Politics

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

Wednesday

11 Sep 2024

Is this the worst tribute so far to Queen Elizabeth II?

An official tribute to the late, much-missed Queen Elizabeth II will, in years to come, be unveiled in London’s St James’s Park. But progress on the memorial is far from speedy. The design of the statue or sculpture will not be revealed by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee until 2026. Even then, there is every chance that something dreadfully inappropriate or misjudged will end up being chosen. After all, memorial statues have the potential to go hideously wrong, as the latest example – a sculpture of the late Queen, Prince Philip and two corgis – recently unveiled in Antrim County Gardens in Belfast, has so unfortunately demonstrated. Brennan’s dismal sculpture

Steerpike

Watch: Scholz loses his temper as Germany’s migration debate rages

Ding ding! It’s not just in Westminster that the debate over illegal migration has got politicians tearing chunks out of each other. Over in Berlin, an emotional Olaf Scholz got up in front of the Bundestag to give his opponents a piece of his mind. The Chancellor’s speech was meant to be about the budget, but soon veered off track onto migration. In front of a room of rowdy, heckling parliamentarians, the Chancellor attacked the CDU leader of the opposition, Friedrich Merz: ‘You are the type of politician who believes that he has solved the migration issue simply with an interview in Bild am Sonntag. That’s not how it works in reality!’

Steerpike

Labour MP: Afros should be a ‘protected characteristic’

Prisoners are out, the unions are striking and pensioners are having their winter fuel payments pulled. With Starmer’s Britain now bearing increasingly less resemblance to the land of milk and honey we were promised before the election, it’s good to see Labour MPs resorting to their default setting: banning things they just don’t like. Whether it’s smoking outside nightclubs, chicken shops near schools or hereditaries in the House of Lords, reaching for the legislative button to avoid having to tax or spend even more. Now it seems there’s a new example to add to the list. Labour MP Paulette Hamilton is teaming up with, er, Spice Girl Mel B, to

Kate Andrews

Britain’s GDP has stagnated – again

There was no economic growth in July, according to the Office for National Statistics. The latest GDP figures show that a boost in services output – 0.1 per cent – was offset by a tumble in production and construction output – 0.8 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively – leading to no overall growth in the month of the election. It’s surprisingly bad news, as markets had expected a modest 0.2 per cent increase in July. Instead, Britain had two consecutive months of no growth. There is also growing concern that the improvement in services output in July won’t necessarily carry into the latter half of the summer. The

Katy Balls

Trump vs Harris debate: who won?

14 min listen

Last night saw the first Trump vs Harris debate and the consensus seems to be that Harris came out on top. She managed to avoid sticky issues about her political past and goaded Trump into some rambling and – at times – outrageous remarks. What did we learn? Also today, we have had new figures on the economy with GDP flatlining for the second month in a row. Does this vindicate Rachel Reeves’ tough decision on the winter fuel allowance? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and John McTernan. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Limor Simhony Philpott

Hamas has been defeated – but the fight goes on

Has Hamas finally been defeated in Gaza, nearly a year after it launched the most deadly attack in Israel’s history? Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has proclaimed that Hamas no longer has a military capacity in Gaza. Hamas has indeed suffered a considerable blow since October. Many of its tunnels – one of its greatest strategic assists – have been destroyed entirely or partially. Many of its commanders have been killed. Two of its top three leaders, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa have been eliminated, as was the organisation’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran. Although the precise number of killed Hamas terrorists is not known, it is substantial.

Gavin Mortimer

The EU is disintegrating before our eyes

Germany’s decision to reintroduce border controls in an attempt to halt mass immigration is awkward for Keir Starmer. A fortnight ago the British Prime Minister, a friend of European free movement, visited Berlin and among the issues he discussed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were trade, defence and immigration. Things are so bad that Draghi admitted to having ‘nightmares’ about Europe’s future if nothing is done to halt the ‘slow agony’ of economic decline A few days before Starmer’s visit, three people were killed at a diversity festival by a suspected Syrian refugee. Germany’s decision to tighten its borders (initially for six months but this could be extended) is partly a

Steerpike

Donald Trump’s Taylor Swift nightmare

Look What You Made Me Do. It seems that last night’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris convinced one of America’s biggest icons to nail their colours to the mast. Fresh from conquering Wembley on her ‘Eras’ mega-tour, Taylor Swift has now thrown her lot in with the Democrat Vice-President. Writing on Instagram, the megastar shared her support for Harris, saying that she ‘fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them”. ‘I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,’ the Shake It

Steerpike

Watch: the key moments in the Trump-Harris debate

On Tuesday night the former President Donald Trump and the current Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in Philadelphia for the first presidential debate since Joe Biden’s disastrous fall from grace earlier this year. The debate, moderated by ABC, took place over 90 minutes, and saw the candidates clash on immigration, Trump’s rallies, and Afghanistan. A snap CNN poll commissioned after the debate saw 63 per cent say Harris had won, compared to 37 per cent for Trump. Here are the key moments from the debate: Kamala Harris goads Trump over his rallies As the section of the debate on immigration began – arguably one of Kamala Harris’s weakest areas – the

Kate Andrews

Donald Trump was his own worst enemy in this debate

‘So I think you’ve heard tonight two very different visions for our country,’ Vice President Kamala Harris insisted in her closing remarks at last night’s presidential debate. Viewers, I suspect, may disagree. This was not a debate where we learned anything new. There was no great ‘vision’ put forward by Harris or Donald Trump. Public policy was barely touched upon. If what the candidates discussed in terms of specific plans is really their great vision for the United States – distorting the housing market, jacking up prices on consumers – then Americans should be very worried indeed. For a country facing a myriad of economic and existential problems, nothing mentioned

