Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Thursday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The UK economy is in a rut

The UK economy has grown for the first time in three months. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that the economy expanded by 0.1 per cent in November after it contracted by 0.1 per cent in both September and October. This uptick is largely thanks to an increase in services output, which grew by 0.1 per cent in November 2024, after falling by 0.1 per cent in October (a downward revision from last month’s estimate that there had been no growth. So has the economy turned a corner? It’s very difficult to spin this morning’s news in a wholly positive light. Yes, it’s good that the economy did not

Phillip Ullmann

Why inflation figures may have given Labour false confidence

The relief from Downing Street at yesterday’s inflation data – which showed that it dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before – was palpable. Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, cast a breezy image as he described his boss, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, as “brilliant”. The choices facing Reeves and Starmer would be bleak Keir Starmer will now be able to offer his Chancellor more than lukewarm assurances that she is not facing the chop. The news will abate the recent cycle of media criticism and with President Trump’s inauguration next week, focus will soon turn elsewhere.  Her

Arieh Kovler

How Trump shaped the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal

After days of increasing optimism, Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani summoned the press last night to announce that Israel and Hamas had agreed on a ceasefire and hostage deal. In the hours since, Israel has accused Hamas of backtracking on the agreement and dozens of people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza. A planned cabinet vote on the deal in Israel has been pushed back, yet Hamas insists it is still committed to the agreement, which is due to come into effect on Sunday. The deal is complicated, delicate and full of moving parts. Phase one will see Hamas release 33 hostages, both living and dead:

Tessa Clarke

The Chagos Islands deal that Starmer ignored

As Mauritius and the UK scramble to finalise the terms of a treaty to hand over the Chagos Islands before Donald Trump becomes president, there remains a glaring issue with any agreement: for years, both governments have ignored the desire of Chagossian leaders for a democratic solution to the islands’ future. It is 104 days since Sir Keir Starmer announced in regal style – by No. 10 press release rather than to our elected representatives in parliament first – that he’d agreed to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), to Mauritius. The secret deal included the fate of the island of Diego Garcia, a

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Why has Trump invited Zemmour – and not Le Pen – to his inauguration?

There will be two politicians from France in Washington next week to see Donald Trump sworn in as president – and Emmanuel Macron isn’t one of them. The president didn’t get an invite (unlike his European rival, Giorgia Meloni) and nor for that matter did Marine Le Pen. It says much about how Reconquest is viewed by Team Trump that a party with no seats in the National Assembly is invited to his inauguration The two French politicians invited to witness arguably the greatest political resurrection in American political history are Eric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo. The latter was until a few months ago best known as Zemmour’s partner – professionally and

Sam McPhail

What does Greenland have that Trump wants?

Donald Trump’s favourite President, William McKinley, added Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the American fief at the turn of the twentieth century. Trump once saw Greenland on a map and reportedly said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive! That should be part of the United States’? Two years later, his language is stronger: ‘For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.’ Trump’s first proposal to buy Greenland in 2019 was rebuffed by the Danes who have sovereignty over it. For Trump, this is not just about military bases – US

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Is public sector headcount out of control?

Eyebrows were raised in the House of Lords this week as the Justice and Home Affairs Committee heard evidence that the Ministry of Justice is having to recruit from overseas to staff Britain’s overcrowded jails. Mark Fairhurst, the national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: We are recruiting from overseas and you are getting recruits from overseas, we have heard, turning up at the gate with suitcases and family in tow asking “Where is my accommodations?” […] We have got examples of overseas recruits sleeping in their cars because they have no accommodations. Apparently there has been a bunch of overseas recruits who, because they have no accommodations, there

Michael Gove

The answers Starmer must give

It will probably only damn me further in the eyes of many, but when I was a government minister I often used to ask Labour predecessors for advice. Tony Blair especially. He may have felt it was a forlorn exercise ever offering me his wisdom, especially when I went on to back Brexit, support parliament’s prorogation under Boris and defend Dominic Cummings against all comers, but I always appreciated his insights, even when we disagreed. No position is so strong, no policy so perfect, that it cannot benefit from being tested by critics. If those critics have experience of office, know its powers and limitations, so much the better. And

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Is Europe really faring better than Britain?

Five years ago this week, Boris Johnson was celebrating the achievement of leaving the European Union and wondering how he might take advantage of Britain’s newfound freedoms. A virus had other ideas. Covid-19 didn’t just turn our lives upside down and cost many lives; it robbed the then government of the chance to seize the initiative and prove that Brexit was worth the pain and inevitable disruption. For frustrated anti-Brexit campaigners, the pandemic provided them with ammunition to claim that their worst predictions had been realised. Falling economic growth, rising inflation, empty supermarket shelves – all these came to be blamed on Brexit, ignoring the rather large spanner which had

The Spectator

The folly of Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal

It would be natural to assume that sinking bond markets would be the government’s priority this week, as low UK growth and high borrowing rattles investors. Yet remarkably the Prime Minister’s attentions seem to be focused elsewhere: on advancing a deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in the days before Donald Trump is inaugurated for his second term as US President. Trump is an opponent of the deal for good reason. The US military base on Diego Garcia proved invaluable during the two Gulf Wars. Keir Starmer is yet to meet an international tribunal he won’t genuflect before Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, appears

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour is starting to panic about Reform

