Going, going, gone: how safe is David Cameron?

Last weekend, rumors were once again abound of plots to remove David Cameron as leader. Ben Worthy assesses the Prime Minister’s position in light of the latest threat, and writes that although it appears probable he will survive attempts to topple him in the short-term, the plots, rumours and rebellion will continue

Boris Johnson’s influence over the outcome of the EU referendum is highly overstated

Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London and MP for Uxbridge, recently announced that he would campaign for a vote to Leave the European Union in the forthcoming referendum on UK membership of that body. Here, Ben Worthy argues that Boris’s views aren’t as influential as his media admirers may suggest

How Parliament's campaign of attrition forced the government to open up about Brexit

The real battle over Brexit has not been about whether Parliament will get a final vote, writes Ben Worthy (Birkbeck University of London). The true fight is about information - about what kind of Brexit the government wants, and what its impact is likely to be. In this, Parliament has been rather successful. Pressure from select committees and Labour's deployment of an arcane parliamentary ..

Why would anyone want to be Prime Minister?

The challenges are awesome, if not terrifying, for whoever wins the Conservative leadership. Following the vote in favour of Brexit, Cameron’s successor will take control of a divided party, a divided country and significant forces pulling the UK apart. In this light, Ben Worthy considers what motivates those who aspire to be Prime Minister

David Cameron and the tax havens: transparency is only a partial answer to a much bigger question

Since 2011 David Cameron has been pushing for a public ‘Beneficial Ownership’ list to increase transparency around assets and business interests. In this post, Ben Worthy considers how effective such a register will be at opening up tax havens or tackling avoidance of the kind seen in the Panama papers leak. He writes that – as things stand – transparency seems to be only a partial answer to a much bigger question

History shows that the new president has a fairly good chance of winning re-election in 2020.

Donald Trump is the new President of the United States. But should the 45th president expect to gain another four years in the White House? Looking at presidential elections over the past six decades, Ben Worthy argues that incumbency is a distinct advantage to presidential candidates, meaning that presidents are more likely to stay in the White House than to go

If he handles his leadership well, Jeremy Corbyn could become the successful rebel head of an anti-establishment party

Jeremy Corbyn was recently announced as the Leader of the Labour Party, surprising everybody in beating established candidates such as Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, despite having never held a frontbench role. His critics suppose that his status as an outsider, somewhat outside the mainstream of his parliamentary party, may mean that he has a short life span as Leader, but as Benjamin Worthy argues, these attributes served the likes of Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher

Patriotism, pessimism and politicians: understanding the vote to leave

Ben Worthy reflects on the numerous overlapping reasons for the Brexit vote, the parallels with previous elections, and why a second vote risks exacerbating the anti-elite sentiments that underpinned it

The take-over: Prime Ministers without a popular mandate, 1916-2016

There are more or less two routes to becoming Prime Minister. You can either win a General Election or win a party leadership election to become head of the largest party when a Prime Minister leaves. Having just achieved the second route, Theresa May has become our ‘takeover’ leader. Here, Ben Worthy discusses the history of this route to power, its successes and – more often than not – its failures

The Government’s Freedom of Information commission tilts the political discussion towards damage and cost

On Friday of last week, the Government announced a new commission on Freedom of Information. Here, Ben Worthy offers his response to the announcement, arguing that the objections to the scope and usage of FOI that have been raised are nothing new, and furthermore aren’t unique to the UK. Further, he argues that the commission’s remit tilts discussion naturally towards the two issues of damage and costs, rather than a more balanced cost/benefit analysis