Politics

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

Tuesday

Kristina Murkett

The hypocrisy of Labour’s plan to solve youth unemployment

The government has today announced a £45 million work drive, with proposed changes to the welfare and out-of-work support systems, in a bid to get more people back in work and off benefits. In particular, the government has said that it wants to tackle the statistic that one in eight young people aged between 18 and 24 not currently in employment, education or training. It plans to do so by offering skills training to teenagers with institutions such as the Premier League, Royal Shakespeare Company and Channel 4. There is no doubt that we need to get young people earning or learning again. Over three quarters of a million young

Gray Sergeant

Why is Labour so scared to talk about Taiwan?

Since Keir Starmer took office, Britain’s approach to Taiwan seems to have changed little from that of the previous Tory government – but is that really the case? Beneath the surface, there are worrying signs that Starmer’s government wants to dodge discussing the potential flashpoint of Taiwan’s sovereignty, lest it disrupt their attempt to reset relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) The previous government, in the 2023 Integrated Review Refresh, committed the United Kingdom to supporting stability across the strait. Rishi Sunak, when asked about arms sales to the island, was unequivocal: ‘We stand ready to support Taiwan’. Starmer’s government appears to have followed suit: as per the Foreign Office statement following last

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can Keir Starmer get Britain back to work?

10 min listen

The government have announced their latest effort to get Britons back into work. A series of benefit changes intend to tackle the fact that Britain is the only major economy where the employment rate has fallen over the past five years, largely because more people are out of work due to long-term ill health. Why are the UK’s post-pandemic figures so much worse than other countries? And can Labour’s plans work? The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons joins Katy Balls and James Heale.

Jonathan Spyer

A ceasefire deal won’t finish off Hezbollah

Nothing is yet confirmed, but it appears that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent. The fighting, which began on 8 October last year, has claimed thousands of lives and left the Israel-Lebanon border area decimated on both sides. But there is anger that Israel is rushing into an agreement that will not keep those who live near to the Lebanese border safe. Community leaders in Israel’s north have reacted with anger to the announcement of the proposed cessation in hostilities. They noted that while Hezbollah’s infrastructure along the border has been extensively damaged, the movement itself has not been destroyed. The proposed agreement also does not include

James Heale James Heale

Can Starmer’s jobs push get Britain back to work?

The UK isn’t working. That’s the official view of the government as Keir Starmer launches his latest effort to get Britons back into work. A series of benefit changes intend to tackle the fact that Britain is the only major economy where the employment rate has fallen over the past five years, largely because more people are out of work due to long-term ill health. The ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper was published this morning, prior to a statement by Liz Kendall in the Commons this afternoon. Kendall will have a tough time trying to get the UK back to work The statistics speak for themselves. A record 2.8 million

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The election petition reveals Starmer’s Achilles heel

Today the Prime Minister is attempting to get back on the front foot with the publication of an employment white paper, aimed at reducing unemployment in light of the soaring number of Britons out of work since the pandemic. Starmer has declared that his government inherited a country that ‘isn’t working’. However, the question many are asking this week is a slightly different one: is his government working? Keir Starmer has had to bat off questions over a petition – now signed by over two million – calling for an election. The petition says there ought to be an election as Labour have ‘gone back on their promises they laid

Matthew Lynn

Trump’s tariffs threats are going to cause chaos

It turns out it wasn’t just China after all. Mexico, and indeed Canada, are just as much in the firing line. President-Elect Trump announced last night that he will impose an immediate 25 per cent tariff on imports from both of the US’s two largest land neighbours, threatening huge disruption to their economies. Trump may think he is being clever by weaponising access to the American market, and in the short-term he may even by right. The trouble is, he is going to break the global trading system – and it will be very hard to put back together afterwards.  This is a recipe for constant market chaos It is

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The strange sanctification of Angela Merkel

When the history of the twentieth century is written, one of the questions that will puzzle historians is the sanctification of Angela Merkel, whose memoir is published today. Merkel was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015, and chosen as the third most powerful person in the world by  Forbes in 2016. When she stepped down as Chancellor in 2021 after 16 years in power, she was described by the BBC as someone who ‘has given her country what it expects from a leader: a voice of calm in a turbulent and shifting world’. In its tribute to Merkel, the Washington Post described her as ‘one of the savviest and most powerful leaders in the world’.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Starmer can’t ignore the sickness benefits crisis

Where is the stick? For weeks the government has been trailing its white paper on benefits reform by floating the idea that there would be tough sanctions on claimants who refused to take up work offers. It culminated on Sunday in a double hit – Keir Starmer in the Mail on Sunday and Liz Kendall in the Telegraph – each promising that idlers would no longer have the option of a life on benefits. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ wrote Starmer, ‘we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters.’ Kendall added ‘there

Iain Macwhirter

We don’t need the Supreme Court to define a ‘woman’

In a scenario straight out of Monty Python, learned judges in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom will today start solemnly debating what a ‘woman’ is. Yes, really. After a decade of misogynistic sophistry, the most elemental fact of human existence is now in doubt and has been handed to the highest court to determine. But if they’re confused about what a woman is, you say, why don’t they just consult a school textbook on human biology? Or perhaps ask a representative sample of women. A female human surely is defined by her birth sex. But no – in our crazy, looking-glass world of identity politics, there is, it appears,

Eliot Wilson

Starmer’s anti-spiking law is a needless stunt

Keir Starmer has announced that he will introduce new legislation to make the spiking of drinks a specific criminal offence. The legal changes sound harmless, but it is entirely unnecessary.  Drink spiking is clearly illegal under section 61 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003: someone commits an offence ‘if he intentionally administers a substance to, or causes a substance to be taken by, another person’ without consent, ‘with the intention of stupefying or overpowering’ them ‘to enable any person to engage in a sexual activity’ with the victim. The offence can lead to a ten-year prison sentence, or a longer custodial term if other crimes like robbery or sexual assault are involved.

