Politics

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

Monday

David Swift

Israel shows that proportional representation is an awful idea

After the general election produced the most disproportionate result in history, there have been fresh calls to replace the first-past-the-post system with a fairer, more proportional system.  Usually, these arguments are heard mostly from the left, especially from the Lib Dems and the Greens. This time around it is supporters of Reform, who hold 0.8 per cent of the seats in the Commons despite winning 14.3 per cent of the vote, making the loudest calls for proportional representation (PR).  On the face it, they have a strong case. Under the current system millions of votes are wasted, and the seat share of most parties usually bears no resemblance to their

Katy Balls Katy Balls

David Lammy calls for Gaza ceasefire

David Lammy is visiting Israel and the Palestinian Territories – his first trip to the Middle East as Foreign Secretary. On his meeting list so far are Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Mustafa and relatives of the hostages taken on 7 October. The Foreign Secretary met Israeli President Isaac Herzog this morning. Of all the foreign policy challenges facing Keir Starmer’s government, Israel/Palestine is the most contentious internally. Since 7 October, the question of how much support to show either side has divided the Labour party. Unhappiness over Starmer’s initial delay to back calls for a ceasefire as well as comments about Israel’s right to self defence saw

Steerpike Steerpike

Badenoch best to beat ‘Reform dragon’, claims ex-MP

As Rishi Sunak prepares to step down, the race for a new Tory leader is underway. Although no one has officially announced they’ll run, there are already a number of names in the mix. Kemi Badenoch is a top contender, according to Conservative Home, which suggested that over a quarter of party members back the former business secretary – double the support of her closest competitors Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat, each on 13 per cent. And now Badenoch has received a public endorsement from her one-time parliamentary private secretary Alexander Stafford. The ex-MP for Rother Valley, who supported Boris Johnson throughout the Partygate scandal and campaigned for Liz Truss

Bryan Appleyard

That Trump photo is magnificently real

A cloudless sky, an American flag and, to the left, something that looks like a music stand. A huddle of men in black suits, one in sunglasses staring straight at the camera, the others, arms stretched, are clustering round a fatter, older man whose face is streaked with blood, his fist raised as if fist-bumping God. This, in Donald Trump’s mind, is just what he is doing for he has survived the assassin’s bullet: something neither Kennedy nor even Lincoln achieved. The composition, taken in near impossible circumstances, is breathtaking both for Evan Vucci, the photographer, and for Trump. It is the dream shot, a hero shot, taken a few months

Steerpike Steerpike

Failed Nats receive ‘golden goodbyes’ worth thousands

Back to Scotland, the land of failing upwards. Very recently, Humza Yousaf held the top political job in the country for just over a year – despite the SNP’s former cabinet minister having a record of underdelivering while he held the posts of transport, justice and health secretary. Now the First Minister is John Swinney, a failed nationalist leader who was previously forced to step down after his party performed poorly in elections. Not much has changed there, eh? Yet it transpires that these are just two examples of many who have received thousands of pounds in resettlement grants over their political careers despite not achieving, um, all that much.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump the unifier?

Donald Trump has been revising his big convention speech in light of his brush with death at the weekend. ‘I basically had a speech that was an unbelievable rip-roarer,’ he told two interviewers yesterday. It was brutal – really good, really tough… I threw it out… I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is, and how corrupt and crooked, even if it’s true. Had this not happened, we had a speech that was pretty well set that was extremely tough. Now, we have a speech that is more unifying. He’s Donald Trump, not Mahatma Gandhi Trump the Unifier-in-Chief?

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour splits emerge over puberty blockers

Sir Keir’s Labour government may have only been in power for a week, but already it is experiencing party splits. The Sunday Telegraph reported this weekend that allies of Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner fear she is being ‘frozen out’ of the top team — and now new Health Secretary Wes Streeting is facing dissent over his puberty blocker plans. Streeting announced last week that, following the findings of the Cass review into gender services, there would be a permanent ban placed on puberty-halting drugs used on children with gender dysphoria. The use of these meds had already been temporarily paused by the NHS after the publication of Dr Hilary’s rather

Duncan Gardham

How did security miss the Trump shooter?

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shot dead by a secret service sniper following the attempt on former president Trump’s life at Butler, Pennsylvania, had donated $15 to ActBlue, a political action committee which raises money for Democratic causes. State voter records also show that Crooks was a registered Republican. Either way, it is too early to be certain of his motive. At a news conference on Sunday, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said it was ‘surprising’ that the shooter was able to open fire What we do know is that since 9/11, domestic terror plots have outstripped the threat from al-Qaeda and Isis in the US, accounting for more than

Sam Leith Sam Leith

It wasn’t just Trump who dodged a bullet. It was all of us

Hard not to think that that’s the election in the bag for The Donald. Surviving an assassination attempt was always going to be a bounce in the polls, no question. Trump not only survived one but – improbably enough, given he’s a 78-year-old man and he was surrounded by a passel of burly, supposedly highly trained security guys whose only job was to put him on the deck and sit on his head till the fun was good and over – fought his way to his feet and had the presence of mind to raise a fist of defiance and shout ‘fight, fight, fight,’ to his supporters. I don’t think

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Evan Vucci’s Trump photo will define (and perhaps shape) history

History was made in Pennsylvania last night as much by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as by Evan Vucci of the Associated Press. Vucci’s image shows a presidential candidate, blood from a bullet wound on his face, his fist raised defiantly, with the US flag behind him in the sky. Anyone in my line of work would have instantly recognised that this is a once-in-a-generation photograph – certain to becoming one of the defining images of American history. The best photographers tend to be lucky rather a lot Several bullets had been fired. More could have been forthcoming, but Vucci didn’t take cover. He was there in the thick

