Politics

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

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The plot to bring down Emmanuel Macron

Last week Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Olympic aquatic centre that will host the swimming and diving events at this summer’s Paris games. The President was delighted with what he saw, boasting to the press pack that the centre is ‘exemplary from an environmental point of view’. Macron’s party expect the Republicans to make their move in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, from a financial point of view, the centre is anything but exemplary. The initial estimate in 2017 was that the centre would cost €70 million to construct, a figure that was soon revised to €90 million. the final expenditure was €188 million. It is not just the Olympic aquatic centre

Steerpike Steerpike

Amnesty laments death of Palestinian torture group leader

One might expect a global human rights organisation to wholeheartedly condemn a man involved in the brutal torture of a teenage soldier. Not the Amnesty International of 2024, it seems. On Monday night, the charity instead lamented the death of Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, tweeting: The death in custody of Walid Daqqa, a 62-year-old Palestinian writer who was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails after 38 years of imprisonment, is a cruel reminder of Israel’s disregard for Palestinians’ right to life. Sorry? Amnesty International couldn’t possibly be talking about the same Walid Daqqa who, in 1984, led a group that abducted, tortured, castrated and mutilated Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam

Julie Bindel

Does Australia know what a woman is?

When Australian businesswoman Sall Grover set up Giggle – an app exclusively for women – in 2020, it never occurred to her that men identifying as ‘transwomen’ would demand the right to use it. Today, a landmark case will hit the Federal Court in Sydney, brought by a transwoman called Roxanne Tickle. It will either confirm or challenge the Australian government’s ongoing attempt to banish woman, female, and girl as sex-based categories. In ‘Tickle vs Giggle’, what is at stake is whether individuals should be allowed to self-define as whatever ‘gender identity’ they choose, and whether that identity then trumps biological sex. On Giggle, women can find a flatmate, or organise

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How much trouble is Angela Rayner in?

Another week, another development in the row over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs. The deputy Labour leader is facing questions over whether she broke electoral and tax law regarding a former council property she owned in Stockport. The allegations – which Rayner denies – stem from Lord Ashcroft’s biography (titled Red Queen) of the woman in line to be deputy prime minister if Labour triumphs as expected in this year’s general election. The row has been rumbling along for weeks now but is gaining momentum as the Tories ramp up their attacks. It goes back to the properties she and her then husband Mark Rayner owned in Stockport. When the couple

Steerpike Steerpike

Now Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law is arrested

Oh dear. It seems things can only get worse for hapless Humza Yousaf. With his independence strategy dead in the water, he now has to contend with troubles at home too. Police Scotland has today confirmed that they have arrested Yousaf’s brother-in-law and charged him with abduction and extortion. It follows the death of a man who fell from a block of flats in Dundee in January. Ramsay El-Nakla, 36, is the brother of Yousaf’s wife, Nadia El-Nakla and is due to appear in court later today. In a statement, Police Scotland said that: A 36-year-old man has been arrested and charged with abduction and extortion following an incident where

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Will the Seine be safe for the summer Olympics?

Emmanuel Macron’s promise to strip off to his Speedos and swim in the Seine to prove it is safe for athletes has yet to be delivered. The Olympic Games commence in July and the river remains essentially a sewer. Although the water quality is supposedly getting better as the rains are relenting, Macron is wise not to hurry. Diarrhoea in the Olympic Village may be the least of the problems, even if the athletes complain In addition to fears that the Paris games will attract terrorist attacks, there is the now the unpleasant prospect of athletes being infected with norovirus and other unfortunate ailments of the intestinal tract. Not that

James Heale James Heale

Where will the Westminster honeytrap scandal go next?

