Politics

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

Thursday

6 Feb 2025

Kemi Badenoch makes her move on immigration

Kemi Badenoch has finally announced a policy. Ahead of the Labour government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill being debated in Parliament next week, the Tory leader has unveiled her party’s latest offering on immigration. The Conservatives say immigrants should only be allowed to apply for British citizenship after 15 years of being in the UK as opposed to the current six. Furthermore, immigrants who have criminal records or who have claimed benefits or social housing should not be granted leave to remain, which sets them on a path to citizenship. Announcing the policy, Badenoch said: ‘The Conservative party is under new leadership. We’re going to tell the hard truths

Kara Kennedy

MAGA Kids: How America’s youth went right

Washington, D.C. ‘What made you open a restaurant?’ I ask Bart Hutchins, the owner of Butterworth’s, a French-style bistro turned Republican hangout, frequented by the youthful wings of the Grand Old Party. It’s home to figures from the intellectual right such as Curtis Yarvin and darlings of New Right media including Natalie Winters, the increasingly slim White House correspondent for Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. ‘Have you read Death in the Afternoon?’ Bart says. ‘No,’ I say. ‘It’s by Hemingway.’ ‘I know.’ Bart pulls his phone out and starts to recite a few lines: ‘In cafés where the boys are never wrong; in cafés where they are all brave; in

Alexander Raubo

Why young MAGA supporters are flocking to Remilia

The MAGA social scene was defined on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration by the Coronation Ball – perhaps the most exuberant celebration of the new ‘Golden Age’. The principal speaker was, unsurprisingly, Steve Bannon, the architect of Trump’s first victory and the voice of the neo-reactionary core of the President’s movement. More surprising perhaps though was the Ball’s principal sponsor, Remilia Corporation, a conceptual art movement. It was as if a Reform UK rally were sponsored by the Turner Prize. After Bannon’s speech, a representative of Remilia, an artist operating behind the pseudonym L.B. Dobis, stood at the podium to speak about internet art and to outline Remilia’s plans

The Spectator

Britain could learn from Trump’s approach to foreign policy

The Foreign Secretary describes his approach to diplomacy as ‘progressive realism’. One can legitimately ask what is progressive about a closer accommodation with the slave-labour-deploying Leninists of Beijing or what is realistic about ceding the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to China’s ally Mauritius. But David Lammy seems happy in his work. His choice of words serves to give an updated gloss to what most observers would readily recognise as the Foreign Office’s traditional approach – appeasement of our enemies and embarrassment at anything which appears to be a reminder of our colonial past. Whatever the aptest description of this government’s foreign policy, it is fair to say Donald

Charles Moore

Trump is like Shakespeare’s Fool

President Trump’s role in relation to other countries resembles that of the Fool in Shakespeare. He provides a sort of running satire on how rulers behave, and his antic wit expresses, amid the foolery, certain truths. In relation to Gaza, the prevailing idea of the ‘international community’ is that, because of the 7 October massacres and Israel’s subsequent decapitation of the Hamas leadership, the answer is ‘a two-state solution’. This orthodoxy is tragi-comic in its lack of reality. Mr Trump looks at the matter differently. He sees how a place like Dubai – within living memory just a swelteringly hot port with a strip of sand – has become the

Katy Balls

Could a Tory/Reform pact be looming?

In 1603, James VI managed to do what few thought possible. The self-styled first King of Great Britain succeeded in bringing the ‘auld enemies’ of Scotland and England under one monarch. That union of the crowns is a topic of chatter and inspiration for the British right these days. Admirers of Nigel Farage now talk about the ‘James I model’. The idea is simple: could the two warring tribes of the Conservatives and Reform be brought together under one leader? The next general election may be nearly four years away, but it’s telling that such conversations are already taking place. With every new opinion poll, Conservative MPs grow a little