David Shipley

Why are the police allowing trans officers to strip-search women?

What is the British Transport Police playing at? Biologically male officers identifying as female will be allowed to intimately search women so long as they have a gender recognition certificate (GRC). The guidance, which was revealed by the Daily Telegraph, shows that the police aren’t quick to learn lessons when it comes to resolving the question of who should, and shouldn’t, be allowed to search female suspects. Imagine a vulnerable woman being told that an officer who is male is going to strip search her The trouble is that, while a GRC allows trans people to have their ‘acquired gender’ legally recognised in the UK, it remains the case that a person cannot change

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The truth about Labour’s ‘class war’

Keir Starmer’s critics might have you believe that the Labour government is fighting a class war. They point to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s crackdown on private schools and Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s attack on farmers. These initiatives certainly don’t appear to be just about money: whacking VAT on school fees and hitting dead farmers with inheritance tax won’t raise much cash in the scheme of things. But they will inflict totally unnecessary amounts of pain. Their targets are, supposedly, people with cash to splash, on behalf of the needy.  Labour’s disastrous first few months in office don’t resemble a class war at all But hang on: look at this government closely

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Don’t expect an end to Europe’s migrant crisis any time soon

Nearly a year ago the EU unveiled what it called its ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’ with much fanfare. The Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, boasted that the pact ‘means that Europeans will decide who comes to the EU and who can stay, not the smugglers’. As is the way with the bureaucratic behemoth that is Brussels, the Pact won’t start to be implemented until the summer of 2026. So there is plenty of time for the people smugglers to ferry thousands more migrants into Europe from Africa and the Middle East. The power in Europe these days lies with the courts, and they overwhelmingly lean to the

Michelle-Anna Moffat

Why I cancelled my trip to Dignitas

Nobody understands the attraction of assisted suicide like I do. In 2019, life as I knew it – a busy nurse and mum of four – stopped. Aged 39, I sustained a spinal cord injury and as a result I’m now confined to a wheelchair 24/7. I was forced to retire from the job that I loved. Many patients who register for assisted suicide say they feel they are a burden on their friends and family – and I know exactly what they mean. My husband and kids had to care for me as I once had them. I couldn’t bare it.   Life is different to before. But life is

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Nigel Farage looks like the future of right-wing politics

Nigel Farage ought to terrify the Tories. He has terrified them many times over the past decades. But until now, he hasn’t had the force of the US president, the richest man in the world, and the global online right behind him. As the struggle to become the dominant voice on the British right intensifies, Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative party look like yesterday’s news by comparison.  Who is to say Farage cannot supplant the Tories as Trump supplanted the old Republican elite or Marine Le Pen supplanted the Gaullists? The latest example of how rapidly the political weather is changing was Elon Musk’s rant that the ‘people of Britain have had

Peter Lampl

Why does Oxford not Cambridge dominate British politics?

Given Oxford’s well-known reputation as the nursery for Britain’s political elite, it’s no surprise to find two governmental grandees currently battling it out to become the university’s next chancellor. Frankly, though, with due respect to their accomplishments in public office, Peter Mandelson and William Hague probably wouldn’t even make it into the Premier League of Oxford’s political alumni as things stand. Being a former Labour Business Secretary or an erstwhile Leader of the Opposition is all very impressive, but there’s an awful lot of retired top dogs above them in the pecking order. All this Oxford-educated political ball-fumbling must eventually be bad for the brand The extraordinary fact is, 14

Monday

Oscar Edmondson

Should Starmer be worried about this petition?

13 min listen

Today is the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference, at which Rachel Reeves has laid out her plan to ‘Get Britain Working’ and prove Labour as the party of business … despite what the recent Budget and the employers national insurance increase might suggest. What’s the mood of big business today?  Also on the podcast, a petition has gone viral over the weekend calling for a general election. Various people have signed it, from Nigel Farage to Michael Caine. But should Labour actually be worried? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

David Christopher Kaufman

Trump shouldn’t boot trans people out of the military

The bogeyman that progressives feared Donald Trump would unleash upon the United States appears to have already arrived – and inauguration day is still more than 50 days away. The president-elect is reportedly planning an executive order that would kick out all transgender members of the US military. The order, which could come on 20 January, Trump’s first day back in the White House, looks set to result in the removal from the military of about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. Having campaigned on a strident ‘anti-woke’ agenda, Trump’s focus on identity politics comes as little surprise. But what is surprising is the swiftness and extent of the incoming

Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson

Did Covid vaccines really save 12 million lives?

The BBC reported that AstraZeneca and Pfizer are credited with together saving more than 12 million lives in the first year of Covid vaccination. To substantiate this claim, the BBC refers to Airfinity, a ‘disease forecasting company’. Models do not fit anywhere in the pathway for establishing effectiveness Airfinity used an Imperial College London study, which calculated that Covid vaccines saved 20 million lives between December 2020 and December 2021. Using a mathematical model, the Imperial team assumed that vaccination conferred protection against Covid infection (mRNA vaccines were estimated to have given 88 per cent protection against infection after the second dose) and the development of severe disease requiring hospital admission. The team also assumed