Politics

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

Tuesday

Niall Gooch

Does Channel 4 think this counts as balanced?

We are now just nine months out from the latest possible general election, which means that in a year’s time the House of Commons is going to look very different. Absent a remarkable revival in Tory fortunes – which there is no earthly reason to expect – their current seat total will be at least halved, and we will be fastening our seatbelts for five years or more of Starmerism. This will mean, among other delights, more demographic transformation, further atrophying of state capacity, strict restrictions on free speech, and a racial spoils system in government contracts. The specific date remains uncertain, which means that all the big TV channels

Andrew Tettenborn

UNRWA hasn’t earned our trust in Gaza

Before 7 October last year, observers had long suspected an uncomfortable symbiosis between UNRWA, the UN organisation tasked with organising aid to the unfortunate Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, and the autocratic Hamas government in control in Gaza city. The attack on Israel on that day certainly didn’t dispel these suspicions, and in January this year Israel alleged that a number of UNRWA staff had been implicated. Seventeen countries paused funding for UNRWA, including the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, the EU and several individual European states. So did the UK, which last year had provided about £35 million. The UK, which had said it would await the Colonna report before

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Tony Blair is a post-democratic product

Why was it that when I read a big interview with Tony Blair over the weekend – the ostensible premise being to wonder if he’d be pulling the strings of a Starmer government – I found myself humming something from T.S. Eliot by way of Andrew Lloyd Webber? ‘You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air – / But I tell you once and once again, / It’s Tony bloody Blair.’ Eliot’s Macavity the Mystery Cat, of course, is a dyed-in-the-wool criminal who breaks laws up to and including the law of gravity, whereas our former prime minister is as upright and law-abiding figure

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Lights go off in the Lords in Rwanda showdown 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is one step closer to stopping the boats — or so he hopes. After months of back and forth on the Prime Minister’s immigration deterrent, Sunak’s Rwanda legislation has finally passed through parliament. The ping-pong palaver just made it into the early hours of the morning after the House of Lords relented at nine minutes past midnight that it was time to ‘acknowledge the primacy’ of the Commons. Lord Anderson of Ipswich won the accolade of last peer standing, resignedly throwing in the towel at seven minutes to midnight — in good news for Tory MPs who were already rather merry at a drinks reception laid

James Heale James Heale

Sunak’s Rwanda Bill finally passes parliament

After eight hours of debate on the Rwanda Bill, peers finally threw in the towel shortly after midnight. The two chambers have been engaged in a mammoth game of ping-pong for the past week, culminating in yesterday’s showdown on two final amendments. On the first of these – Lord Browne’s exemption for Afghan interpreters – the government made a concession shortly before 9 p.m. But on the second – Lord Anderson’s proposed monitoring committee to judge whether Rwanda – they did not. The crossbench peer eventually relented at 11:53p.m, conceding the time was nigh to ‘acknowledge the primacy’ of the elected chamber. And with that, the Rwanda Bill became law,

Colin Freeman

Could Europe send troops to Ukraine?

It is 2026, and in a downbeat speech at the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin finally announces a withdrawal from Ukraine. Russian troops have done their best – or worst – but a fresh influx of well-trained Ukrainians have finally prevailed. The Donbas is now in Kyiv’s grip, Crimea’s fall only days away.  What has turned the tide, though, is not just the long-awaited F16s, or Washington switching the funding back on. Instead, it is the presence of thousands of European troops across Ukraine’s western half, protecting cities, ports and borders, making Ukraine feel reassured and Russia unnerved. As Kyiv celebrates, Europe quietly pats itself on the back too: after 80 years

Eliot Wilson

Why are the English embarrassed about St George’s Day?

How should the English celebrate St George’s Day? England is a country with plenty to boast about, but doing so is somehow not particularly English. The result is that 23 April is usually a day that passes most of us by. It’s a pity. The centuries-old flag of St George was for too long the preserve of the far right Embarrassed, we often seek expressions of Englishness in the sheepish and the mimsy. Egg and chips, rain coming on, mustn’t grumble, you’ve got to laugh, fancy a cuppa, watching the footy, how we love queueing. Thirty years ago, John Major was mocked for speaking of ‘the country of long shadows

Susannah Heschel

Shylock and the Nazis: the truth about Shakespeare’s most infamous character

None of William Shakespeare’s characters are more controversial than Shylock. The moneylender from The Merchant of Venice may be the most famous Jew in Western culture other than Jesus. But what kind of Jew is he? Is he a collage of stereotypes who has been useful to antisemites, including the Nazis? Or does he represent the Jew as cruelly vilified, a tragic victim of persecution? Shakespeare, who was born 460 years ago today, could never have envisaged the way in which the events of the 20th century would change the way we look at Shylock. Yet it’s impossible now to watch The Merchant of Venice without thinking of the Holocaust.

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Commons sends Rwanda Bill back to the Lords

The Commons has just voted on the latest ping of the Safety of Rwanda Bill pong, after peers sent back just one amendment, which would prevent Rwanda from being declared a safe country for asylum seekers without the Secretary of State making a statement to parliament having considered the verdict of an independent monitoring committee. MPs rejected that amendment 312-237. So back up it goes to the Lords.  Lord Browne withdrew his amendment to exempt from deportation those who had helped the British armed forces because the government conceded on this point (though the minister in the Lords insisted it wasn’t a concession because that’s how politics and pre-school works).

Jawad Iqbal

Who would want to buy Selfridges?

