Politics

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

Tuesday

8 Oct 2024

When will Germany’s economy bounce back?

Germany was once the powerhouse of Europe; for decades, its economy has helped drive the continent’s growth. No longer. Berlin’s economy ministry plans to downgrade its growth forecast for this year. The German government now expects the economy to shrink by 0.2 per cent in 2024 – down from a previous estimate of 0.3 per cent growth, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports. Is this the medicine the German economy needs to get it back on to its feet? Germany appears to be on the brink of a second year in a row in which its economy is going in the wrong direction. German output contracted 0.3 per cent last year and the

Jawad Iqbal

Hamish Falconer and the trouble with Labour’s ‘Red Princes’

The appearance on our television screens of one Hamish Falconer, the newly-elected Labour MP for Lincoln, tells us much more about Keir Starmer’s government than meets the eye. Falconer is not exactly a household name, but has already been elevated to the role of junior minister in the Foreign Office. He is an ex-pupil of Westminster School and was elected to parliament at his first attempt in July. Just a fortnight or so later, Falconer – who spent his pre-MP career working at the Foreign Office – was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Few voters outside of Lincoln will have heard

Niko Vorobyov

Does Singapore’s death penalty really deter drug crimes?

On Friday morning, Azwan bin Bohari was marched to the gallows. The 47-year-old Singaporean, himself an addict, was convicted of trafficking 26.5 grams of heroin in 2019. Despite pleas for the Singaporean authorities to halt it, and the fact Azwan was waiting on the outcome of a legal appeal, the execution controversially went ahead. Azwan’s appeal that half of what he was caught with was for his own personal consumption – which would have placed him below the threshold for execution – was dismissed by the court. Singapore prides itself on being clean, safe and orderly, telling the world this is because when they say ‘zero tolerance’, they mean it.

Steerpike

Sue Gray’s allies turn on Starmer

Another day, another Sue Gray-related drama. Even though the ex-civil servant has resigned from the role of Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff after becoming the story herself, she is still managing to generate headlines in her absentia. In an attempt to reboot his government, the Prime Minister swapped out Gray for Labour campaign guru Morgan McSweeney – but the negative briefings haven’t stopped quite yet. Now her allies are on the warpath, even hitting out at the PM. Oh dear. As reported by the Times, Gray’s allies have attacked claims that the former civil servant had presided over a dysfunctional culture in Downing Street. One insisted the PM’s one-time

Mark Galeotti

Vladimir Putin’s 72nd may have been his unhappiest birthday yet

Happy birthday, Mr President? With Vladimir Putin turning 72 on Monday, this has become an opportunity for the Kremlin’s spin doctors to present their ideal notion of the septuagenarian sovereign. Ambitious courtiers have been competitively performing their sycophancy, as if in an over-the-top production of King Lear. Posters were anonymously pasted up in Kyiv, vowing that ‘Putin will come and restore order’ The ponderous official paper of record, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, offered up a portrait of the diligent chief executive: ‘Russian President Vladimir Putin will celebrate his birthday in a working environment. On October 7, the head of state will meet with CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States‘) leaders who will arrive

Jonathan Spyer

Was Hamas’s massacre the Middle East’s Franz Ferdinand moment?

Travelling through the Gaza border area on the morning of October 8, 2023, I was struck by a sense of familiarity. The scenes of destruction, the burnt buildings, and the smashed-up cars by the side of the road were, of course, profoundly shocking. But they were not, at least to me, unfathomable. Unlike most of my fellow Israeli citizens, I had spent a good part of the preceding decade in close proximity to the wars in Syria and Iraq. I knew then, immediately, what had just happened in the kibbutz of Israel’s southern region was what happens when a Sunni jihadi organisation finds a way through to the helpless civilian

Monday

7 Oct 2024

Isabel Hardman

Do the Tories need to worry about the winter fuel row?

