Simon Hart

It’s less than two weeks until the launch of my new book - “Ungovernable: Political Diaries of a Chief Whip”. An eyewitness account of the turmoil of British politics between December 2019 and July 2024, as recorded in my handwritten diaries at the time.   If you want to know what really happened, what went wrong (and sometimes right…), and get a taste of what life was like in the thick of it all, order your copy now! Pre-order here - panmacmillan.com/authors/simon-…

@JAHeale @cleowatson88 It’s why my book was very nearly called “about my Knighthood…”

Nice line from @cleowatson88 on what it’s like working for a dying government: “I spent most of my time fielding calls… and shredding letters - some of them laminated - from Britain’s most self-important and least self aware men asking for peerages.”

If the defectors do for Farage's team what they tried to do to ours, their Chief Whip Lee Anderson will be in for a busy few months ahead. My latest substack - @simonhartwales/note/c-201643039?utm_source=notes-share-action" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@simonhartwale…

Before Christmas I wrote that nothing unites a party quite like a defection. Today, those words feel newly relevant. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Labour has a problem. Deep within its DNA still lurks a feeling of antipathy to a group of people, so at odds with its traditional vote, that the temptation to punish them is just too much. So, what exactly do they have against rural life? My thoughts for @TheCriticMag .

From @RoryStewartUK, @jacindaardern and @yanisvaroufakis to @AyoCaesar, Laura Bates (@EverydaySexism) and @SenSanders, here are the very best Politics books of 2025: waterstones.com/blog/the-best-…

@EliotWilson2 👉‘Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip’, by @Simonhartmp 👉‘Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany’, by Harald Jähner 👉‘Rabbits’, by @hugorifkind

There is more to life than politics… …so said Conservative peer @Simonhartmp this week in his wonderful new Substack, where he describes the charismatic species that call our countryside home 🔗👇

Three inches of November rain, fields turned to silver, snipe and golden plover back on the marsh, meadow voles clinging to the rushes. There’s more to life than politics. My latest substack - open.substack.com/pub/simonhartw…

This week on @PolInsideOut, brought to you by Woburn Partners, @GloriaDePiero and @JonAshworth speak to former chief whip Simon Hart and our question of the week is - what is the role of a Chief Whip? Listen from tomorrow morning on all podcast platforms linktr.ee/politicsinside…

According to @JeremyVineOn5 my book is ‘hard to put down’. I’ll take that.

A political bomb is ticking in Caerphilly. By-elections can create momentum that becomes self-fulfilling. If Labour loses this former mining town, the fuse is lit for a brutal 8-month countdown to the 2026 elections. My piece for the Telegraph. telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/1…

There’s a secretive department in Whitehall that has the ability to stop careers before they have started, or to thwart the ambitions of Prime Ministers hell bent on making eye-catching appointments. Read more on my substack open.substack.com/pub/simonhartw…

In my book, I’d thought I’d seen it all. But Labour seem to be pushing that theory to its limits. The paperback version of Ungovernable is now on sale, essential reading for Johnny Reynolds the new Chief Whip, and even the PM himself.

Nobody asked for my political musings, so naturally I’ve started a Substack. Kicked off with today’s Guardian piece on the reshuffle. Link to the wider Substack in my bio. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Joining #BBCLauraK Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary James Cartlidge, Shadow defence secretary Lord Hague, Chancellor of Oxford University Stephen Fry, writer and broadcaster Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor of The Economist Simon Hart, former Chief Whip BBC One, 9am bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

My colleagues know me too well! Latest episode of Coffee House Shots and it’s a cracker as Simon Hart spills the beans on the whips’ office 👇 spectator.co.uk/podcast/how-th…

Huge thanks to my former colleague & political commentator @rorystewart for endorsing my book - ‘Ungovernable’. If you want a glimpse of life during a pandemic under PM Boris Johnson, or the extraordinary and unpredictable (and largely unreported) role of the Chief Whip, then this book is definitely for you. Pre order your copy here - panmacmillan.com/authors/simon-…

This will be fascinating

It’s less than two weeks until the launch of my new book - “Ungovernable: Political Diaries of a Chief Whip”. An eyewitness account of the turmoil of British politics between December 2019 and July 2024, as recorded in my handwritten diaries at the time.   If you want to know what really happened, what went wrong (and sometimes right…), and get a taste of what life was like in the thick of it all, order your copy now! Pre-order here - panmacmillan.com/authors/simon-…