Politics

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

Wednesday

Lucy Dunn

Can Ben Houchen save Rishi Sunak?

12 min listen

Tomorrow, voters go to the polls for the last set of local elections in this parliament, alongside 11 mayoral elections in England, 37 police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales plus the London Assembly elections. Could Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, help turn Rishi Sunak’s fortunes around? You can read James Heale’s assessment of the key battlegrounds here.  Also on the podcast, a look at rumours that Labour are in talks to water down their employment policies.  Lucy Dunn speaks to James Heale and John McTernan, former adviser to Tony Blair. 

Steerpike Steerpike

Scotland’s Crown Office still hasn’t received Murrell’s charge sheet

News just in: Scotland’s Crown Office has still not received a report from Police Scotland about the SNP’s former chief executive Peter Murrell — almost a fortnight after he was rearrested and charged with embezzlement. Talk about taking things slowly… The husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was taken into police custody for the second time on 18 April as part of the police probe into SNP finances — and charged with embezzling funds from his own party. Yet two weeks on, there has been little sign of the case progressing. Shortly after the police force announced that it had charged the former SNP chief, it transpired that Murrell

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Lindsay Hoyle is a hooligan

How does it feel to wake up and discover that you’re a socialist? We got the answer at PMQs where the TV cameras were trained on Dan Poulter – or ‘Doctor Dan’ as he likes to be called – who recently quit the Tories and joined Labour. But his awakening seems to have poisoned his mood. His cheeks were pale, his eyes lifeless and dull as he glared at his former colleagues across the aisle. There was more absurd behaviour from the SNP’s Stephen Flynn. Why not celebrate with a cheeky smirk? He looked like a man whose knee operation has just been transferred to Wales. And he seems to

Jason M. Brodsky

The Gaza student protestors have emboldened America’s enemies

For the past few weeks, protests have rocked college campuses across the United States over Israel’s war against Hamas. Last night, police raided Columbia University to remove students occupying one of its buildings, while violence has broken out between protesting groups at UCLA in California. It is only when Israel is defending itself against rapists and murderers that there is this degree of frenzied hysteria across universities The pro-Palestine demonstrators portray themselves as defenders of human rights and social justice – viewing Israel through the warped lens of anti-colonialism and intersectionality. But in reality they have been amplifying the messaging of US-sanctioned terrorist organisations like Hamas. These entities have the blood of Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians on

Iain Macwhirter

The war on Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes has yet to throw her hat into the ring for the SNP leadership race, but already the campaign is underway to block her. As in last year’s election, when Forbes ran close against Humza Yousaf, she is being attacked for her religious beliefs and opposition to transgender ideology. Forbes is being portrayed on social media as ‘the candidate for the 19th Century’ The SNP leadership is turning into another ‘witch hunt,’ according to the SNP MP Joanna Cherry. The reason? Forbes has the temerity to be a practicing Christian and a member of the deeply conservative Free Church of Scotland. She says she would not have voted for

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Do Tory MPs really believe Rishi Sunak can win the election?

Could Rishi Sunak be about to win the next general election? That suggestion, made at Prime Minister’s Questions today by one of his backbenchers Bill Wiggin, was so unrealistic that the ministers sitting next to Sunak, including Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, couldn’t stop themselves from giggling. Mind you, Wiggin seemed to think that a primary factor in an election victory would be the number of potholes which had been repaired in his own constituency. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack couldn’t stop himself from giggling Wiggin’s question was one of many written with tomorrow’s local and mayoral elections in mind, and was probably more interesting than the exchanges between Sunak and Keir

Steerpike Steerpike

Scots favour a Kate Forbes premiership

Back to Scotland, where it’s set to be another turbulent day. The SNP continues its slow-motion implosion while leadership frontrunners Kate Forbes and John Swinney ponder about standing for the top job. To add insult to injury, Scottish Labour’s motion of no confidence in the Scottish government will be voted on this afternoon. As the nationalist psychodrama ensues, what exactly do Scots makes of it all? The SNP establishment has hailed former deputy first minister Swinney as its candidate of choice, with Holyrood cabinet ministers and Westminster group leaders coming out to support the Nicola Sturgeon ally. Meanwhile Forbes – onetime rival to First Minister Humza Yousaf in last year’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Monty Panesar stumped on George Galloway’s Nato pledge

