Alex Stevenson

    Political journalist

  • What the Conservative victory means for Britain

    Now we know the make-up of the next parliament, and the astonishing outcome of an election that has given David Cameron the chance to lead a Conservative-only Cabinet, we can start to build up a picture of what the next five years has in store for British politics. The Tory manifesto is now the future of the UK. Question-marks over Britain’s place in Europe and the world, and our internal unity as a country, will continue to hover over a Conservative government. He must hope to achieve a renegotiation with Brussels that convinces a majority of voters – not to mention a majority of his own MPs - that the UK is better off remaining inside the EU.

  • General election 2015: The ten biggest scalps of election night

    The Scottish Labour leader is arguably the highest –profile casualty of the night. He may not have been in government, but his task was to first stem the flow of votes from Labour to the SNP and then start clawing back the popularity lost in last year’s independence campaign. It’s ironic , after so many column inches devoted to see his leadership machinations, that the man most visibly uncomfortable with being in government with the Conservatives won’t even be around to put himself forward as a successor to Nick Clegg. He didn’t contribute much to the election campaign but did raise eyebrows by suggesting the Lib Dems should have more seats in Cabinet after the election.

  • Just waking up? Here’s what Britain faces after a night of shocking election results

    Next to no-one thought a Conservative majority was possible. “It’s a disaster for the pollsters,” Professor Jon Yonge of the University of Liverpool told us. It wasn’t even that: many felt the combination of Labour and SNP MPs would provide an irresistible anti-Tory majority which would force David Cameron to resign. Instead the Conservative leader’s prospects of continuing to govern became irresistible as the Tory seats forecast rose.

  • QUIZ! General Election 2015 - Which Political PR Disaster Are You?

    Work out which media calamity you'd be with our quick and easy quiz

  • QUIZ! Which Westminster Extramarital Affair Are You?

    Which sort of romantic liaison would you end up in if you were in Westminster?

  • Two clues to the Tories' post-election plans

    Questioning the legitimacy of a Labour-SNP government and sketching out the draft of a Tory Queen’s Speech: it feels a lot like we’re picking up the first clues about what will happen in the critical days after May 7th. What happens then?

  • Insulting voters can only lead to defeat – for both the Tories and Labour

    Shutting out the voters might seem like a sensible strategy, but it can only lead to one result: a slap in the face come polling day. Terrified by the fear of another Gillian Duffy moment, the parties have adopted a cautious approach to these precious few weeks that tries to avoid calamity at the expense of giving themselves a chance of actually changing the game. Elections should not be shutting-down operations, but that is the approach taken by the Conservatives and Labour. Lynton Crosby might be placing his faith in a late incumbency swing, but there are no signs of it materialising yet.

  • QUIZ! Which UK Prime Minister Are You?

    Take our test to see which UK political leader you'd be most like if you ever find yourself in No. 10

  • Miliband is now most likely to be next prime minister

    More often than not you’re likely to find the Conservatives fall short, even with Lib Dem and DUP support. Labour is often relying on either the SNP and/or the Lib Dems to get into power. His findings are supported by the academics at electionforecast.co.uk, which give the Conservatives a mean 284 seats, compared to 276 for Labour, 25 for the Liberal Democrats and 41 for the SNP.

  • The 2015 campaign has reached its watershed moment

    Midway through the general election campaign, both Labour and the Conservatives are changing their tactics – and it’s a triumph for voters. “I’m not going to talk about anything other than winning an overall majority,” David Cameron rather steadfastly insisted on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show this morning. His actions - and those of Labour this week - suggest the alternative is exactly what both the Conservatives and Labour are focusing on. Back in 2010 the British electorate delivered an equivocal verdict on David Cameron and Gordon Brown’s parties.

