

Yesterday Yvette Cooper arrived at the home affairs select committee for what was expected to be a showdown.

Politics

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: My friends in France say their country's ban on smoking in public will be ignored with a Gallic shrug. Will we be as defiant when it happens here?

Can this really be la belle France, which gave us such classic images as the young Brigitte Bardot smoking a cigar and Audrey Hepburn holding a cigarette holder as long as a magician's wand?

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Castration! The Secretary of State was desperate to depict herself as a toughie, so she aimed below the belt

QUENTIN LETTS: Shabana Mahmood was eager to discuss castration. The Justice Secretary had just announced an unprecedented dilution of criminal sentences.

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: What a day for the Chancellor to be away... she's in a scrap with Rayner, then PM does the dirty!

Where was the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves ? Her customary position next to Sir Keir was occupied by Yvette Cooper, radiating all her customary gaiety.

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Sir Keir was priggishly cocky. He's stuck us back on the gluey flypaper of the EU...

In this Commons there was no time for such impertinence, says QUENTIN LETTS. Only one attitude was permitted: fealty to the Prime Minister.

Politics

3 w. ago Ursula found it hard to disguise her disbelief and glee at Deer Keer's cave

Standing between two Brussels grand-fromages, Sir Keir Starmer could have been an escapee returned to the gaolers.

Politics

4 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Volcanic Sir Lindsay's eruptions left hapless minister buried in ash

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the Commons, erupted three times. Volcanologists will note that the same can be said of Iceland's Mt Thrihnukagigur, but that has been dormant for 4,000 years.

Politics