Politics

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

Thursday

11 Jul 2024

Steerpike

Reform members warned of Farage scam

Uh oh. It’s a busy time for elected politicians trying to work their way around Westminster and no party knows that better than Reform UK. For the first time the group now has parliamentarians elected under its own banner, after sweeping up 14 per cent of the vote share last week. But it’s not all been plain sailing so far. Nigel Farage received groans in the Commons after he used his first speech to attack former Speaker John Bercow, and the appointment of Richard Tice as deputy leader left the unelected Ben Habib rather outraged earlier today. And now Steerpike can reveal the party is desperately trying to stop its

Will Moore

Keir’s reformation: Labour’s radical plans

50 min listen

This week: Keir’s reformation. A week on from Labour’s victory in the UK general election, our cover piece looks ahead to the urgent issues facing Keir Starmer. If he acts fast, he can take advantage of having both a large majority and a unified party. The NHS, prisons, planning… the list goes on. But what challenges could he face and how should he manage his party? The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls joins the podcast, alongside Lord Falconer, Labour peer and former cabinet minister under Tony Blair (2:53). Next: have smartphones revolutionised home working for women? Our very own Lara Prendergast writes in the magazine this week about the eclectic ways

James Heale

Has Nato been a success for Starmer?

18 min listen

Keir Starmer is on his first big diplomatic trip to Washington, attending the Nato summit. He has called on member countries to increase defence spending, had a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, and enjoyed a dinner with Joe Biden – all in his first week of the job. How is the trip going, are there any tensions arising, and has it been a success for the new PM? Oscar Edmondson discusses with James Heale and Sophia Gaston, head of foreign policy at Policy Exchange.

Stephen Daisley

What explains Trump’s silence?

As the Democrats go into a very public meltdown about Joe Biden’s fitness to be their presidential candidate in November, there is an unusual sound emanating from Donald Trump: silence. In the 2016 campaign and across four years in the White House, Trump proved himself incapable of message discipline, venting against fellow Republicans on social media and turned press conferences into rambling denunciations of the latest character to displease him. This behaviour regularly handed Democrats and journalists the chance to shift the news cycle from issues difficult for them (e.g. immigration) and onto issues difficult for the GOP (e.g. Trump’s intemperance and Republican infighting). Few presidents have so routinely undermined

James Heale

Farage reshuffles Reform’s top team

It’s been a busy week for Nigel Farage. After six days of being bombarded with parties, press requests and parliamentary rigmarole, he was this morning sworn in as the Honourable Member for Clacton. Such is the level of attention foisted on the Reform UK leader that even House of Commons staff have reportedly now been told to stop requesting selfies with him. With so much focus on Farage, the inevitable question is: what comes next? This morning, we got our answer. Reform UK has rejigged its top team, in the wake of the election of five MPs last Friday. Farage, unsurprisingly, retains his spot as leader, with Lee Anderson now

Freddy Gray

What will the Democrats do next?

29 min listen

As speculation over whether Biden will remain in the presidential race continues, Freddy Gray speaks to journalist and founder of News Items John Ellis about what could happen next. How did Democrats end up in this situation and who holds the most power in influencing Biden’s decision? They also look ahead to next week’s Republican National Convention and discuss who is in the running to be Trump’s VP. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Ross Clark

How Starmer should deal with Thames Water

Less than a week in to his government and Keir Starmer is already facing an ideological battle within the Labour party – over the nationalisation, or non-nationalisation, of the water industry. News that Thames Water has been put in special measures at the same time that Ofwat has given permission for other water companies to increase bills by an average of £94 over the next five years is going to rekindle the beliefs of many in his party that public utilities do not belong in the private sector. Starmer is not helped by the fact that when he won the Labour leadership in 2020 it was on the promise of

Steerpike

Spoilsport councils warn football fans to keep quiet

As if London mayor Sadiq Khan and his night tzar Amy Lamé weren’t already taking it upon themselves to be the capital’s fun police, now councils have decided to lecture football fans about peace and quiet during the Euros. As the England team approaches the final, Mr S can reveal that two London councils have been accused of being ‘spoilsports’ by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Letters sent by the council to pubs see local politicians issuing ‘reminders of responsibilities’ during the football tournament, with notices warning venues to ‘avoid irresponsible marketing or any drinks promotions’. Good heavens… Islington Council and Waltham Forest Council are the guilty culprits – with the former

Steerpike

Tories turn on Suella Braverman

Oh dear. While no one has officially announced that they’re standing for the Tory leadership, prospective candidates are already rocking the boat. Mr S wrote on Wednesday that shadow showing secretary Kemi Badenoch had blasted ex-PM Rishi Sunak and said that former home secretary Suella Braverman seemed to be having a ‘very public’ nervous breakdown – and now Braverman’s other colleagues are turning on her too. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if Suella defected to Reform in the next few months if she doesn’t get into the leadership race,’ one former Tory MP told the i newspaper. A current Conservative MP was a little more crude, commenting: ‘She’s lost all her

Steerpike

SNP financial woes set to worsen

Back to Scotland, where the Nats are still reeling after their general election defeat. The national poll left the SNP with just nine seats and the exodus has rocked the secessionists. It transpires that while Stephen Flynn has remained leader of the Westminster group, Pete Wishart is now his deputy and Kirsty Blackman is the party’s new Chief Whip. But while the SNP attempts to reassemble, there are financial problems to worry about. Thanks to the bad publicity of the ongoing police probe into party funds, member donations dried up – and now it turns out that the SNP is facing more post-election financial woes. The party is set to

Tanika D’Souza

What will Labour do about women-only spaces?