How long are the Tories going to campaign on the winter fuel payment? It was their main line of attack on Monday at Work and Pensions questions in the House of Commons, with a number of Conservative MPs asking ministers to say how many pensioners were going to die this winter because of the restrictions to the benefit. The Opposition has been dogged in its pursuit of the answer to this particular question, not least because Labour produced its own analysis in 2017 which suggested there would be around 4,000 deaths. It has been the main line of attack for the Conservatives, along with Labour’s freebie culture, since this new

Isabel Hardman

Starmer insists he hasn’t stepped back support for Israel

Keir Starmer took a different tone on Israel today. That change of tone is to a certain extent to be expected, given the Prime Minister was marking the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks. He reflected in the Commons this afternoon that there were still nearly 100 hostages unaccounted for, and families across Israel still feeling ‘acute’ pain after atrocities committed by Hamas. He opened by saying the attack was ‘born of hatred, targeted not just at individuals, but at Jewish communities, at their way of life and at the state of Israel – the symbol of Jewish security to the world’. Later on, he told MPs that the

Ross Clark

What’s the truth about ‘irregular migration’ levels?

Should we trust a new study that claims that the level of irregular migration in the UK has essentially not changed in the past 16 years? That is the assertion being made in the reporting of a project called Measuring Irregular Migration, or MIrreM – a collaboration between Oxford University and 17 other universities across Europe and North America. ‘Irregular Migration to the UK and other large European countries is same as 2008, research shows,’ states a headline in the Guardian. This, needless to say, flies in the face of reports over the weekend that nearly 1,000 migrants arrived in small boats in a single day. Visibly, irregular migration appears

James Heale

Will Starmer’s No.10 reset work?

2 min listen

Who’s in charge in Downing Street? Until recently, the answer to that question would tend to reveal whether you were a Sue Gray or Morgan McSweeney supporter. Keir Starmer’s two most senior aides were viewed to be in a power struggle over the direction of the government. But with Gray’s resignation this weekend, it is McSweeney who is running the show. What direction will he take No.10? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Kate Andrews

Can Kamala Harris rewrite her political past?

Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast interview with Vice President Kamala Harris was largely a love-in. But when you have been actively avoiding the media for the majority of your presidential campaign, even the most innocuous of questions can accidentally bite. ‘You don’t do too many long-form interviews,’ Cooper put to Vice President Harris at the start of their 45 minute podcast recording. ‘What made you want to do Call Her Daddy today?’ It made complete sense to kick off Harris’s ‘media blitz’ with a long interview One answer is listenership. Republican circles may scoff at the platform Cooper gives to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, but those topics – and

John McTernan

Morgan McSweeney is the new Peter Mandelson

It’s an iron law of politics that when the staffer becomes the story they have to go. Dominic Cummings had to leave Boris Johnson, and Theresa May’s joint chiefs Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy both took the blame for the disastrous 2017 election result. The reshuffle resolves a perplexing political question Lobby journalists leaving Liverpool at the end of Labour conference had concluded that Sue Gray would have to leave the role of as chief of staff to Keir Starmer. Yet her resignation yesterday came as a surprise. This is of a piece with Starmer’s leadership – he doesn’t brief his intentions in advance, but he can often be swift

Steerpike

Ex-Green leader declares war on strawberries

Who remembers Natalie Bennett, the Aussie-accented eco-warrior whose car crash interviews briefly enlivened the 2015 election campaign? The onetime Green leader has since been installed as one of our great unelected masters in the House of Lords. But it seems that all that the institutional knowledge there has not yet rubbed off on Bennett, who continues to suffer a chronic case of foot-in-mouth syndrome. Many such cases… In her never-ending quest to make life worse for the British people, Bennett has found a new scourge on which to direct her ire: strawberries. Yes, that’s right, apparently growing the popular red fruit in colder months is killing the planet and must

