Politics

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

Tuesday

30 Jul 2024

Steerpike

Kemi Badenoch hits back at the Guardian

Ding ding ding! The Tory leadership race is heating up, with the final six candidates now declared. But with Kemi Badenoch currently the bookies’ favourite to win, the Guardian has tonight published a story claiming she was guilty of ‘bullying and traumatising’ behaviour when running the Department for Business and Trade. The paper cites sources who accuse her of being ‘toxic and intimidating’ in the role, thanks to her ‘mercurial’ moods. The Graun also claims that at least three officials found her behaviour so difficult that they felt they had to leave. One ‘insider’ is quoted as claiming Badenoch had people she would ‘single out’, alleging she was ‘passive-aggressive’ and subjected

Kristina Murkett

Labour’s private school VAT raid will stunt social mobility

Following the announcement of Rachel Reeves’ spending cuts on Monday, the Treasury confirmed that VAT will be applied to private school fees from January 2025. Although the debate on whether to charge this tax on private schools has raged for months, this is still earlier than most of the sector expected. ‘Anti-forestalling’ measures will be introduced so that any advance payments for the January term are, from this week, also taxed. This means parents can no longer avoid the extra 20 per cent by paying fees upfront. Perhaps most importantly, Treasury documents have also confirmed that ministers expect the new tax to drive some private school parents to the state

Steerpike

Labour’s war on beautiful housing

Another day, another drama – and this time Sir Keir’s government is in the spotlight. In the National Planning Policy Framework published today by the Ministry of Housing, the author’s handiwork is clear for all to see. The 84-page file details more than just the government’s approach to housebuilding – it specifies exactly what deletions have been made from earlier editions. The document has been published with new tracked updates dotted throughout – and Mr S has been rather interested in the war that Starmer’s government appears to be waging on, um, ‘beautiful’ homes… Here are a few other examples of the changes that have been made… The contents page

Tom Slater

The real reason Just Stop Oil target airports

Just Stop Oil’s campaign to infuriate ordinary people has moved up a gear. After bringing traffic to a standstill and disrupting play at the snooker, now its activists are targeting those havens of peace, harmony and low blood pressure: Britain’s bustling airports during the school summer holidays. A group of JSOers sat themselves down on the floor and locked their hands together at Gatwick’s south terminal yesterday, in an attempt to block the path through security. (Intrepid holidaymakers merely stepped over them and they were swiftly removed.) Now, JSO poster girl Phoebe Plummer – fresh from her conviction for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers – has popped up at a protest in which paint was sprayed

Jonathan Spyer

Can Israel hold back from all-out war with Hezbollah?

On 27 July, 12 children from the Druze community of the Golan Heights were slaughtered when an Iranian Falaq 1 missile hit a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams. The office of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a terse statement on the same day vowing that the country would ‘not allow the murderous attack to simply pass on by, and that Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid until this point’. This incident was the single bloodiest attack on an Israeli target since the massacres of 7 October. It represented a severe escalation in the conflict which has been under way

Patrick West

We’ve forgotten how to say ‘no’

It has been widely observed that we live in a society marked by cancellation, censorship and cowardice in the face of mob rule. To this we might add a fourth ‘c’: capitulation. The decision announced yesterday by Rachel Reeves to offer junior doctors an average pay rise of a 22.3 per cent in an effort to end the strikes is the most glaring example, being all-too-reminiscent of the catastrophic efforts by the craven Labour governments of the 1970s to placate the unions with inflation-accelerating pay-deals. Whether this announcement, and the decision to give six million public sector workers including nurses, teachers and police officers rises of about 5 per cent,

Katy Balls

Winter for boomers

-18 min listen

Rachel Reeves wakes to mixed headlines today after she announced a range of spending cuts to part fill a £22 billion ‘shortfall’ in public spending for this year alone. The most controversial move by Reeves on Monday was her decision to axe the winter fuel benefit for pensioners not eligible for benefits. That saves £1.5 billion but has already been blasted by Martin Lewis and Age UK as a blunt measure that will hurt those on modest pensions who struggle to make ends meet. Is there more hard medicine to come? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair.