Michael Gove

Morgan McSweeney is urging Keir Starmer to go for the kill

Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, does not immediately display the demeanour of a disruptor. He speaks softly, picks his phrases with care, and cultivates an unassuming image. But underneath the sober blue suit are the scars of a streetfighter. As a young man, McSweeney came to political maturity fighting the hard left in Lambeth and the far right in Dagenham, winning back working-class voters to a Labour party that had forgotten its roots. He went on to secure last year’s landslide, gifting Keir Starmer a majority large enough to remake Britain. His style as an insurgent owes something to his background. He grew up in Ireland with parents

Wednesday

5 Feb 2025

Steerpike

Jolyon Maugham reaches new level of desperation

Well, well, well. It seems the Good Law Project, founded by Jolyon Maugham of fox-killing infamy, may be rather struggling to find supporters. Who’d have thunk it? The do-gooder group is eager to fill its vacancy for the prestigious position of EU Campaign lead – but it would appear it can’t seem takers for the role. In fact, the Babe Ruth of the bar seems to have gotten so concerned he’s even flung an advert for the post in this week’s edition of The Spectator – famously an advocate of both Maugham and the EU, of course. It appears that in his panic to locate a new hire Jolyon has

Freddy Gray

Will Trump make Gaza great again?

20 min listen

When Netanyahu visited the White House, Donald Trump said in a press conference that the US could take over the Gaza Strip and suggested the permanent resettlement of its 1.8 million residents to neighbouring Arab countries. It has sparked global condemnation raising questions about where the Gaza citizens could be resettled to, and how this could impact the hostage negotiations. To discuss this and the conflict more widely, Freddy Gray is joined by former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy.

Arieh Kovler

Trump’s Gaza plan is nothing but a mirage

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, Israelis and Americans have been living in two parallel worlds. Israel’s began with the hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, which has seen Israeli captives finally released by Hamas after nearly 500 days. Israelis have witnessed the grotesque spectacle that Hamas made of the hostages, forcing them to perform in front of screaming crowds before being bundled into Red Cross vehicles, and then the joy of those same hostages reuniting with their families and beginning to share their stories. All the while, Donald Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff have urged Israel and Hamas to keep the ceasefire and continue negotiations to free all the hostages.

Seth J. Frantzman

What does – and doesn’t – make sense about Trump’s Gaza plan

‘The US will take over the Gaza Strip – and we will do a job with it, too’, Donald Trump has said. He also stated that the US would ‘own’ it. Some aspects of his proposal make sense. For instance, he said that an increased US role would involve dismantling unexploded bombs and clearing out the rubble from the war. This, he argued, would enable Gaza to be transformed into an economic success. Instead of exporting war, Gaza would export peace. ‘Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people

Malcom Kyeyune

What sets Sweden’s school shooting apart

Sweden has suffered its worst mass shooting in living memory. On Tuesday, a 35-year-old gunman went to a community college in the central city of Örebro armed with a firearm. After changing into combat fatigues in one of the school toilets, he launched an attack that left 11 people (including himself) dead and several more critically wounded. What Sweden witnessed was a form of violence born from cultural atomisation and ennui As someone who’s been involved, on and off, in the debates surrounding immigration and the new patterns of violence in Sweden, an incident like this appears as a round peg in a square hole. At first, as news of

Steerpike

Starmer snubs left-wing rebels as only four readmitted

Well, well, well. It transpires that four MPs suspended by Sir Keir Starmer for rebelling over the two child benefit cap have now had the whip restored by the Labour party. Today’s move comes a fortnight after John McDonnell took to LBC to urge Starmer to row back on the decision, telling journalists that ‘we’ve served our sentence, so I’m hoping we’ll simply have the whip restored’. It is rather amusing, then, that McDonnell is among the three remaining politicians who remain suspended. Awkward… Rebecca Long-Bailey, Ian Byrne, Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain have been admitted back into the party after spending six months sitting as Independent MPs, according to

Lloyd Evans

Kemi finally has a good PMQs

Genuinely, a historic day at PMQs. The plates are shifting. Labour whips spotted that Nigel Farage’s name was on the order paper so they got a house-trained pipsqueak, John Slinger, to give Sir Keir Starmer a chance to launch a pre-emptive strike. Slinger was called first and he asked about Farage’s remark that Reform is ‘open to anything’ on the NHS. Sir Keir took his cue and declared that the NHS will always be ‘free at the point of use’, falsely suggesting that Reform plans to scrap this principle. Then Farage was called. His question was salty but unremarkable. He asked Sir Keir to explain to an RAF veteran why

James Heale

Should Starmer stand up to Trump?