Amber Duke

Americans were failed by the Trump-Harris debate

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump was a missed opportunity for both candidates and, as such, a disappointment for American voters. Trump had three points he needed to land against Kamala Harris: that voters cannot trust her because she is constantly changing her policy positions without a satisfactory explanation; that she covered up President Joe Biden’s cognitive deficiencies from the American people and then participated in a political coup to take him out when it was politically convenient for her; and that she has had three and a half years to do the things she claims she will do on ‘Day One’

Katja Hoyer

Germany’s immigration crackdown will heap pressure on Brussels

In a drastic move to curb illegal immigration, the German government has announced that it will tighten controls on its borders. Long-term measures to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering the country are being discussed in cross-party talks in Berlin. This represents paradigm shift on immigration. Germany opened its borders to over one million asylum seekers during the refugee crisis of 2015, and it did so – outwardly at least – with a sense of optimism. Then-chancellor Angela Merkel’s rallying call of ‘we can do this’ quickly turned into an official policy of ‘Wilkommenskultur’ – ‘Welcoming Culture’. But nearly a decade later, the cultural, social and economic strain of

Charles Lipson

How Donald Trump lost the debate

If Kamala Harris is elected president – and that’s a big ‘if’ since the race is still tight – she won it on the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. True, her answers were often vague, but they were also inspirational and forward-looking. She avoided the ‘word salads’ that have so often marred her (rare) comments without a teleprompter. She was clear and articulate throughout. Harris showed the skill of a professional politician as she avoided being pinned down on her most extreme policy pronouncements from 2019-2020, often denying she ever made them. Trump could have pressed her on those but seldom did. Trump’s biggest problem was himself. His answers were angry, defensive,

Jawad Iqbal

When will the families of Lucy Letby’s victims be allowed to move on?

When Lucy Letby was convicted last year of murdering seven infants and attempting to kill seven others it seemed that the parents of her victims had at last secured justice. But in recent months, Letby’s crimes – for which she is serving 15 whole-life sentences – have become the subject of heated debate. Victims’ families have said that the campaign to free the killer nurse has made them question humanity. ‘All of this noise has caused enormous additional distress to the parents who have already suffered far too much’ Letby’s crimes are now, once again, back in the headlines, as the public inquiry set up to examine what happened at the Countess

Felicity Gillespie

Nurseries need funding more than universities

Over a third of UK universities are in financial trouble, according to Universities UK, the group that represents many of them and is currently lobbying the government for a lifeline. Ministers say they are ‘looking at all options’, but vice chancellors will find the task of convincing the cash-strapped Treasury a difficult task: new data reveals how disproportionately funded our education system is in favour of higher education. The latest OECD Education at a Glance data for 2024 makes painful reading for university chiefs. Comparing the education spending of 37 OECD countries, the UK has the third highest total per student spending on university and college education. According to their calculations, our national

Tuesday

10 Sep 2024

Stephen Daisley

The real significance of the winter fuel row

The question of whether to scrap winter fuel payments to all but the poorest retirees is a very British debate, in that it’s any sort of debate at all. Rachel Reeves’s reforms are estimated to save £1.3 billion this year and £1.5 billion in subsequent years. That’s not nothing but, for a sense of scale, it’s equivalent to half the devolved Welsh government’s annual climate change budget. Meanwhile, the UK has a fiscal deficit of £120 billion and the Treasury is borrowing £1,780 per capita to meet public expenditure priorities. Government borrowing is at its fourth-highest level since 1993. Public sector net debt stands at 99.4 per cent of GDP,

Oscar Edmondson

Tory leadership latest: ‘Melmentum’ runs out

13 min listen

It’s been a busy day in Westminster today. Labour avoided a large scale rebellion on the winter fuel allowance and Mel Stride was eliminated from the Tory leadership race – not to mention the sale of a certain weekly politics magazine. Oscar Edmondson discusses with Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Katy Balls

The winners and losers from today’s Tory leadership vote

The names of the final four candidates left in the Tory leadership contest are in. Mel Stride has been eliminated from the contest, with just 16 MP backers. That leaves Robert Jenrick, who leads with 33 backers, Kemi Badenoch in second on 28 MPs and James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat who are tied in third place with 21 backers each. The four leadership hopefuls will now head to party conference where they will use the four-day event to try to prove to their parliamentary colleagues and the grassroots that they have what it takes to lead the party in opposition. Stride’s exit was largely expected Stride’s exit was largely expected.

Alexander Horne

The Apple case is a huge win for the European Commission

Apple must pay €13 billion (£11 billion) in unpaid taxes, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled, bringing to an end a long-running dispute involving the tech company and the government of Ireland. The ruling by the EU’s top court is a huge win for the European Commission (and the outgoing Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager) against aggressive tax planning by large multinational companies. It is a major blow to the Irish government. Following the publication of the judgment, the Irish government seemed positively disappointed The case has a long and convoluted history. In 2016, the Commission determined that subsidiary companies belonging to the Apple Group had, historically, received tax advantages that

James Heale

Labour’s winter fuel woes are a sign of things to come

On paper, the result was a success for Labour. Despite excited reports, government whips managed to keep their party’s great winter fuel revolt down to 40-odd abstentions and a single rebel. Poor Jon Trickett was the only government MP to troop into the Opposition lobby; given the treatment meted out to the child benefit rebels, he could now face a similar punishment of losing the Labour whip. By 348 to 228, MPs voted down the Conservative motion today to reverse the cut, with the government’s majority dropping from 167 to 120. Yet today’s victory is a sign of worse to come in the future. The ninety-minute debate in parliament was