James Heale

Who is Richard Fuller, the unknown Tory chairman?

When you ask Tory MPs about Richard Fuller, you’re likely to get one of two replies. ‘Nice guy’ from those who know him; ‘Who?’ from those that don’t. It tells you why Rishi Sunak chose him to be Tory chairman, as the party dusts itself off from its electoral drubbing. Fuller, along with Bob Blackman of the 1922, will guide the party through the next three months, as the Conservatives begin the long task of choosing a new leader and rebuilding from the financial ruin of this election. Fuller was chosen for the role after the resignation of his predecessor Richard Holden. Other than a name, the two have little

Steerpike

Watch: Just Stop Oil stage another failed protest

Uh oh. After Just Stop Oil’s failed attempt to disrupt travellers at Gatwick Airport on Monday, the eco-activist group are back at it again – now taking their bizarre spray paint antics to Heathrow instead. Two activists have this morning decided to try and disrupt more commuters by spraying some of the airport’s departure boards orange. The stunt only lasted approximately 15 minutes before police dragged the pesky protestors off the premises, and an airport spokesperson was clear that ‘the airport continues to operate as normal and passengers are travelling as planned’. Mr S is rather sceptical about exactly what Just Stop Oil think it has managed to pull off

Patrick O’Flynn

Why Kemi Badenoch’s leadership pitch sets her apart

The Conservative party is preparing the ground for its sixth leader since the Brexit referendum eight years ago. Were one of those actuaries who help insurers assess probabilities let loose on the Tory leadership race, it is hard to envisage any of the six candidates being rated as a likely future prime minister. Even removing David Cameron from the list of former PMs and discounting the impending leader leaves us with four completed leadership cycles in eight years. At that rate, the person becoming leader on 2 November could be expected to last until autumn 2026. One assumes the party will ultimately alight on a Young Lochinvar with a dash of

Matthew Lynn

Why has Donald Trump embraced crypto?

No one ever accused Donald Trump of ideological consistency. And yet, even by the standards of a man who often seems capable of switching positions several times in the same speech, and sometimes in the same sentence, it is quite a turnaround. As president he condemned Bitcoin and other crypto currencies ‘a scam against the dollar’. And yet, during this campaign he has turned into an enthusiastic convert, promising to govern as a Bitcoin President if he retakes the White House in November. That raises an intriguing question. Could the Crypto Bros turn Trump into a small state libertarian? Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrencies will shift him towards small-state liberalism Speaking

Freddy Gray

The truth about Kamalamania

In a society that worships the self, identity politics is a very powerful force. We see this now in Kamalamania – the dizzying speed with which the vice-president and presumptive Democratic nominee has been turned, through mass acclamation, from national embarrassment to Democratic saviour. Will Kamalamania last until the election is over? The fact that Harris’s transfiguration doesn’t make much sense is sort of the point – the more improbable it seems the better. We are memetic creatures, especially in the digital age, and the meme of the moment is that Harris has magically invigorated the Democratic base and turned the 2024 US presidential election around in their party’s favour. It’s

Katy Balls

Rachel Reeves’ biggest controversy is yet to come

Rachel Reeves wakes to mixed headlines today after she announced a range of spending cuts to part fill a £22 billion ‘shortfall’ in public spending for this year alone. The Chancellor accused the Tories of spending money they did not have in government and going more than six billion pounds over budget on asylum. These claims have been rubbished by the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt who in turn suggests that Reeves is indulging in political theatre having been reluctant to openly talk about tax rises and difficult spending choices in the election. Monday’s political theatre paved the way for tax rises in the autumn budget The most controversial move by

Jake Wallis Simons

Why should Israel tolerate Hezbollah’s deadly rocket attacks?

