Kitty Donaldson
Kitty Donaldson is chief political commentator at The i Paper, covering how political decisions are made, contested and reversed at the top of government. Her work stands out for consistent exclusives on internal party manoeuvres and policy U‑turns, showing the gap between public messaging and private calculations. She combines long Westminster experience with clear, accessible explanations of what choices mean for voters, businesses and public services.
Cabinet in secret talks over who should tell Starmer to quit
Donaldson’s recent reporting centres on the internal pressures inside Labour, particularly around leadership, discipline and timing.
In her scoop on Cabinet discussions over how and when senior figures should ask Keir Starmer to resign, she details private conversations about the post‑election timetable and who should deliver the message, based on briefings from aides and ministers. The piece tracks how different factions seek to control the choreography of any leadership challenge, including suggestions over which Cabinet member might be chosen as the messenger and how rival camps attempt to wrong‑foot each other.
Her coverage of the contest to replace Labour’s General Secretary, naming Claire Reynolds, Lisa Johnson, John Lehal and Joe Fortune as contenders, shows the same focus on personnel decisions that shape the party’s machine but often sit below the surface of public debate. Together, these stories build a picture of Donaldson as a reporter who maps the real centres of power inside parties, rather than just the official lines from the podium.
Inside the UK's shift on Israel
Donaldson devotes significant attention to foreign policy decisions where domestic politics and international alliances collide.
Her work on the UK’s sanctions response to Israeli settlements traces the “reset” in relations through the actions of Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham, including intensive diplomacy and the leverage created by settlement contracts. In a broader verdict on Burnham’s handling of Israel policy, she pinpoints how sanctions aimed at settlements also function as a political signal to domestic rivals, concluding that the real target of the measures is the Green Party’s position. Earlier reporting highlighted the government’s plan to exempt China from the toughest tier of new espionage legislation, showing how security policy can be shaped to accommodate key trading partners and the diplomatic tensions that follow.
She has also broken a world exclusive on what Burnham secured in negotiations with Donald Trump, underlining her reach into international stories that still turn on decisions made in London. These pieces distinguish her coverage by treating foreign policy not as a distant brief but as an extension of party strategy, leadership strength and economic priorities.
Is it time to scrap the state pension triple lock?
Donaldson’s political commentary often centres on fiscal choices and welfare reforms, especially where they force governments to confront the limits of affordability. In her contribution to The i Paper’s debate on scrapping the state pension triple lock, she sets out Burnham’s focus on what can be afforded over the long term and the anxiety any threat to pensioners’ incomes generates among those nearing retirement.
Her reporting on the flagship welfare reform bill, written as rebellion inside Parliament threatened to force the government to pull the legislation, captures how backbench numbers and organised dissent can derail carefully planned reforms. The anchor piece on calls to “kill” the triple lock builds on the same tension between fiscal sustainability and political risk, charting warnings to Burnham from figures urging a break with past guarantees to older voters. Her broader economic coverage, including recent columns on the choices facing Chancellor John Healey in the budget and the tax rises he has not yet fully spelled out, keeps an emphasis on what is being withheld from public view as much as what is announced.
These stories mark her out as someone who treats economic policy as a political story first, grounded in winners, losers and the trade‑offs ministers would prefer to blur.
Politics Unwrapped and by-election battlegrounds
Donaldson writes The i Paper’s Politics Unwrapped newsletter, which distils Westminster developments into regular briefings and has twice won Newsletter of the Year at the Future of Media Awards. In this format she explains themes such as the persistence of early‑election speculation despite Burnham’s efforts to quash it, linking parliamentary arithmetic with party finances and organisational readiness.
Her by‑election coverage, including detailed reporting on the Runcorn contest described as Reform’s to lose, examines how insurgent parties reshape traditional battlegrounds and force strategic choices on Labour and the Conservatives. A separate piece on the Makerfield by‑election, cited for its description of parties locked in a war of words over the support for far‑right party Restore Britain, shows her attention to the language and framing used by both insurgents and their opponents.
Outside The i Paper, Donaldson’s long record for Bloomberg News includes stories on Rwanda deportation flights, clashes over “foreign courts”, sanctions on China over cyber attacks, UK policy toward arms sales to Israel, and coverage of the Princess of Wales’s cancer treatment, reflecting a wide brief at the intersection of domestic politics, security and the monarchy.
She has reported on politics for national newspapers and broadcasters since the early 2000s and is a regular speaker at political events, such as Conservative Party conference fringe discussions on Europe and international partnerships. This accumulated experience underpins her current commentary, where she connects by‑election skirmishes and newsletter analysis to the longer patterns of how parties adapt to pressure from both the centre and the fringes.
Across these strands, Donaldson’s work is defined by stories that show the moment when private calculations inside government and parties collide with public accountability, whether on pensions and welfare, foreign policy, or leadership futures. Her beat is politics, but her focus is the decisions and conflicts that explain why policy looks one way on paper and another behind closed doors.
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