Catherine Neilan
Political Editor
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Thursday 27 October 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
A Nightmare on Downing Street: will anyone survive?
The real life fears our government face today from the cost of living crisis and the crash of the economy, to the changes in our society.
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Thursday 27 October 2022
18:15-21:30 BST
Tortoise Lates: Fear
An evening of real and imaginary horrors in the Tortoise Studio. With terrifying ghost stories, the scariest movies and an exploration of the frightening things happening at the top of government
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Wednesday 29 March 2023
Sensemaker: Serious Sunak
What just happened
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Thursday 23 March 2023
Sensemaker: Expensive friend
What just happened
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Thursday 16 March 2023
Sensemaker: Six million pound man
What just happened
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Thursday 26 January 2023
Sensemaker: SLAPPed down
What just happened
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Tuesday 24 January 2023
Sensemaker: Cabinet shaker
What just happened
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Tuesday 17 January 2023
Sensemaker: Tehran’s terror
What just happened
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Monday 16 January 2023
Firm that supports aspiring politicians helped launch three APPGs chaired by new Tory MPs
College Green offers to help would-be MPs on their “journey” to Westminster – including setting up parliamentary groups
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Friday 13 January 2023
Boris Johnson tops MP donations after receiving £1 million donation
Although his predecessor, Theresa May, still tops the leaderboard for total outside earnings declared by MPs
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Thursday 12 January 2023
Sensemaker: Join the dots
What just happened
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Wednesday 11 January 2023
Former MEP offered paying subscribers access to a meeting of vaccine sceptics in parliament
The event was also attended by anti-vaxx campaigner Dr Aseem Malhotra, as well as Conservative MPs Desmond Swayne and Andrew Bridgen
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Wednesday 11 January 2023
High stakes
The gambling industry has placed expensive bets on its political connections
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Tuesday 10 January 2023
Hancock’s crypto hankering
The former health secretary is institutionally into digital currencies
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Monday 9 January 2023
Sensemaker: Big spenders, little footprints
What just happened
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Monday 9 January 2023
Labour’s mystery money
A house in Hertfordshire and a curious six-figure sum
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Monday 9 January 2023
Tory MPs accepted donations worth thousands from mystery donors
Northern MPs were told to accept money from a company they’d never heard of
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Sunday 8 January 2023
Lucky Lammy
Labour has a ban on second jobs, except when it doesn’t
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Sunday 8 January 2023
In praise of Qatar
A well-funded charm offensive is yielding results in Westminster
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Sunday 8 January 2023
May’s millions
How the former PM became the highest earning MP
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Sunday 8 January 2023
Sensemaker: Westminster money trail
What just happened
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Thursday 15 December 2022
Sensemaker: Cashtar
What just happened
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Thursday 8 December 2022
Sensemaker: Mute mandarins
What just happened
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Thursday 1 December 2022
Sensemaker: Wind baggers
What just happened
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Friday 18 November 2022
Sensemaker: Budget blues
What just happened
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Friday 11 November 2022
Sensemaker: Strikes, everywhere
What just happened
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Friday 4 November 2022
Gavin Williamson accused of sending “threatening” messages to former chief whip
A formal complaint has been submitted to the Conservative party about the former chief whip who helped Sunak into Downing Street
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Friday 4 November 2022
Rishi Sunak’s judgment questioned after minister Gavin Williamson accused of sending “threatening” messages
Tortoise has learned that a formal complaint has been submitted to the Conservative party regarding “threatening” behaviour by cabinet minister Gavin Williamson
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Thursday 3 November 2022
Sensemaker: Immigration in Britain
What just happened
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Tuesday 1 November 2022
Project Suella
Rishi Sunak wanted to keep the hard right of his party happy by naming the fiercely anti-immigrant Suella Braverman home secretary. She’ll be lucky to last until Christmas
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Tuesday 1 November 2022
Sensemaker: Project Suella
What just happened
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Tuesday 25 October 2022
Sensemaker: Unite or die
What just happened
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Friday 21 October 2022
Sensemaker: Here we go again
What just happened
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Thursday 20 October 2022
Sensemaker: A shambles and a disgrace
What just happened
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Monday 17 October 2022
Sensemaker: The quiet coup
What just happened
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Friday 14 October 2022
Sensemaker: What Truss does next
What just happened
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Thursday 13 October 2022
How long can Truss last?