Will Wragg has now resigned as both vice-chairman of the 1922 committee and chairman of the public administration select committee. It follows last week’s revelation that he was the source responsible for passing on phone numbers to a source who subsequently tried to ‘honey trap’ them over text messages. The circle of those caught up in the Westminster honeytrap scandal has continued to expand in recent days, with at least 15 figures now believed to be involved. These people were sent messages from an unknown sender identifying themselves either as ‘Abi’ or ‘Charlie’. Three Tory MPs – Wragg, Andrea Jenkyns and Luke Evans – have already said that they were

Steerpike Steerpike

David Cameron meets Trump at Mar-a-Lago

David Cameron is overseas on a foreign office trip to the US, but it transpired yesterday evening that Washington DC wasn’t to be his only destination. Last night, the Foreign Secretary made a quick pit stop at Mar-a-Lago to speak to former president Donald Trump. Lord Cameron is making the case for continued support for Ukraine – and wants to ensure the US will, if Trump becomes President, continue to provide aid to the country. Republicans have spent months trying to block a proposed $60 billion military aid payment to Ukraine, and Trump has been pretty clear in previous statements that he opposes the support package. Not only that, the Washington

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The Tories deserve our contempt

The Telegraph reported at the weekend that the Conservative party appears to be attempting, in its selection process for parliamentary candidates, to weed out anybody who might just possibly be a conservative. This strategy – with all its ineptitude and wilful blindness – is a perfect capsule of the parliamentary party and its upper echelons. A party can leap over disappointment and rage; contempt is a much higher hurdle to clear It’s hard to find the right word to describe what the Tories have done since their incredible election win in 2019. ‘Disappointment’ is polite, but too mild. ‘Rage’ is too hyperbolic. I think ‘contempt’ hits the mark best. And this

David Shipley

We’re all paying the price for our rotten prisons

What happens when government policy meets an entirely unfit system? Today’s report on HMP Peterborough by HM Inspector of Prisons reveals a jail unable to handle the government’s early release scheme. Last October, in an effort to stop our prisons running out of room, Alex Chalk announced the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, under which prisoners would be released 18 days early. Last month, with the prisons almost full again, he amended the policy so that prisoners can now be released 60 days early.  Every recalled prisoner costs money to return to prison Today HM Inspector has revealed what this means in practice. HMP Peterborough is a large, Category

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Pro-Palestine protestors vandalise Labour HQ

Uh oh. Labour is once again facing dissent from its own supporters over the Israel-Gaza conflict. Things came to a head this afternoon when a group of renegades targeted Labour HQ in London by — you guessed it — dousing the building in spray paint. While other protestors held a march in central London, the vandals stormed the building that houses Labour HQ, covering both outside and inside walls with red paint. The lefty activist group Youth Demand has claimed responsibility for the vandalism, posting a video of the graffiti artists up close and in action on Twitter. In its tweet, the group fumed: ‘Labour has blood on their hands.

Natasha Feroze

How much trouble is Angela Rayner in?

10 min listen

Angela Rayner has faced fresh allegations related to her taxes. Keir Starmer and other MPs in the shadow cabinet have come to her defence. Could these accusations jeopardise her position as shadow deputy Prime Minister? Also on the podcast, what are Richard Tice’s plans for Reform? Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale. 

James Heale James Heale

Reform: scrap net zero to fund the NHS

Richard Tice spent this morning fulfilling a role well-known to leaders of smaller parties: defending their vetting procedures amid criticism of unsuitable candidates. The Reform leader was grilled by journalists at a Westminster briefing over the suspension or ditching of at least a dozen election candidates over their social media posts. ‘If you’re going to have a glass on a Friday night, don’t use Twitter,’ Tice told his party’s electoral hopefuls. Voters want more NHS funding; they just don’t want to fund private tax breaks to do this The main topic of the briefing was about health and Reform’s plans to redirect net zero funds to improve the NHS. Tice

Jawad Iqbal

Why are Foreign Office mandarins so ashamed of their own country?