‘We’ve had enough of living in two-tier Britain,’ bellows Nigel Farage to cheers from an 800-strong crowd at Chester’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, where he is holding court. ‘There is not a single person on that Labour frontbench who’s ever worked in private business,’ the Reform leader declares. ‘So, is it any wonder they’re making such a Horlicks of it?’ Chester is the sixth stop on Farage’s new year tour, which was initially intended to sound a steady drumbeat in the lead-up to May’s local elections. Since those plans were made, however, Labour has announced a devolution shake-up that could allow various councils to delay their elections by a year. ‘It’s

Wednesday

Jonathan Sacerdoti

This Israel-Hamas agreement defines an ‘uneasy peace’

After 15 gruelling months of war and negotiation, a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas has been brokered, following intensive diplomatic activity led by the United States, Qatar,and Egypt. Announced this evening, the deal marks a critical yet deeply contentious milestone in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While it offers hope for the families of hostages, it also raises serious questions about the long-term implications for both sides and the precarious nature of such agreements. The deal resembles that initially outlined in May 2024 by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council. It includes the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas, primarily women, children, and

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Attorney General refuses to comment on Gerry Adams links

The Labour government is generating its fair share of negative headlines these days – and now the focus is on the new Attorney General, Lord Hermer. As Mr S pointed out in summer, Sir Keir Starmer’s appointee has held some rather, er, interesting roles in the past – including representing ex-Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams only last year. The Irish republican – who has always denied being in the Irish Republican Army, despite numerous books detailing his involvement in its Army Council – is back making British headlines today after it emerged that, due to planned changes to Troubles-related legislation, the former politician could receive a government pay-out over his

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Keir can thank God for Kemi

Robots will never replace Sir Keir Starmer. No need. Silicon Valley is already using him as the template for an army of cloned officials to be sold worldwide. The Starmer App was on display at PMQs as he answered planted questions at the start of the session. A tame backbencher said the word ‘train station.’ ‘We’re taking railway services back into public ownership,’ parroted Sir Keir, ‘and making ticketing better and fairer.’ A second MP said ‘teachers.’ ‘Skilling up the next generation is vital to economic growth,’ came the auto-reply. Up stood the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, and she had targets aplenty to choose from. The government is reeling. Two

Harry Mount

You should feel disappointed if you don’t get into Oxbridge

When I was at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, I’d often read ‘Bogsheets’ in the loos by the college bar. They were single pages of anonymous college gossip, cheaply printed off in those pre-internet days. I remember one bogsheet clearly. The headline said, ‘Cheer up!’ And the standfirst said, ‘You’re at the most beautiful college at the most beautiful, most famous university in the world. This is the closest you’ll ever get to living in a country house in your life. Why are you so bloody miserable?’ I was feeling a little sorry for myself at the time. The bogsheet cheered me up instantly – it was spot

Ian O’Doherty

Ireland’s President has gone completely rogue 

As Ireland’s octogenarian President, Michael D Higgins, enters the last few months of his final term in office, a man who was always outspoken in his views seems to have dropped any presidential filter. Higgins spent much of last year on what seemed like a one-man mission against Israel, making a series of wild and frequently incorrect statements about the Jewish state. First he claimed that the Israeli embassy in Dublin leaked a letter of congratulations he had written to the incoming Iranian leader (they didn’t). Then, at the height of the war in Gaza, he argued that Israel planned to annex parts of Egypt (they haven’t). But any hope that he would choose to spend the last

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why would the government pay Gerry Adams?

11 min listen

With rumours swirling around Westminster and after Keir Starmer’s less than convincing defence of his Chancellor earlier in the week, Rachel Reeves has found some brief respite. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that inflation dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before. It’s welcome news for a Chancellor who is under pressure, so is she safe? Elsewhere, there is a fresh row emerging concerning Gerry Adams. The government is proposing to repeal legislation, enacted in 2023, that prevents Gerry Adams and 400 others from claiming ‘compensation’ for having been detained in the 1970s for suspected involvement in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer saved his favourite attack until the end at PMQs

Kemi Badenoch continued with her theme of ‘why can you trust anything the Prime Minister says’ at Prime Minister’s Questions today, covering the economy, the Chagos Islands, Tulip Siddiq and Gerry Adams. The Tory leader also claimed that Starmer was once again not answering the questions that she asked, which was true, but his replies were better than her questions.  Starmer said the Conservatives are ‘economic vandals and fantasists’ Starmer had obviously come armed with the surprisingly good inflation figures, but he also had a number of one liners and attacks that were more effective than those from Badenoch. These included the early description of the Conservatives as ‘economic vandals

Edward Howell

President Yoon’s arrest brings more turmoil to South Korea

This year has commenced in an historic fashion for South Korea – albeit for all the wrong reasons. Earlier today, South Korean authorities arrested the suspended – but still sitting – president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on charges of corruption and inciting insurrection, after several weeks of the embattled leader evading this outcome. Today marks the first time in history that a sitting South Korean president had been arrested, plunging South Korea once again into unchartered waters. Domestic politics in Asia’s fourth-largest economy looks like it will only get messier. It has been a tempestuous month in South Korean politics. For all the personal scandals, skulduggery, and schisms within his party

Steerpike Steerpike

New York Times: Dry January is racist

For a moment, it almost seemed like there was an outbreak of sense at the New York Times, with a column entitled ‘Dry January Is Driving Me to Drink’ .  The piece, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, an NYT columnist for the past three years, ‘known for her incisive essays on social problems’,  begins by insisting that she is ‘happy’ for people doing Dry January, but she won’t be joining them. Why? Because she likes a drink? Or because it’s performative?  No,  because Dry January is in fact racist. She writes:  Consumer-driven health campaigns that get this kind of traction do not happen in a vacuum. A broader modern temperance movement promoting “clean” living