  • Vote-swapping: A new way to kick the Tories out of power

    The basic idea behind VoteSwap relies on the old principle of tactical voting: that voters could be persuaded to choose a party other than the one they support in order to stop their political enemy from winning. In Scotland, such is the enmity provoked by the SNP surge that unionists are fostering a frenzy of tactical voting ahead of May 7th. Stopping David Cameron from spending the coming years in No 10 via tactical voting is a tough ask, though. As a general rule, the best way of thwarting the Tories is to back Labour.

  • The most embarrassing election leaflets of 2015

    As campaigning steps up another gear, voters are starting to come across election leaflets – and using social media to mock them.Even the slightest slip-up attracts derision. There’s a bit of a theme in this election of candidates studiously failing to publicise who their leader is. Especially if that leader is Nick Clegg. There have been the usual gripes about factual inaccuracies and scorn for candidates’ tactical voting claims, but nothing has quite topped the SNP’s suggestion that a Lib Dem MP is retiring – when he very much isn’t.

  • Here's what the Queen has to say about Cameron's hung parliament plans

    Scene: A drawing room at Buckingham Palace. The Queen seated, quietly playing Angry Birds while Corgis gambol around her.

  • #BattleforNumber10: The verdict

    According to our sophisticated scoring system, which involves adding two numbers together, the clear winner is… Ed Miliband, actually. Where David Cameron was slowly strangled by Jeremy Paxman’s questioning, Miliband turned the audience against the interviewer. Where the Conservative leader bored the studio audience into submission, the Labour leader at least made things interesting. Merely surviving the onslaught of incredulity from Jeremy Paxman was an achievement for the prime minister, who demonstrated that he can get through a high-pressure interview without getting flustered.

  • How a flood of SNP MPs could lead to independence

    Nicola Sturgeon’s focus on pacts and deals masks a broader agenda: flooding parliament with Scottish nationalists in a bid to accelerate the drift towards independence. With the Scottish independence issue sorted for a generation after last year’s No victory, we can all forget about nationalism and concentrate on what is at stake on May 7th - who governs the country for the next five years. A new poll out today points to a truth not many in Westminster are prepared to admit right now: this year’s election is only going to pave the way for another referendum in the future. The University of Edinburgh survey found 69% of people believe Scotland will eventually leave the UK.

  • Gordon Brown's North Sea oil promise offers Scottish Labour a flicker of hope

    Gordon Brown’s call for a nationalisation of North Sea oil has left the industry cold - but then energy firms aren’t the former prime minister’s target audience, are they? It was a surreal situation - the harbourmaster of a tiny port in north-east Scotland talking about the benefits North Sea oil could bring to his nation, if only they had control of it. Out in the estuary a distant oil rig could be seen on the horizon. Despite the fact that North Sea oil is set to fall to just 1.3 million barrels a day in 2018 from a peak of 4.3 million barrels in 1999, this harbourmaster was completely confident a Scottish government could turn it around.

  • Another win for Farage

    A little trouble over Geneva bank accounts at HSBC made Nigel Farage the clear winner in this week’s prime minister’s questions. Labour supporters might complain at this, on the basis that even when Ed Miliband sweeps the floor he doesn’t get the credit. If this is what he’s like when he does well at PMQs, he may need physically restraining if he wins the general election. The problem with Miliband’s line of attack was that, while the Conservatives come out worse, Labour is not squeaky clean.

  • If this is how our MPs behave, this is no time for celebrating democracy

    The establishment wants to celebrate British democracy this week - but PMQs served to remind us exactly what’s wrong with the current system. It was a question from Mark Reckless, the Ukip defector, which stuck out from all the others. “Mr Farage said ‘we’re going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare’,” David Cameron said. I say never!” Here was the PM, directly attacking Nigel Farage on the floor of the Commons.

  • There's a gaping hole in Ed Miliband's voter registration speech

    It will have a massive impact on the redrawing of constituency boundaries, which are reshuffled according to the data held on the electoral register.

  • The Tories are buying the 2015 general election - and Labour can't compete

    Labour’s masterplan to win the 2015 general election through chit-chat rather than cash is riddled with holes – and allows the Conservatives buy their way back into power.