Lara Spirit is a Red Box reporter at the Times. Before this, she was a reporter at Tortoise covering Westminster, joining after after graduating from Cambridge University. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Post, and the Guardian.
Lara Spirit
Reporter
“For young reporters, Tortoise offers incredible scope to dig deep and take time to cover the stories that matter – while learning from the best in the process.”
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Wednesday 11 May 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
Making sense of Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, with Lara Spirit
Lara Spirit chews over what local election results really mean for the Prime Minister.
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Thursday 5 May 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
William or Harry?
Who’s winning, and does it matter?
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Tuesday 29 March 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
Foreign aid: Is 0.7 per cent virtue signalling or value for money?
Where does the UK‘s foreign aid budget actually go?
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Tuesday 12 April 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
Are Labour’s foundations its biggest obstacles?
What and who is the Labour party for in 2022?
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Wednesday 27 April 2022
18:30-19:30 BST
Open News Meeting
On Wednesday evenings, Tortoise journalists have a weekly news meeting to chew over the live news agenda.
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Monday 14 February 2022
18:30-19:30 GMT
Who is Rishi Sunak?
He’s been the no-nonsense Chancellor who’s not afraid to make tough decisions, but can he restore the reputation of the Tories and the office of No.10?
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Tuesday 25 January 2022
18:30-19:30 GMT
Keir & Angela: can the odd couple work together?
Could the Labour leadership emulate the Tortoise model of civilised disagreement, or can the two be reconciled… and if not – why?
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Monday 9 May 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Sinn Féin rising
What just happened
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Friday 29 April 2022
Porking up
The UK’s new National Cyber Force is billed as a vital new component of national security infrastructure. It may also be a £5 billion piece of pork. Lara Spirit investigates why defence minister Ben Wallace got involved in bringing the NCF to sleepy Samlesbury
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Friday 29 April 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Porking up
What just happened
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Friday 22 April 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Flyaway Johnson
What just happened
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Wednesday 9 March 2022
Who is Downing Street’s most influential foreign policy adviser?
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Thursday 3 February 2022
10 minute read
Sensemaker: The New Levellers
What just happened
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Monday 17 January 2022
Chequers
The commuter
In March 2020 Boris Johnson pre-recorded a broadcast in which he told the country to stay at home. But Tortoise now believes that he then ignored his own advice by moving back and forth between London and Chequers
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Friday 14 January 2022
10 minute read
Chequers
Sensemaker: Johnson’s second home
What just happened
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Friday 3 December 2021
Exclusive: Despite boosters, surplus vaccines remain
New data reveals the boosters versus global vaccine equality debate is largely bogus
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Friday 3 December 2021
10 minute read
Sensemaker Special: Boosters vs vaccinating the world
What just happened
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Tuesday 30 November 2021
The hunger game
Elene Khoshtaria may have saved the life of her former president, but will her sacrifice change anything in Georgia? Lara Spirit reports from Tbilisi
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Thursday 18 November 2021
Georgia: A democracy on the edge
Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has been on hunger strike now for 48 days, in protest against what he alleges is his politically-motivated arrest. It’s a fight that serves as a proxy for the debate over Georgia’s future and its fragile democracy
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Wednesday 3 November 2021
The Arms Race
Europe’s pandemic disaster
In this second despatch from Romania, Lara Spirit reports on the political and structural collapse that has thwarted vaccine rollout – and the lessons for the rest of the world
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Thursday 21 October 2021
The Arms Race
“Now it’s a war”
The plight of Romania – suffering horrendously from Covid – shows that getting vaccine doses to the countries that need them is only start of the challenge
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Wednesday 6 October 2021
Raab’s criminal justice policy is shabby populism
The justice secretary is putting personal ambition before public service. What a shame that Labour seems disinclined to mount a serious challenge to his discredited strategy
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Friday 24 September 2021