James Heale James Heale

Milwaukee reluctantly prepares for Trumpmania

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee will host America’s conservative elite for the next five days – including Donald Trump, who has just survived an assassination attempt. This true-blue city has been chosen to host the Republican National Convention, primarily because of it’s the largest city in swing state Wisconsin. Around 50,000 delegates, politicians, apparatchiks and journalists are arriving here for the formal coronation of Trump – much to the chagrin of many locals. The city voted 79 per cent for Biden in 2020, with Trump subsequently seeking to overturn thousands of votes. ‘I don’t want them here’ was the reaction of Fred Smith, 54, when he saw the giant Republican elephant, emblazoned

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

American politics has a history of violence

When there are acts of violence on a campaign trail, we often hear about how this is a commentary on our uniquely toxic, hyper-partisan times. You won’t have to go far to find people now seeking to blame Donald Trump for stirring up the forces that almost killed him last night. But running for president in the United States is – and always has been – a very risky business. Every major candidate is an assassination target, and is given security detail to reflect this obvious fact.  Let’s look at the history. In 1835, Richard Lawrence tried to shoot President Andrew Jackson. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John

James Heale James Heale

James Heale, Svitlana Morenets, Philip Hensher, Francis Beckett and Rupert Christiansen

38 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale analyses the state of the Conservative leadership race (1:09); Svitlana Morenets reports from the site of the Kyiv children’s hospital bombed this week (5:56); Philip Hensher examines the ‘Cool Queer Life’ of Thom Gunn (12:13); Francis Beckett reviews ‘The Assault on the State’ arguing in favour of bureaucracy (21:20); and, Rupert Christiansen reveals why he has fallen out of love with Wagner (27:05).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

Gus Carter Gus Carter

A brief history of presidential assassinations

That image of Donald Trump, blood streaming down his face, fist raised in front of the banner of the republic, will be a defining photo of the 21st century. Someone attempted to kill the former and would-be president, they missed, and Trump survived. His response to his followers? ‘Fight’. We can expect to see him on stage at the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee, a bullet wound to his right ear clearly visible. How might America respond? The man who shot Reagan was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster and the Robert De Nero film Taxi Driver There have been four successful assassinations of United States presidents –

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: politicians condemn Trump shooting

Today’s British news is dominated by Donald Trump narrowly escaped with his life after an attempted assassination at his rally in Pennsylvania. Images of the aftermath show Trump being escorted away with a bloodied ear, as one spectator was killed and two others are in critical condition. Secret service agents shot and killed the gunman, whom the FBI has identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. On Sky News this morning, journalist Tom Newton Dunn, who was present at the rally, gave his account to Trevor Phillips. Newton Dunn said that it took a few seconds before the crowd realised they were hearing high velocity rounds, and ‘that’s when the terror

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Coffee House Shots live: election aftermath

59 min listen

Join Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Kate Andrews, along with special guest Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, for a live edition of Coffee House Shots recorded earlier this week. A week on from Sir Jacob losing his seat, he declares ‘I can speak freely now’. So, why does he think the Conservatives lost the election? The team also answer a range of audience questions, including: how will the Conservatives win voters back? Is Nigel Farage here to stay? And what’s their verdict on Labour’s first week? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy. 

Jacob Heilbrunn

Biden’s assassination statement is tepid

Trump displayed great presence of mind in raising his fist in defiance and shouting ‘fight’ as secret service agents sought to move him to safety. He now becomes a living martyr for the MAGA cause. Not since Theodore Roosevelt continued speaking for an hour after he was shot in October 1912 has an American president displayed similar toughness. The FBI has identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who the Washington Post says was registered Republican. Crooks was killed by secret service agents after firing multiple shots from outside the rally venue, on a rooftop several hundred yards from the podium. Crooks

Teresa Mull

What I saw at the Trump shooting

Butler, Pennsylvania The crowd had waited for hours in the heat for Trump to show up. When he did arrive, they cheered when he asked if they minded if he went off the teleprompter. He had just been turning his head to point to a graph showing how many fewer illegal deportations there were when he was in office. Many of them stood up, apparently fearlessly, and cheered as the president was ushered off stage Then there were some popping sounds that, from where I was far in the back, close to the exit, sounded like fireworks. A pause followed and Trump disappeared from view. The people around me were

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Today, we’re all MAGA

When Ronald Reagan was shot on 30 March 1981, his wound was not immediately noticed. It wasn’t until he started bleeding from the mouth that the car was diverted from the White House to the hospital. The story goes that upon arrival, the president said to the surgeons, ‘I just hope you’re Republicans.’ A doctor is said to have replied: ‘Today, Mr. President, we’re all Republicans.’ Americans have become increasingly fearful of political violence Let’s hope this anecdote is never debunked. It’s too good a story: about Americans who did not hesitate to put their country before the politics that so often plagues it. The attack on Reagan was the

Richard Rout

How the Greens conquered the countryside

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the rise of the Greens in rural constituencies. Now, after standing as the Conservative candidate in Waveney Valley and losing to the Green party’s co-leader – while being savaged by the rural Greens – it is time to revisit the subject. I did not expect to come across so many Green-Reform waverers The last piece I wrote drew both delight and outrage in Green circles. I at once found it quoted on their leaflets in the constituency and was told I would rue the day I penned it. The reason? I acknowledged their hard work while highlighting their rank hypocrisy and, frankly, bananas