Politics

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

Sunday

Yascha Mounk

After Biden: what the Democrats should do now

President Joe Biden – who has announced that he will not run for re-election – has served the United States honourably for five decades, as a senator, as Barack Obama’s vice president, and finally in the highest office in the land. Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris, his Vice President, to be the new Democratic nominee. The best thing for Democrats to do now is to stage a genuinely open competition for who should oppose Donald Trump in the presidential race. Voters deserve a say in who represents them, and Harris was not on primary ballots in either 2020 or 2024. And the competition, even if messy, is likely to strengthen

Steerpike Steerpike

Is this the letter that persuaded Biden to resign?

There are rare few quiet days in politics and today is not one of them. Tonight President Joe Biden has abandoned his campaign to win a second term in the White House, writing that ‘it is in the best interest of my party and country’ to stand down. President Biden has been fast to endorse his current running mate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, for the nomination – calling his decision to pick Harris as his second in command ‘the best decision I’ve made’. The US President has faced growing calls from across his own party to step down after a series of suboptimal public appearances – but what finally convinced Biden

Steerpike Steerpike

Seven key reactions to Biden dropping out

Well, it’s finally happened. After all the speculation, the spin and the denials, Joe Biden has today, finally, announced he is dropping out of the race for the White House. The last President to do so was Lyndon Johnson in 1968, but that was in March of that year, rather than late July. Biden has already endorsed Kamala Harris to succeed him, but not all Democrats will be pleased by her likely candidacy. As key figures react to today’s announcement, Mr S has gathered reactions from some of the big players in American politics… Donald Trump Biden’s predecessor reacted in his usual magnanimous way, giving the occasion the gravitas it

Charles Lipson

Biden withdraws from the 2024 race

After weeks of pressure from Democratic party insiders, Joe Biden has finally said he won’t seek re-election. ‘I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,’ he said in a one-page letter, offering his ‘full support and endorsement for Kamala [Harris] to be the nominee of our party this year’. So Biden and the Democratic establishment want quick coronation of the Vice President, not any serious contest at the Democrat convention in Chicago. ‘Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump,’ Biden wrote at the end of his letter. ‘Let’s do this.’

Joe Bedell-Brill

Labour won’t spend outside fiscal rules, says Reeves

Chancellor Reeves adamant she will ‘make sure the sums add up’ Rachel Reeves gave an interview with Laura Kuenssberg this morning in which she emphasised the ‘mess’ she says the Conservatives have left behind, and restated that Labour would not spend outside of its fiscal rules. Kuenssberg asked the Chancellor whether she would be prepared to ignore the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies, which have called for a public sector pay rise of 5.5 per cent. Reeves would not confirm the government’s position, but accepted that ‘there is a cost to not settling’ public sector pay disputes, implying she might be open to above-inflation pay increases. What is

Lucy Dunn

Will Labour give in to Sinn Féin’s demands?

It’s not often that Irish republican party Sinn Féin hosts events in London, but the group included the UK capital in its post-election victory lap this week. Five of its seven MPs gathered in a dimly-lit hall in Hammersmith’s Irish Cultural Centre on Tuesday as the room filled with jubilant supporters, with many a Guinness in hand. There is certainly cause for celebration in the party: Sinn Féin has achieved a ‘perfect hat-trick’, as Belfast West MP Paul Maskey described it, becoming the largest group in local government, the Stormont Assembly and now Northern Irish party in Westminster. Retaining all seven of its seats, Sinn Féin increased its vote share

Steerpike Steerpike

Starmer facing rebellion over two-child benefit cap

Uh oh. While Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity has had a post-election bounce (with an approval rating now at 19 per cent compared to -1 before the Labour win) not everything is looking rosy for the new Prime Minister. Splits over certain policy stances are beginning to emerge and the two-child benefit cap is taking centre stage. Rosie Duffield is one of the latest Labour MPs to hit out at the scheme – blasting it as ‘social cleansing’ and an ‘unequal piece of legislation’. Calling on Starmer’s army to scrap the rule, Duffield writes in the Sunday Times today that: It is a heinous piece of legislation and the reason above all others

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will Reeves boost public sector pay?

As the dust around the election settles, a question Tory MPs and supporters still grapple with is why Rishi Sunak called the election when he did – not least because economic indicators point to improvements over the summer and autumn, as inflation returns to target and growth starts to pick up. But Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, is having none of this narrative. ‘I really don’t buy this idea that somehow we’ve been handed a golden inheritance,’ she told Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC this morning, in her first sit-down interview since she entered No. 11. ‘If the former prime minister and chancellor had thought things were so good, they

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Israel hits back at Houthi drone attack

Operation Long Arm, the code name for Israel’s counter-terror strikes in Yemen, sends a message almost as forceful as the payload of its F-15s. Iran may have an extensive network of proxies through which to attack Israel but the IDF will go whatever distance necessary to defend itself. In this instance 1,200 miles to Al Hudaydah, a port city controlled by Ansar Allah, more commonly known as the Houthis, where a fuel depot was turned into a fireball on Saturday. If Operation Long Arm disrupts the Houthis’ activities significantly, the world will owe a debt to Israel, not that it is likely to be acknowledged It marks the first time

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

The Soviet Union’s gerontocracy should serve as a warning to the US

One waspish – but not entirely inaccurate – Russian media assessment of the first US presidential debate was that it was ‘a reality show about the lives of pensioners.’ They ought to know, as Russia’s own history has highlighted the dangers of gerontocracy. When the Bolshevik revolutionaries who had just seized power formed their ruling Politburo in 1917, the only member who was more than 40 years old was their leader, Lenin, at 47. By 1981, the average age was 69. As for the actual leaders, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev died at the age of 75 in 1982. His successor, Yuri Andropov, was a relative stripling, dying in 1984 at