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Johnson MIA
What just happened
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Thursday 23 September 2021
The Arms Race
Biden failed
And so, too, did other Western leaders. Yesterday’s global Covid summit had to deliver billions of vaccines – but fell well short
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Wednesday 8 September 2021
The Arms Race
We’re asking the wrong questions about vaccine roll-outs
British politicians are arguing over vaccines for children and boosters for adults. These are important considerations – but not as important as the sheer paucity of jabs around the world
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Friday 3 September 2021
The Arms Race
Introducing: #TheArmsRace Vaccine Tracker
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Friday 3 September 2021
The Arms Race: Beta Vaccine Tracker
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Thursday 29 July 2021
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Tunisian crisis
What just happened
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Wednesday 28 July 2021
The Arms Race
What we lack in the fight against Covid: information
Data on vaccine donations and deliveries is delayed, incomplete or absent. Opacity on this, the single most important global supply crisis we currently face, is a barrier to ending the pandemic
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Monday 26 July 2021
10 minute read
Sensemaker: Vaccine stockpiling
What just happened
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Wednesday 30 June 2021
The forgotten families of the social care crisis
The reforms that Sajid Javid must unveil before the end of the year do not only affect the elderly. Too often, this debate neglects those with learning disabilities and autism – and their loved ones, who bear the burden of such indifference
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Thursday 25 February 2021
Lara Spirit: Happy anniversary, Mr Rawls
The great political philosopher’s A Theory of Justice is 50 years old – and out of fashion. We should still read it
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Thursday 16 June 2022
Episode 6: No future?
Age is an increasingly important dividing line in politics. But is this “generational warfare”?
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Thursday 9 June 2022
Episode 5: Any ideas?
Who’s got all the good ideas in politics these days? Lara Spirit and Matt d’Ancona are joined by Jesse Norman MP, author of biographies of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith
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Monday 6 June 2022
The Rules: democracy in Britain
Every day more cracks emerge in the political system that guarantees the freedoms Britons hold dear. How do we stop it shattering?
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Thursday 2 June 2022
Episode 4: The party that got away
Why did Sue Gray abandon her investigation into the Downing Street “Abba party” on 13 November 2020?
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Thursday 26 May 2022
Episode 3: Wes we can?
Could Wes Streeting be the next leader of the Labour party? Matthew d’Ancona and Lara Spirit discuss
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Thursday 19 May 2022
Episode 2: The two knights
Could Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey make a pact to give their parties a free run in certain seats? Matthew d’Ancona and Lara Spirit discuss
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Thursday 12 May 2022
Episode 1: The Canzini effect
David Canzini has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in Downing Street in recent months. Who is he and why does he matter? Matthew d’Ancona and Lara Spirit investigate
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Thursday 14 April 2022
Partygate: Johnson and Sunak fined
Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak have been fined for breaking lockdown rules in Downing Street. A couple of months ago it could have led to the Prime Minister’s resignation, but things are different now. What’s changed?
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Friday 1 April 2022
Partygate spin
20 fines will be handed out to people in government who breached lockdown rules by going to parties in Number 10 and elsewhere across Whitehall, it emerged this week. Throughout this saga the government has ducked and dived, but, with the first tranche of fines confirmed, can it continue to deny laws were broken?
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Monday 14 March 2022
Shadow whipping: The men who saved Boris
Political wisdom says Ukraine has saved Boris Johnson’s skin – a global crisis so grave that it looks self-indulgent to question his leadership. But the really successful operation to rescue the prime minister started long before Russia’s war, and much closer to home
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Thursday 3 February 2022
Johnson’s man in the north
The government has hinged its success on its ability to “level up” the country. A mayor and former rugby player provides the blueprint for how the Tories can do it.
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Monday 31 January 2022
The Ministry of Untruths
Boris Johnson’s history of lies – and the story of one crucial fortnight in March 2020
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Tuesday 18 January 2022
Boris Johnson breaks another Covid rule
It isn’t just parties at Downing St where the Prime Minister broke his own rules. He did it over his second home as well.