Matthew Lynn

It’s too late for tariffs to save British steel

Cheap Chinese imports will flood the market. Even more jobs will be lost, and the country’s industrial base will be even weaker than it already is. UK Steel, the lobby group for the industry, has today called for tariffs to stop the last remaining steel mills being wiped out by unfair competition from lower cost rivals. It would hardly be any great surprise if a protectionist, union-dominated Labour government agreed to that. There is, however, just one snag. The steel industry has already long been neglected – and there is no point in trying to rescue it now. It is futile to provoke Chinese retaliation against industries that actually make

Steerpike

Watch: Labour Red Prince flounders in GB News grilling

It’s been a golden start in politics for Hamish Falconer. The son of former Lord Chancellor Charlie, the ex-Westminster boy triumphed at his first tilt for parliament in July before being appointed a fortnight later as the Minister for the Middle East. Highly regarded by many in the Foreign Office, it was to some excitement then that he made his media round debut today on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel. Unfortunately for Falconer, his first series of TV interviews was not one to remember. Appearing on GB News this morning, he was completely skewered by host Isabel Webster over Sue Gray’s Downing Street departure and

Gareth Roberts

Why is Gary Lineker worth all the bother?

There’s been another development in the wearying saga of Gary Lineker, the over-salaried presenter of football on the BBC and banal takes on Twitter/ X. An email leak suggests that a draft BBC statement preparing to announce his departure from Match Of The Day is in the works, but he has laughed this off on screen and told a reporter to ‘f-off’ in the street. I strongly suspect that not a single viewer would be lost if he departed from Match Of The Day The leaked message, seen by the Daily Mail, purports to be from the broadcaster’s director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, and features a statement announcing the former England striker’s departure after 25 years

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Israel’s triumphant response to 7 October

One year after the brutal attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel’s global reputation has undergone a remarkable transformation. Far from being undermined by the actions it has taken in Gaza and beyond, Israel’s standing has been fortified, its image strengthened with steel. While some voices –particularly in the West – have feigned concern about Israel sacrificing its international standing in its pursuit of victory, the reality is starkly different. Israel’s reputation has not been diminished but has evolved into one of decisiveness, strategic intelligence, and strength. This return to a decisive military posture restores the Israeli reputation of old Much of the concern surrounding Israel’s actions in the last year

Katy Balls

Will Keir Starmer’s No. 10 reset work?

Who’s in charge in Downing Street? Until recently, the answer to that question would tend to reveal whether you were a Sue Gray or Morgan McSweeney supporter. Keir Starmer’s two most senior aides were viewed to be in a power struggle over the direction of the government. As Chief of Staff, Gray was ultimately in charge of the day-to-day running of government, yet it was McSweeney who was meant to set the political direction. There were complaints that the operation was not sufficiently joined up and that it lacked a clear political direction. ‘There is no narrative,’ complains a party figure. ‘It’s all quite disjointed.’ As for what that focus

Gavin Mortimer

Macron would rather anger Israel than the banlieues

Emmanuel Macron has chosen to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel on 7 October by criticising their response. In a radio interview, the president of France announced that ‘the priority today is to return to a political solution, to stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza’. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the remarks shameful and said it was a ‘disgrace’ to call for an arms embargo on Israel. 1,600 French Jews have emigrated from France to Israel in the last year The distinguished French Jewish writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, said on Sunday that he was ‘saddened and shocked’ by his president’s comments, particularly given

Steerpike

Sue Gray’s top five lowlights

Change is the flavour of the month and nobody knows that better than Sir Keir Starmer’s top team, which on Sunday saw the PM’s chief of staff Sue Gray swap out for Labour campaign guru Morgan McSweeney after weeks of negative briefings about the former civil servant. Gray is down but not quite out – taking on an ‘advisory’ position as ‘envoy for the regions and nations’ – and as she moves into her next role, Mr S thought it would be worth reflecting on the ex-Starmer staffer’s biggest lowlights in the top job… Previous professional controversies If readers cast their minds back to March 2023, they will remember Sue