Politics

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

Monday

James Heale James Heale

Infected blood scandal was ‘no accident’, says report

17 min listen

The Infected Blood Inquiry has finally concluded after a five-year investigation. This lunchtime, the inquiry’s chair Sir Brian Langstaff said thousands of deaths could have been prevented and the ‘worst ever’ NHS scandal, which saw thousands of Britons between 1970 and 1998 become infected by contaminated blood, could ‘largely, though not entirely, have been avoided’. Will the NHS change after change after this latest scandal?  James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. 

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The infected blood scandal should make us think twice about revering the NHS

Blood is central to the myths British people tell themselves. One of the many consequences of the contaminated blood scandal is that it may blow those myths apart. For if this scandal can make us face the reality of how badly we are governed, and indeed how selfishly we govern ourselves, then some good may come from so much needless suffering. The scandal began in the 1970s. At the start of that decade, Richard Titmuss, the great social democratic theorist, placed blood at the centre of the justification for the British welfare state with an argument that complacent we Brits could not help but feel reflected rather well on us.

Jim Lawley

Javier Milei won’t stop insulting Pedro Sanchez’s wife

The Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires was recalled to Madrid yesterday after Argentina’s president Javier Milei described the wife of Spain’s prime minister as ‘corrupt’. Today Spain’s foreign ministry summoned Argentina’s ambassador in Madrid to demand an apology.  Albares declared that unless Milei apologised, Spain’s government would ‘take any measures deemed necessary to defend our sovereignty’  Milei, who was speaking at a rally in Madrid, also mocked Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez for taking a five-day break last month in order to decide if he wanted to continue as prime minister. Even so, it seems something of an exaggeration for Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, to describe Milei’s words

Limor Simhony Philpott

The ICC’s desire to arrest Netanyahu is far from impartial

In a dramatic announcement, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, declared today that he has applied for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. He has applied for three more for the Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniya. On Hamas, Khan emphasised crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, taking hostages, rape and other sexual violence committed as part of a ‘widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups’ as reasons for issuing the warrants. The chief prosecutor didn’t include alleged crimes perpetrated by Hamas again

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will the NHS change after the infected blood scandal?

The victims of the infected blood scandal have had to wait a very long time for there to be a public inquiry into what happened to them and the loved ones they lost, let alone for the report itself. The reason they wanted a public inquiry was that it would have the powers that other independent inquiries would not. They have also hoped it will lead to proper compensation, to conclusions that will stop another scandal with similar roots, and to a line being drawn under an injustice that has been ignored by the establishment, including the NHS, for too long. It is not yet clear if any of those

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Infected blood scandal was ‘no accident’, says report

The Infected Blood Inquiry has finally concluded after a five-year investigation. This lunchtime, the inquiry’s chair Sir Brian Langstaff said thousands of deaths could have been prevented and the ‘worst ever’ NHS scandal, which saw thousands of Britons between 1970 and 1998 become infected by contaminated blood, could ‘largely, though not entirely, have been avoided’. The 2,527-page report finds that the ‘life shattering’ scandal was made worse by a ‘subtle, pervasive and chilling’ cover-up extending to both the government and NHS: ‘The response of those in authority served to compound people’s suffering.’ Langstaff – a former High Court judge – found that the ‘scale of what happened is horrifying’ with

Steerpike Steerpike

Bank of England’s £80k social media advertising spend

Once upon a time, the Bank of England was headed by a series of anonymous figures, whose identities remained largely unknown to the public. Yet now, in the age of the Monetary Policy Committee, the Governor and his team have become familiar figures in the financial world – thanks partly to Liz Truss’s regular swipes at Andrew Bailey et al. So it is perhaps no surprise then that the BoE has stepped up its spending on social media – with even Bailey making a guest appearance on the Bank’s TikTok account. So keen is the Bank to promote its work online that it has just shelled out £2,417 on equipment

Andrew Tettenborn

Press freedom means protecting Julian Assange

James Cleverly won’t be able to move the Julian Assange file out of his inbox quite yet after all. The High Court has allowed Assange to appeal once more against extradition to the US on the basis that no sufficient assurances have been received over his ability to rely on the First Amendment if tried there. We don’t know what the result will be (today’s hearing merely gave permission to appeal, with no guarantee as to its outcome). Nevertheless, we should still think twice before we hope that the appeal will ultimately be dismissed, thus allowing the final removal of someone who has been a thorn in the UK authorities’

Sean Rayment

Raisi’s successor is unlikely to end Iran’s western shadow war

Even before Tehran had formally announced the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, conspiracy theories as to whether foul play was to blame began coming in rapidly. Was Israel’s Mossad, the go-to organisation Iran likes to blame for almost any catastrophe that befalls the Islamic Republic, behind the helicopter crash? Was it the CIA, the same organisation which swept the Shah to power in a coup d’état in 1953? Or was it one of many internal enemies Raisi had managed to accumulate after his years in power? Raisi, after all, had no shortage of enemies both within and outside the regime. He was responsible for the mass executions of  an estimated

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Salman Rushdie has exposed the great lie of a ‘Free Palestine’

This is what people must mean by the phrase ‘adults in the room’. After seven months of left-wing hotheads damning Israel as the source of every ill in the Middle East – if not the world – finally we have a cool, still voice venturing an alternative take. Perhaps, the voice says, Hamas is the problem. And perhaps those who call themselves progressive should think twice before making excuses for such a ‘fascist’ movement that would have them up against a wall quicker than you could say ‘Free Palestine’. Finally, wisdom cuts through the noise. When it comes to radical Islam, this man knows whereof he speaks It’s Salman Rushdie.

Steerpike Steerpike

Could Corbyn be excluded from Labour for good?