The Foreign Office has been criticised as ‘elitist and rooted in the past’ in a scathing report by some of the UK’s most senior former senior diplomats and officials. The report, entitled ‘The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s approach to International Affairs’, has been penned by the former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill; a former director general at the Foreign Office, Moazzam Malik; and the former Number 10 foreign policy adviser Tom Fletcher, among others. It certainly doesn’t pull any punches. The authors suggest the Foreign Office should be abolished and replaced by a new Department for International Affairs with ‘fewer colonial era pictures on the wall’ The department is

Steerpike Steerpike

Did David Lammy break broadcasting rules?

Uh oh. David Lammy is back in the spotlight again after Ofcom’s announcement today that it is investigating the shadow foreign secretary for breaching rules on his LBC show. The broadcasting regulator took to Twitter with the update, writing: We’ve launched an investigation into David Lammy on LBC, broadcast on 29 March. We’re investigating whether this programme broke our rules on politicians acting as news presenters. The indiscretion in question relates to the news that DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson was stepping down from the top job. Lammy announced it on his programme, telling listeners ‘we’ve got breaking news’ before informing the audience of Donaldson’s resignation. 51 people submitted complaints about

Steerpike Steerpike

Honeytrap scandal: Jenkyns says Wragg must face disciplinary action

Back to the Westminster honeytrap, and now Dame Andrea Jenkyns has revealed that she was also targeted by the parliamentary phishing operation. Jenkyns is the third MP to go public, following her Conservative colleagues William Wragg and Luke Evans who admitted last week that they had been sent suspicious and rather salacious messages.  But the Morley MP isn’t entirely sympathetic to her colleagues. In fact, she is positively furious with Wragg, who admitted that he had responded to the sexting scammers with an explicit picture of his own — before giving in to their blackmail demands and supplying more numbers to the phishers.   Wragg has apologised for ‘being weak’

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: Tice calls the Tories ‘sexual weirdos’

Another day, another drama. This morning it was the turn of Reform party leader Richard Tice to be interviewed on the BBC’s Today programme. Tice’s party recently gained its first MP after former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson defected in March, telling a press conference that he wanted ‘his country back’ and hitting out at the Conservatives over immigration and free speech. The animosity between the parties continues, and Reform’s leader wasn’t pulling any punches today. When asked about Reform’s parliamentary candidates, nine of whom have been dropped since revelations about past comments they’d made have come to light, Tice told the BBC that he welcomes the ‘extra scrutiny’, adding: I’m not taking lessons

Michael Taube

Why Justin Trudeau is turning against immigration

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a state of desperation. His minority Liberal government has been polling behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives for the better part of two years. They’re down in most opinion polls by 15 to 18 points, and only have the support of 23 to 26 per cent of the Canadian electorate. His left-leaning policies have turned off many Canadians, including fellow Liberals. His standing in the international community barely has a pulse. His personal popularity numbers continue to plummet. How is Trudeau still in power? Because he signed a three-year work-and-supply agreement with Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats – who are also struggling mightily in the polls – that doesn’t expire

Niall Gooch

Ian Hislop’s elite blindspot

A common argument against populist politicians such as Nigel Farage or Donald Trump is that their attacks on elites are in some sense inauthentic because they themselves are members of those same elites. Trump is, after all, a billionaire who has been prominent in New York corporate circles for almost half a century. His social milieu has included Wall Street titans, very senior politicians, and key figures in the world of entertainment. Fundamentally, Hislop is far more entangled with, and sympathetic to, our true elites than Nigel Farage Our Nige, meanwhile, may not be a billionaire, but he attended Dulwich College, a prominent public school, and made a good living

Eliot Wilson

Is Whitehall ready for war?

James Heappey, who will soon step down as Conservative MP for Wells after nearly a decade, may have won more column inches in the last fortnight than the rest of his career combined. In March, he resigned as minister for the armed forces, a post he had held since 2020, and now that he is liberated from government, he has a few things he needs to get off his chest. We have chronically underspent on defence for far too long Heappey, who served in the British Army for eight years, rising to the rank of major and serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, has penned a heartfelt plea for the Daily