Ian Williams Ian Williams

China’s Arctic ambitions should trouble the West

Four Chinese warships were spotted off the coast of Alaska last weekend. According to the US coast guard, the ships were in the Bering Sea around 124 miles from the Aleutian Islands. They were inside America’s exclusive economic zone, which extends to 200 miles, but within international waters. ‘We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to US interests,’ said a coastguard commander, as he monitored their progress. The Chinese were within their rights to be there, but the uneasy standoff was another example of Beijing boosting its presence around the Arctic. One of Russia’s leading Arctic scientists, was arrested and charged with treason This time they

Saturday

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Germany will regret cutting Ukraine aid

It wasn’t so long ago that the German chancellor Olaf Scholz tried to convince fellow European leaders to do more to help Ukraine. Wherever he travelled in the spring, the message was the same: Vladimir Putin will only withdraw Russian troops ‘if he realises that he cannot win the war on the battlefield,’ Scholz told European social democrats at a meeting in April. Now his coalition has decided to cut German military aid to Ukraine by half, Reuters reported, based on a draft of the 2025 budget. Next year, Europe’s largest economy intends to spend just €4 billion on supporting Kyiv against Russian aggression. Germany’s finance minister Christian Lindner suggested at a press conference that this

Natasha Feroze

What is going on with Joe Biden?

11 min listen

This week, Joe Biden has faced further calls to step down from some of the most senior characters in the Democratic party. The President is currently isolating having tested positive for Covid, but remains defiant that he has no intention of giving up yet. Natasha Feroze speaks to Kate Andrews and Freddy Gray about whether the party can get rid of Biden, and discuss what the JD Vance-Trump economic policies could look like. 

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Kate Andrews, Adam Frank, David Hempleman-Adams, Svitlana Morenets and Michael Beloff

40 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Kate Andrews argues vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance is more MAGA than Trump (1:27); Adam Frank explains how super-earths could help us understand what life might look like on another planet (5:15); David Hempleman-Adams recounts his attempt to cross the Atlantic on a hydrogen ballon (14:31); from Ukraine, Svitlana Morenets reports on the battle to save Kharkiv (20:44); and, Michael Beloff takes us on a history of the Olympics (30:12).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Joe Biden and the truth about old age

Observing the tremulous travails of Joe Biden, I reflected that we’re in two minds about old age. On one hand we pay stiff-upper-lip-service to the stoicism of old people; on the other they’re a warning about what awaits us. (I say ‘us’ out of habit; I got used to always being the youngest person in the room having won my dream job when I was just 17, but I turned 65 this month so I’m officially old.) Perhaps because I so thoroughly got what I wanted, I’m not sad to see the back of youth Not wanting to see the gory details of what we can expect, we (understandably) stash

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Will the Paris Olympics be the final nail in Macron’s coffin?

The mayor of Paris went for a swim in the Seine on Wednesday and emerged invigorated. The water, said Anne Hidalgo, was ‘soft and wonderful’. Hidalgo had initially scheduled a date last month for her dip but the quality of the water didn’t pass muster so she was forced to postpone her PR stunt – until nine days before Paris welcomes the XXXIII Olympiad. Violence has rocked Paris this week There are no reports that Hidalgo is now laid up in bed with a nasty bacterial infection, so one must presume the Seine will be able to host several swimming events in the coming weeks. That was the good news

John Ferry John Ferry

When will Scotland’s ferries start to work?

It appears Scotland’s troubled Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow shipyard will be kept afloat. A further £14 million of public money has been injected into it, according to announcements this week. At the same time, the Scottish government also took the opportunity to confirm the nationalised yard will not be directly awarded a contract to replace state-owned ferry operator CalMac’s ageing fleet of small vessels. Instead, the contract will be put out to tender. This is the latest in what has become known as Scotland’s ferries fiasco. It started with an SNP government wanting to be seen to be rescuing commercial ship building on the Clyde just before the 2014 independence referendum. Then there

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Badenoch tears into Rayner

Back to the Commons, where Kemi Badenoch has been making waves. The shadow housing secretary has been ruffling feathers in her own party as its attention turns to a looming leadership contest and Badenoch has not been making life easy for opposition politicians either – and this time it’s Angela Rayner in the firing line. In just 13 minutes, Badenoch managed to tear apart the new Deputy Prime Minister, her politics and her party. First congratulating her rival on being appointed to such an esteemed position, Badenoch was quick to point out to how Rayner had grown up with a Conservative government, telling the Commons that the Tories will indeed

Steerpike Steerpike

Starmer’s army in private plane hypocrisy

Well, well, well. Off the back of his thumping majority, Sir Keir Starmer has been making good use of the perks of being premier. Given Labour’s long history of bashing Rishi Sunak for flying private, one might have thought that the fleet of government jets at their disposal would be stowed away in a hanger. That’s not quite the case… The Starmer army attitude towards private planes has changed quite significantly over the past year. At Labour’s party conference in October, Rachel Reeves criticised Sunak for his ‘private jet habit’, pledging to enforce tighter rules on ministerial use of private jets under a Labour government. In January, Angela Rayner accused Sunak of ‘jetting

Lucy Dunn

Tory leadership race latest: what’s going on?

14 min listen

The Conservatives need to choose a new leader, but first they need to agree on the process… Easier said than done. Lucy Dunn talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls about the latest on the upcoming leadership race: what will the race look like, who are the the runners and riders, and how do they rate Rishi Sunak’s performance as leader of the opposition? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.