If you thought the last you’d hear of George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain would be the Rochdale by-election, you were sadly mistaken. ‘Gorgeous George’s’ group is back in the limelight after former England cricketer, Monty Panesar, announced that he would be the party’s candidate in Ealing Southall at the upcoming general election — even revealing ambitions to one day be Prime Minister. Panesar is just part of an eclectic bunch trying to be recruited by the Workers Party. While Galloway claims he’s held secret talks with several Labour MPs keen to jump ship, it has also been announced today that Craig Murray — the pro-indy blogger jailed for contempt of

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Falling migration might not be something for the Tories to celebrate

The good news for the Conservatives is that immigration is down. It looks as if the net migration figures will not be returning to the 745,000 measured in 2022 in the immediate future. Now the bad news: this decline isn’t so much thanks to a drop in small boat arrivals – although they did fall from 45,774 in 2022 to 29,437 in 2023. It is more to do with a sharp decline in the arrival of skilled workers, especially in the healthcare sector. In the first three months of 2024, the number of visas granted to skilled workers, health and social care workers and students fell to 139,100, from 184,000

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Rwanda could still be Rishi’s saving grace

There is an old Rowan Atkinson joke about the secret to good comedy timing in which Atkinson says the word ‘timing’ at just the wrong moment. Timing is important in politics too. As Harold Macmillan observed of Anthony Eden’s brief and unhappy premiership: ‘He was trained to win the Derby in 1938. Unfortunately, he was not let out of the starting stalls until 1955.’ Timing is just as crucial when it comes to political stances, too, as it is for personnel matters. When William Hague made his controversial ‘foreign land’ speech in 2001 or when Michael Howard asked the electorate ‘are you thinking what we’re thinking?’ about immigration in 2005,

James Heale James Heale

Poll shows Khan’s lead slashed in London

Could Labour really lose London? A new poll out today shows that Sadiq Khan’s lead over Susan Hall is down to just ten points, ahead of the capital’s voters going to the polls tomorrow. The survey from Savanta for the Centre for London gives Khan 42 per cent of the vote, followed by Hall on 32 per cent and then Liberal Democrat candidate Rob Blackie in third with 10 per cent. It points to the race tightening, with Khan’s lead dropping three points since the last Savanta poll. The findings are a striking contrast with a separate YouGov poll which gives Khan a massive 22-point lead. How best to explain

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Why Gillian Keegan is right to scrap the free school cap

The other day a nice Albanian builder came round. He was in an upbeat mood because his son had been admitted to Cardinal Vaughan, a London school for which the optimum Ofsted rating of ‘outstanding’ probably doesn’t suffice. The school has got one of the best heads in England in Paul Stubbings, a choir, the Schola, which is- as excellent as any in the country and a reputation for tough discipline and good pastoral care which draws parents like bees to a jam pot. The upshot is, as the nice builder observed, there were 1,000 applicants for that year’s places. Now, he wasn’t religious himself, from a Muslim family in

Steerpike Steerpike

First illegal migrant paid to go to Rwanda

In what seems like a watershed moment for the government’s Rwanda plan, the first migrant has been sent to the country from the UK. Only, um, it’s not actually the primary Rwanda deportation scheme that’s supposed to stop the small boats. No, this man voluntarily relocated to the central African country after being offered up to £3,000 to do so. Alright for some… In a rather confusing series of events, separate to the Rwanda Act there is also a voluntary deportation plan on the go. Migrants who are unable to stay in the UK legally are rather more politely rounded up and asked if they would please move elsewhere, incentivised by