Jeremy Corbyn is back in the spotlight again, causing yet more issues for his former party. The ex-Labour leader who at one point fancied his chances of becoming Britain’s prime minister currently sits as an Independent MP after his suspension four years ago. Now, however, he faces being excluded from the party for good. Talk about a fall from grace… Suspended from Labour in 2020 after he rejected the findings of an Equality and Human Rights report on antisemitism in the party, Corbyn has remained Islington North’s Independent MP ever since. But the politician’s bridge-building efforts have been rather minimal — and not much helped by the recent discovery that he

Steerpike Steerpike

EU sends its ‘sincere condolences’ to Iran

Oh dear. It seems that the Eurocrats of Brussels have blundered again. Following the news of the Iranian president’s death, most western governments have chosen to keep a dignified silence. Hardly a surprise, perhaps, given that President Raisi was, in the words of Sky News, the ‘man who launched the first direct attack on Israel in his country’s history and a hardliner on whose watch hundreds of Iranians have been killed in the brutal repression of recent women-led protests.’ Not necessarily the kind of person who necessarily inspires the warmest of tributes from self-described democrats then. So it was to some surprise that Charles Michel, the President of the European

Jason M. Brodsky

Raisi’s death has ruined the Ayatollah’s succession plans

The helicopter crash that killed Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will not fundamentally change the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader, remains the constitutional commander-in-chief and is still in charge of strategic decision-making in the country. But Raisi being removed from the scene has the potential to scramble the politics of succession in Iran. This is not the first time an Iranian president has died while in office. On August 30, 1981, president Mohammad Ali Rajai was killed alongside prime minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and other government officials in a bombing. The current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei succeeded Rajai as president. Attention will

Charlie Gammell

Why the death of Ebrahim Raisi both matters, and doesn’t

Not only does the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash in the fog and mountains in northern Iran, necessitate an election within 50 days, it has also removed the likely front-runner to replace Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.  Anyone hoping for a revolution will probably be disappointed Raisi was an attractive candidate because, as much as Khamenei himself was thrust into the role in 1989 due to his supposed weakness, a lack of a power base and a generally malleable profile, Raisi presented similarly: a loyal yes man unlikely to rock the boat and inclined to do as told. In a power transition from Khamenei to post-Khamenei, watched

Debbie Hayton

Labour’s gender change shake-up will end in tears

Anyone who thought the downfall of the Tory government might bring an end to the interminable debate over transgender rights should scrutinise Labour’s plans. It could be that the past seven years of political manoeuvrings was merely the warm-up act.  This is delusion on a grand scale Labour reportedly wants to ‘simplify’ the gender recognition process – but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Specialist reports, a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, the agreement of spouses and the panel of lawyers that checks each application against the legal criteria could all be ditched, according to a report in the Times. One idea is that gender recognition certificates might simply be signed

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

Ebrahim Raisi’s successor could be worse

It is doubtful that Ebrahim Raisi, the ‘butcher of Tehran’, would have experienced a moral epiphany had he been shown in life the reaction that his demise would evoke from his own people. So it goes with fanatics, especially one who presided over the murder of thousands of political opponents by bundling them into forklift trucks and hanging them from cranes. Nevertheless, the jubilation affirms – as if it was needed – that the Iranian people have no truck with the Iranian regime. His death leaves an opening in the competition for power Let’s set aside the fact that the EU responded to the crash by offering its Copernicus rapid

Jawad Iqbal

Iran’s president and foreign minister killed in helicopter crash

Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi and the country’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian have been killed in a helicopter crash in north-western Iran, according to the country’s state media. The news that Raisi – second only to the country’s supreme leader in the power structure – and Amir-Abdollahian – a critical and influential figure in the ruling circle – have died could not have come at a trickier and potentially more dangerous time. Iran is already facing huge challenges politically and economically, and the supreme leader, the font of all power and authority, is in poor health. It can ill afford to lose its president and foreign minister. This is a moment

Lucy Dunn

Inside Scotland’s Post Office scandal

For victims of the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, this week is an important one. Paula Vennells, former chief executive of the Post Office, is set to face three days of tough questioning when she gives evidence to the inquiry into the scandal. Vennell’s highly anticipated appearance on Wednesday follows critical developments north of the border where, last week, the Scottish government announced it will push ahead with its own compensation scheme for subpostmasters. In an underreported but highly significant move, Scotland’s Crown Office also stripped the Post Office of its status as a specialist reporting agency. In the process, it inadvertently refocused attention back to Scotland’s

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Which Tory contenders are on weight-loss drugs?

It’s the surest sign that a politician is on maneuvers: a slimmer waistline and a sharper suit. But are some of our leading lights in Westminster getting some extra help in their bid to battle the bulge and take the Tory crown? For the Mail on Sunday today reports that at least two Conservative leadership hopefuls are injecting themselves with Ozempic in order to ‘hit their fighting weight in time for the next Tory contest’. Whoever could they be..? The weight-loss drug is taken via regular injections and works to suppress the user’s appetite – difficult when you’re supposed to be out constantly dining your fellow colleagues. Still, at least

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour silent over Welsh First Minister’s £31,000

For 25 years, Welsh Labour has ruled Cardiff Bay with an iron fist. But these days, the party’s grip over the Senedd is looking distinctly shaky, following the decision of Plaid Cymru on Friday to pull out of their power-sharing arrangement. Vaughan Gething is now on the ropes, ahead of a likely looming confidence vote, with some predicting he will soon break Alun Michael’s record of being the shortest serving First Minister in Welsh history. But while Cardiff Bay is gripped by Gething’s woes, thus far remarkably little has been made of his various scandals in Westminster. Wes Streeting was out doing the media round this morning for Labour and