Theresa May’s speech: a ‘horrible experience’ in the name of duty
“What a psycho drama, really sphincter-tightening,” was how one senior Tory put it to me at the end of Theresa May’s speech.
Gary Gibbon , Political Editor
Channel 4 News Political Editor gives his take on the latest news and gossip from the corridors of power in Westminster and beyond.
Gary Gibbon has been Channel 4 News Political Editor since 2005. He gives his take on the latest news and gossip from the corridors of power in Westminster and beyond.
Gary has worked on four general elections for Channel 4 News. His interview with Peter Mandelson in 2001 triggered the Northern Ireland Secretary's second resignation from the Cabinet.
In 2006, he won the Royal Television Society Home News Award with Jon Snow for the scoop on the Attorney General's Legal Advice on Iraq. Gary also revealed details of Blair's pre-War meeting with George Bush n 2008 and won the Political Studies Association Broadcast Journalist of the Year award.
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May’s dream becomes a nightmare
It was billed as “renewing the British dream”, but Theresa May had a nightmarish time delivering her speech to the Conservative conference in Manchester. Her aim was to re-energise her party after the disastrous election campaign. Her message was that the Conservative government would make the country fairer and more prosperous for a new generation.…
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Boris Johnson’s Brexit speech stirs up Conservative conference
A combination of Brexit and Boris Johnson have given a jolt of energy to the Conservative conference in Manchester. Activists queued to fill the hall to listen to a series of speeches from Leave-supporting cabinet ministers. But the star turn was the Foreign Secretary, who insisted he was fully behind the Prime Minister’s vision for Brexit.…
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Boris Johnson cheers Tory troops
This afternoon, for the first time, the conference hall has been full. There was even a queue to get in. No coincidence that the afternoon was dominated by the Cabinet’s Brexiteers and the big attraction was Boris Johnson. But his warm-up act was the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon who it is fair to say, has…
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Boris Johnson’s leadership ambitions overshadow Tory conference
The Conservative conference has, yet again, been overshadowed by Boris Johnson and his potential leadership ambitions. “Nobody is unsackable,” warned the Chancellor this morning, as the party tried to drag attention back to policies, and their efforts to win over young voters.
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Boris causes problems – but is he still the star of conference?
Philip Hammond has just told Radio 4 that Boris Johnson’s absolute two- year limit on a transition, nailed to the church door in his “Sun” article, was “a rhetorical flourish”. I think that is Treasury-speak for “a giant porkie”. He’d seen the phrase “about two years” in the PM’s speech and did not attack it…
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Round-up of day one at the Conservative Party conference
Our political editor Gary Gibbon tells us the mood at conference on day one.
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Boris Johnson: Blond Ambition – an introduction by Gary Gibbon
A film about Boris Johnson’s last year or so in office, Blond Ambition, is on Channel 4 on Sunday night at 10pm. It’s the product of some brilliant and dogged work by Lottie Gammon, chasing down Boris Johnson when he didn’t particularly want our cameras on his case. Do watch it if you get the…
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Jeremy Corbyn gives speech to party conference
Well, in his closing speech to the Labour conference in Brighton, Jeremy Corbyn declared the wreckage of the Grenfell tower was a “tragic monument” to what he called the “degraded regime” of neo-liberal capitalism. Mr Corbyn said Labour under his leadership was now a Government-in-waiting – pledging to transform the British economy with a new…
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Corbyn hero worshipped by delegates as he sets out policies of the newly radical Labour party
At times Mr Corbyn couldn’t get more than a couple of sentences out without a burst of applause.
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McDonnell preparing for run on pound if Labour elected
It’s one way of preparing for government. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said that he is making plans in case there is a run on the pound if Labour wins the next election. Mr McDonnell told a fringe meeting at Labour’s conference in Brighton that his team is war-gaming and “scenario planning” for the challenges that could…
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Labour says PFI will be ‘brought back in-house’
In his speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton, the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell announced a radical change in the way that a Labour government would pay for building new schools, hospitals and prisons. Huge public building projects would no longer be funded by private finance, and even existing PFI contracts would be “brought…
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Brexit: Corbyn’s line holds for now
Jeremy Corbyn didn’t sit in on most of the Brexit debate. Just in case.
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Divisions over Brexit reopen among Labour figures as party conference begins
Divisions over Brexit have reopened among senior Labour figures, with Jeremy Corbyn facing calls from 30 high profile party members to commit the party to keeping the UK in the single market and customs union whatever the cost.
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Politics turned upside down at Labour’s conference amid frustrations at ‘gagged’ MPs
Politics is turned upside down here at the Labour Party conference. The old elite of the Labour Party are barely to be seen. Retired party officials complain of not recognising anyone they know and feeling like they’ve turned up at the wrong gathering.