The one-year grace period prohibiting challenges to Liz Truss’ leadership is “entirely academic”, says one MP – but Tories need to find a unifying alternative
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Wednesday 5 October 2022
Sensemaker: Fizzling Liz
What just happened
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Tuesday 4 October 2022
Sensemaker: A morgue with booze
What just happened
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Monday 27 March 2023
Boris the brand
Boris Johnson seems incapable of living within his means – but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. So just who is funding the ex PM? In the fourth and final episode, Boris: the brand
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Friday 24 March 2023
Boris Johnson, Met Police report and life expectancy
In this episode Tortoise’s editor-in-chief James Harding is joined by political editor Cat Neilan, editor Dave Taylor and head of investigations Alexi Mostrous. They discuss Boris Johnson’s future, Baroness Casey’s scathing review of the Metropolitan Police and the life expectancy gap between the wealthiest and poorest areas.
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Monday 20 March 2023
Who is funding Boris Johnson?
Out of Downing Street, and unleashed from restrictions on second jobs, Boris Johnson is now earning more than any former UK prime minister in history. But where is that money coming from?
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Monday 20 March 2023
R&R
Boris Johnson seems incapable of living within his means – but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. So just who is funding the ex PM? And how does he get to all his exotic holidays?
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Friday 17 March 2023
Cladding crackdown, the collapse of SVB and Xi Jinping
Former Sky News political editor Adam Boulton is this week’s guest host. He’s joined by Tortoise journalists Mark St Andrew, Patricia Clarke and Cat Neilan who pitch the story they think mattered most this week.
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Monday 13 March 2023
The enablers
Boris Johnson seems incapable of living within his means – but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. So just who is funding the ex PM? This is the story of the enablers
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Monday 6 March 2023
Family money
This is the story of a politician incapable of living within his means but talented beyond measure at finding people to help him live beyond them. It’s the story of how that dependence on others sullied him and them. All of which leads to one simple question: just who is funding Boris Johnson?
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Friday 3 March 2023
Hancock’s WhatsApps, Fox News and bird flu
Three journalists pitch their top story of the week to Tortoise’s editor-in-chief James Harding. In this episode James is joined by Tortoise editors Liz Mosely, Mark St Andrew and Cat Neilan.
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Wednesday 1 March 2023
Is Brexit now done?
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has done a deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland. But has he done enough to get it over the line?
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Friday 13 January 2023
Prince Harry, Brazil and the Westminster Accounts
Tortoise Editor James Harding is joined by Alexi Mostrous, Cat Neilan and Keith Blackmore to discuss the stories they think mattered most this week
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Monday 9 January 2023
Qatar
The Gulf state with all the gas and football stadiums has also been generous with donations to British MPs
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Monday 9 January 2023
The Westminster Accounts
Over £183 million of outside funds has flowed into this parliament alone, with no way of fully understanding who’s getting what, from whom, and why. Until now. This is the story of the money flowing into our politics, hidden in plain sight
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Monday 9 January 2023
Donors
Tory MPs accepted donations worth thousands in donations from a company they’d never heard of
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Monday 9 January 2023
Perks
Meet the MP who’s taken 13 expenses-paid overseas trips with his wife – who’s also his assistant – as a member of 16 all-party parliamentary groups
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Monday 9 January 2023
Lobbying
How £300,000 was funnelled into a parliamentary group by medical device makers anxious to protect their interests in the UK
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Monday 9 January 2023
Pay
How former PM Theresa May became the highest earning MP
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Thursday 29 December 2022
The ghost of Boris Johnson
Rishi Sunak has spent his first Christmas as prime minister. It’s been a tumultuous year which saw not one but two of his predecessors removed from office. But with some in the Conservative Party still viewing him as a pretender, there’s still a very real prospect of him being visited by the ghost of Boris Johnson.
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Friday 16 December 2022
Fusion breakthrough, FTX boss arrested, corruption scandal
In the last episode of 2022 James Harding is joined by Liz Moseley, Dave Taylor and Tortoise political editor Cat Neilan to discuss the stories they think mattered most this week.
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Friday 25 November 2022
Brexit is back
Reports that “senior government figures” are considering a Swiss-style trade deal with the European Union caused an instant backlash. Why are we talking about Brexit again?
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Friday 25 November 2022
World Cup, winter of discontent, Disney hero?
In the first episode James Harding is joined by Tortoise editors Cat Neilan, Dave Taylor and Liz Moseley to discuss the stories they think mattered most this week
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Monday 31 October 2022
Mutiny: The undoing of Liz Truss
The inside story of how the shortest premiership in British history came to an end
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Tuesday 18 October 2022
“There hasn’t been a coup”
A cabinet minister insisted that “there hasn’t been a coup” and that Liz Truss “is not under a desk”. But you wouldn’t have blamed the prime minister if she was after her new chancellor dismantled the mini budget and with it, her political project.
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Tuesday 11 October 2022
Little fires everywhere
Michael Gove ignited the first rebellion against Liz Truss last week, and fanned the flames of others. Now, as MPs return to Parliament, the prime minister must win back a fractious and conflicted party if she is to retain power.