The slaughter of a dozen child footballers on Sunday came as a startling sign that the situation in northern Israel cannot continue. Since October 7, thousands of Hezbollah rockets have rained down on the Jewish state, claiming many lives and causing 70,000 people to flee their homes. There comes a point where the only option is war. According to UN Resolution 1701, issued in 2006, Hezbollah forces must not stray south of the Litani river, about 18 miles from the Israeli border. They have violated that ruling for years, with no real punishment from the UN or anybody else. On a trip to the region before October 7, I saw

Gavin Mortimer

The filthy Seine is a fitting symbol of Macron’s chaotic Olympics

The good news for France is that their athletes have been winning some medals in the Paris Olympics. The bad news, well, that just keeps coming for the organisers and for Emmanuel Macron, who had wanted to use the Games to showcase his country. The latest debacle is the postponement of the men’s triathlon event this morning because the water in the River Seine is too filthy. Organisers can hardly say they weren’t warned. Things clearly aren’t quite working out as Macron hoped. First there was the attack on the country’s rail network last Friday; the president had hoped the day would be all about the splendour of the Opening

Steerpike

How Labour U-turned on scrapping winter fuel payments

Keir Starmer’s party has only been in government for three weeks – and already they’re spinning like a top. Rachel Reeves’ statement to the Commons yesterday was notable for making the kind of decisions which Labour would have castigated a Tory Chancellor for taking. Chief among them was the decision to scrap winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners to save £1.5 billion. In the future only 1.5m households will receive the payments going forward. The decision may well be the right one but it is the complete opposite to what Labour was saying mere weeks ago. Just last month, a Labour spokesman insisted the party had ‘no plans’ to change

Jawad Iqbal

The horror of the Southport knife attack

Two children have died and nine have been injured, six critically, after a series of stabbings in Southport, Merseyside. Two adults are also in a critical condition – they were apparently injured trying to protect the children from their attacker. A 17-year old boy, from the nearby village of Banks in Lancashire, remains in custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. A witness described it as ‘the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life’ The stabbings took place at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Monday lunchtime. A man, wearing a mask and armed with a knife, entered the venue and started to repeatedly stab child

Joseph Dinnage

How to solve Europe’s anti-tourist backlash

In the town of Sintra, a suburb of Lisbon, some strongly-worded graffiti greets travellers like me. It reads: ‘F**k you tourist scum’. Locals have mounted a campaign fighting against the scourge of ‘mass tourism’. According to residents’ group QSintra, ‘Enough is enough!’ The time has apparently come for the state to intervene and bring about: ‘A revitalisation of the community and quality of life for residents; greater care and discretion in urban planning and management; quality tourism, not quantity’. Alienating millions of travellers who boost your prosperity each year seems like economic seppuku This kind of sentiment isn’t only amusing fodder for a photo-op, or limited to Portugal; it’s part

Monday

29 Jul 2024

Isabel Hardman

Why Labour’s social care surprise matters

A much bigger story than Rachel Reeves cancelling the winter fuel payment is her announcement today that she is finally killing off the beleaguered cap on social care costs. Reeves told the Commons that the Conservative government had not funded its reforms to social care, so they weren’t going to happen. She said: Adult social care was also neglected by the previous government. The sector needs reform to improve care and to support staff. In the previous parliament, the government made costly commitments to introduce adult social care charging reforms, but they delayed them two years ago because they knew that local authorities were not ready and that their promises

Oscar Edmondson

How will Labour fill the surprise £20bn ‘black hole’?

15 min listen

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has today been providing covering fire for a raft of unpopular policies, including changes to the winter fuel allowance and cancellations to various building projects. She gave a damning statement in the Commons earlier this afternoon about the economic situation that Labour have inherited from the Tories. We now know that the first budget will come at the end of October. Is she laying the foundations for more unpopular decisions? Is the Starmer honeymoon over? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.