14 min listen

Trump has blown the Overton window wide open. In a press conference yesterday alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president outlined his intention to ‘take over the Gaza Strip’, displacing 1.8 million Palestinians in the process. His plan – if you can call it that – is to build ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’. Many of the countries Trump has earmarked to resettle displaced Gazans have already condemned the takeover. How will the international community respond? Elsewhere, Keir Starmer seems more motivated by a desire to observe the rule of international law than his buddy across the pond. The Chagos deal seems set to be completed in the ‘coming weeks’.

Steerpike

Starmer hits out at Mauritian PM over Chagos comments

Uh oh. There’s trouble in paradise as it appears the relationship between Sir Keir Starmer and Navin Ramgoolam is becoming a little strained. After the Mauritian PM told his MPs yesterday that Starmer had offered up a new and improved deal on the Chagos archipelago, the Labour leader was forced to fend off questions about the soaring cost of the proposal in today’s PMQs. Now Downing Street has hit out at Ramgoolam over the issue – and even blasted his comments as ‘factually inaccurate’. Shots fired… Speaking to parliamentarians on Tuesday, Ramgoolam claimed the updated offer would effectively double the £9 billion first offered to the country to take back

James Heale

Kemi let Keir off the hook on Chagos

This is Keir Starmer’s worst week in politics since last week. With the Chagos deal eliciting criticism in cabinet, the PM is now under pressure over claims he potentially broke lockdown rules. Expectations were therefore low at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. But with his back against the wall, Starmer produced a performance that left the Opposition benches frustrated and despairing. Kemi Badenoch started her six questions by asking about Chagos. Was it true, she asked, that the costs of this ‘immoral’ handover have now risen to £18bn? ‘When Labour negotiates’, she jibed, ‘our country loses.’ It was a decent opener – but Starmer had his answers ready. In a lengthy

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer ducks PMQ on Covid rule-breaking

To Westminster, where Prime Minister’s Questions is in full swing. Sir Keir Starmer has delivered yet another tutorial in how to bat away difficult questions – on everything from his reported Chagos deal to concerns about Labour backing a new North Sea oil field to the rather curious matter of the Labour leader’s vocal coach. It emerged in Get In, a new book about Labour’s rise to power, that Sir Keir’s vocal coach Leonie Mellinger visited the party’s London office on Christmas Eve in 2020. At this time, the city was under tier four regulations while Mellinger’s home city of Brighton was under tier three rules, prompting the Conservatives to suggest

Ross Clark

Why should the NHS employ any diversity officers?

Wes Streeting is offended by NHS staff promoting ‘anti-whiteness’ – as should any taxpayer who has not succumbed to the racist ideology of critical race theory. A social media post from a counselling psychologist with the East London NHS Foundation Trust sought an assistant on a year-long placement, describing herself as someone ‘who integrates anti whiteness/ anti racist praxis into supervision and approaches to clinical work.’ Streeting said, addressing a Macmillan Cancer Support event: ‘There are some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion which undermine the cause… the ideological hobby horses have to go.’ But he still thinks that DEI jobs should still

Steerpike

Labour MPs form anti-Reform pressure group

Sir Keir Starmer’s party may have only been in power for seven months but in that time the Prime Minister has seen his favourability ratings plummet while trust in his government declines. As the Labour lot fret about their waning popularity, Reform UK is enjoying a surge in support – with two recent polls, by FindOutNow and YouGov, showing Nigel Farage’s party beating Labour among voters. So concerned are the reds by the rapid reversal in their fortunes, a number of Labour MPs have now formed an informal group built to defeat Reform. How very interesting… As reported by the Guardian, Labour politicians from the 89 constituencies where Farage’s party