James Heale James Heale

The key battlegrounds to watch at the 2024 local elections

Tomorrow, voters go to the polls for the last set of local elections in this parliament. After five tumultuous years, Rishi Sunak and his party look set to suffer big losses – including up to half the 985 council seats which the Tories are trying to hold. Some 2,600 council seats are up for grabs across 107 local authorities in England, with much of the attention focused on areas containing key parliamentary marginals. Eleven councils are identified below as being particularly worth watching over the next few days, with results trickling in from Friday morning until Saturday afternoon. Alongside the council elections are 11 mayoral elections in England, 37 police

Paola Diana

Sadiq Khan has failed London’s women

More than four million women and girls live in London. They represent over half (51 per cent) of the capital’s population. But under Mayor Sadiq Khan they have been reduced to an afterthought. The nation’s capital has become a hostile environment where the incidence of rape has soared, female commuters are routinely harassed, working women routinely underpaid, and mothers foot exorbitant childcare bills that force many to skip meals or fall behind on bills. The list of charges against the sitting Mayor is long: it is up to the women of London to vote him out next week. ‘Anyone but Khan’ should be on every woman’s lips. The financial struggles

Tuesday

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Monty Panesar doesn’t want to be an MP

Is that Monty Panesar? The old England spin bowler is stood in a crowd in Parliament Square, with a vacant, million-mile smile. George Galloway is standing in front, talking to the press. Galloway is meant to be revealing the 200 candidates that his new ‘Workers Party’ is putting up at the next election (Panesar is one of them) but instead he’s just laying into Angela Rayner, the House of Lords and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. ‘…Angela Runner, as you might come to call her! …Two cheeks of the same backside! …The largest war machine in the world today!’ Galloway likes talking to the media; these days he is more celebrity than politician.

Andrew Liddle

Does Scottish Labour really want an election?

Given the SNP’s abject disarray, it is no surprise to see Scottish Labour demanding a snap Holyrood election. After all, for the first time in more than a decade it is Anas Sarwar’s party – and not the Scottish Nationalists – who are most likely to gain by the ballot box. Sarwar himself summed up the bullish mood in the party succinctly, telling reporters: ‘I do not fear an election, I relish an election.’ And this is not idle talk; Scottish Labour has lodged a motion of no confidence in the Scottish government that would, in the unlikely event it is approved by MSPs on Wednesday, force the entire SNP

James Heale James Heale

Will the Tories’ mental health focus backfire?

17 min listen

As figures now show there are 2.8 million people claiming out-of-work benefits, Rishi Sunak gave a speech looking at welfare reform. But with more and more people off work for mental health related issues, could the Tories’ focus backfire if the public think they’re trivialising mental health? Also on the podcast, a look ahead to the mayoral elections.  James Heale discusses with Isabel Hardman and Luke Tryl, UK Director at More in Common.   Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

William Atkinson

Tory MPs – not members – should elect the party’s next leader

Since first becoming Chairman of the 1922 Committee in 2010, Graham Brady has overseen the election of three Conservative leaders – Theresa May, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak – as well as votes of confidence in both May and Boris Johnson. Serving as the voice of the Tory backbenches to the party leadership, Brady’s views on the leadership carry more weight than those of most Conservatives. Brady said it was a ‘mistake’ for party members to have the ‘final vote’ As such, Tory members might be a little irritated to hear that Brady thinks it is ‘crazy’ that they can vote on a Conservative prime minister’s successor if they are

Steerpike Steerpike

When will the Telegraph sale be concluded?

To the Commons, where Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer this afternoon gave a ministerial statement on the future of the Telegraph Media Group. It follows this morning’s news that the Abu Dhabi-backed company RedBird IMI will put the Daily Telegraph and Spectator titles back up for sale, after parliament moved to block foreign state ownership of UK newspapers and magazines. Frazer gave the House a brief outline of the government’s unchanged stance and then it was the turn of Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire to demand some answers. After a year of negotiations over the sale, the Shadow Culture Secretary wanted to know when exactly the question of the Telegraph’s ownership would finally be concluded: From the very start, Labour had questions about