A stake in Selfridges – the most iconic department store in the vast retail emporium of Oxford Street – is again up for grabs. It is the latest chapter in an ongoing financial crisis engulfing its Austrian co-proprietor Signa Group, the property empire built by self-made billionaire, René Benko. The original deal for Selfridges dumped at least £1.7 billion in debt onto the group, which owns four UK department stores, as well as de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands and Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland. Central is now looking for ways to take greater control of Selfridges: last year, it took majority ownership of the Selfridges operating company with a

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Sunak’s bungled Rwanda scheme won’t save him

Like a cowboy builder sucking his teeth about unanticipated complications on the job, Rishi Sunak has just pushed back another deadline. The Prime Minister was meant to get flights off to Rwanda this spring but has now given himself until July. And this isn’t even the main job. The actual grand design he is supposed to be working towards is to ‘stop the boats’. For Labour a no-score draw on the issue will be a favourable result If sending irregular migrants off to Rwanda helps secure that then so much the better, but it would be remiss not to point out that illegal arrivals via cross-Channel dinghies have increased this

Steerpike Steerpike

Jon Sopel’s Rwanda Bill blunder

It’s hard these days being a teller of truths. So many of the leading lights in British broadcasting have found in recent years that they’re unable to do so in the less-than-lucrative halls of the BBC. Among those who have joined the exodus from the Corporation in recent years was Jon Sopel, who left in early 2022 to take up a role at Global with Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall. There the trio fearlessly dissect issues on which they all agree, on the wildly successful News Agents podcast. Yet in his haste to stick it to Sunak on the Rwanda Bill, it seems that Sopel has blundered quite spectacularly. Following

Arieh Kovler

Why Biden’s plan to sanction an IDF battalion could backfire

The Biden administration is planning to announce sanctions against a part of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). On the one hand, this would be the latest in a series of US and European sanctions targeting Israeli settler organisations linked to violence against Palestinians. On the other, it’s an unprecedented legal action by the United States against the Israeli military itself.  One of the long-running divisions in Israel society is between Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews and the rest of the public. Originally a tiny minority, Haredi Jews now form nearly 14 per cent of Israel’s population. The biggest tension is over the issue of military service: while most Jewish men are drafted

James Heale James Heale

Parliamentary researcher charged with spying for China

Chris Cash, the parliamentary aide accused of spying for China, is to be charged with espionage offences, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said today. Nick Price, the head of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism division, confirmed that it has has now ‘authorised the Metropolitan police to charge two men with espionage offences’. Price said Cash, 29, and his alleged accomplice Christopher Berry, 32, would be charged with providing prejudicial information to a China. They will appear at Westminster magistrates court this Friday. ‘Criminal proceedings against the defendants are active,’ Price declared in a statement. ‘No one should report, comment or share information online which could in any way prejudice

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Will there be a summer election?

12 min listen

This morning Rishi Sunak delivered a press conference making the case that the Rwanda Bill should become law today – and the government is ready for when it does. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about what could be an all-night parliamentary showdown on the Rwanda vote, and whether an early summer election is on the cards. Produced by Natasha Feroze. 

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Suella Braverman is wrong to call for Mark Rowley to go

Why did Gideon Falter cross the road? Or try to? That is a question that went viral this weekend. A video emerged of Falter, who leads the Campaign Against Antisemitism, being threatened by police for trying to cross a pro-Palestinian protest in central London. He was wearing a kippah and carrying a prayer shawl bag, and had reportedly just emerged from a synagogue with some friends and was trying to get home. Police officers had spotted him leaving the pavement on a collision course with protestors and intervened. A tense standoff unfolded, with an officer telling him in that his ‘openly Jewish’ appearance was ‘antagonising’ the crowd. A calamitous initial response

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Why is Russia jamming plane signals across Europe?

The ‘Baltic Beast’ is at it again. Mysterious – or not so mysterious – GPS signal disruption has become a growing problem for civilian air traffic, not just in the Baltic but also the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is clear that Russia is behind it, but why? Airplanes have, while in flight, encountered signals designed to interfere with their GPS and other systems, whether by jamming them or spoofing, making them think they are somewhere else from their actual location. Last year, there were some 50 suspected attacks every week, but there were a full 350 in March and this month looks set to see a similar

James Heale James Heale

Sunak insists Rwanda scheme is ‘ready’

The Rwanda Bill should become law today – and the government is ready for when it does. That was Rishi Sunak’s message at a No. 10 press conference this morning, ahead of what could be an all-night showdown of parliamentary ping-pong. The House of Lords last week mounted a tougher-than-expected resistance to Sunak’s flagship legislation, with frustrated Tory MPs aiming to overrule peers on the last outstanding amendments later today. The number of small boat arrivals from Vietnam is up ten-fold the previous year As well as keeping the heat on Labour and the Lords, Sunak’s press conference was intended to look ahead to what happens after the legislation becomes

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will there be a summer election?

It’s less than a fortnight till the local elections where Rishi Sunak will face his last major electoral test before going to the polls for a general election later this year. Tory MPs are braced for it to be a difficult night. The loss of Tory councillors en masse seems inevitable. If Sunak is really unlucky, he could lose one or both of the two Tory metro mayors. The West Midlands mayor Andy Street is viewed to be the most vulnerable – one poll last week suggested he is on course to lose, another said he could hold on by two votes. If the Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen goes

Steerpike Steerpike

Why won’t the Scottish Greens accept the Cass report?

There are many words to describe Patrick Harvie but ‘clinician’ certainly isn’t one of them. Yet his trademark arrogance was out on display this weekend when the co-leader of the Scottish Greens deigned to sully himself with a round of media interviews. Appearing on BBC Scotland, Harvie was asked about the decision of NHS Scotland to pause the use of puberty blockers on children, following the publication of the Cass report. That decision has prompted an outcry from members of Harvie’s band of eco-zealots, with fellow Green MSP Ross Greer describing the review as ‘a straight up transphobic and conservative document.’ Harvie was asked three times by the BBC whether he