As the dust settles on last week’s general election, voters are beginning to learn more about their new government’s plans for change. From growing the economy to curbing illegal immigration, Labour’s goals, as confirmed in recent speeches by Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer, are becoming clear. Yet one policy issue remains conspicuously uncertain: the issue of women-only spaces. In an interview with the Times in the final week of campaigning, Starmer stated that biological males with Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) should not be allowed in women-only spaces. This contradicted comments previously made by the since-appointed education secretary Bridget Phillipson in an interview with LBC in which she refused to answer

James Heale

Sunak apologises to Tory MPs for election mess

Before the joy of last night’s football, came the sorrow of Rishi Sunak’s address to Tory MPs. The Conservative leader addressed the 1922 committee for the first time since calling the election which reduced his colleagues’ numbers by almost two-thirds. Instead of the usual oak-panelled confines of the committee’s favoured committee room 14, the night’s meeting was held in Portcullis House. Accompanied by interim party chairman Richard Fuller, the ex-premier appeared to pause and take a deep breath before heading in. Stony faces, muted cheers and the ritual banging of tables met him there, as Sunak prepared to take responsibility for his party’s worse election result in history. The former

Kate Andrews

The growing economy is good news for Labour

The economy is picking up pace. After a dreary April, which saw no growth, the UK economy grew by 0.4 per cent in May. It’s the strongest three-month growth rate since January 2022, with the UK economy expanding by 0.9 per cent leading up to May, compared to the three months leading up to February. A GDP boost in May was expected, as April’s wet weather put a damper on growth. Still, today’s update from the Office for National Statistics was better than expected, as economists had forecast a 0.2 per cent uptick. While the 1.9 per cent increase in construction can be accounted for as making up for lost

Martin Vander Weyer

How safe do you feel boarding a Boeing?

‘They knocked down our old house in three hours,’ says a friend who has embarked on what he says is a conventional rebuild, nothing Grand Designs about it, on the south coast. ‘But it’s taking forever to get planning permission for the new one. They want reports on everything, from bats to highway impacts: you’d think we’re trying to build a whole huge housing estate.’ And if you do happen to be in the business of building whole huge housing estates, you’ll be eager to know whether Rachel Reeves’s reforms and ‘mandatory targets’ – aimed at delivering 1.5 million new homes in this parliament – will put rockets under the

Rod Liddle

The great bee-smuggling scandal

The principal concerns of the electors vary rather more widely than the pollsters and pundits would suggest. One man in Guisborough – probably middle-aged, short of teeth, a little unkempt – suggested to me that the government needed to clamp down on foreigners importing bees into the country. This was being done covertly, he said. He himself had noticed a huge increase in the number of bees of late and – as a consequence of something he had read online – believed that this was clear evidence of smuggling. Why, I asked him, would people smuggle bees into the country? ‘That is exactly what I would like the authorities to

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week: Starmer’s first steps, Biden’s wobble and Australia’s egg shortage

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, appointed several ministers who are not MPs, but will be created life peers. Most cabinet posts went to MPs who had shadowed the portfolios, but as Attorney General he appointed Richard Hermer KC, a human rights lawyer, instead of Emily Thornberry, who said she was ‘very sorry and surprised’. James Timpson, the shoe-repair businessman and prison reformer, was made prisons minister. Sir Patrick Vallance was made science minister. The former home secretary Jacqui Smith became higher education minister; Ellie Reeves, the sister of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, became minister without portfolio. The government dropped the phrase ‘levelling up’. The Chancellor

Charles Moore

What the Tories got wrong on housing

Sir Keir Starmer may be our first atheist prime minister, but his manner in parliament resembles that of what, in House of Lords terminology, is called a ‘Most Reverend prelate’. There is a lot of sonority about serving others, disagreeing well etc. These are good sentiments but, when trying to be good, ‘show, not tell’ is better. Adopting an archiepiscopal tone, a political leader is quickly tripped up. For example, Sir Keir wants to drive peers aged over 80 out of the Lords, thinking this conducive to the public good; and yet, as I write, he is having his first much-prized bilateral with Joe Biden, who is six years older

Jacob Rees-Mogg

My future as a reality TV star

Magpies have long been thought to be birds of omen. I am not superstitious. Yet during the election campaign I could not help but notice single magpies all the time. Perhaps you only notice what you are looking for, as from the beginning of the campaign the polls were clear that I would lose North East Somerset and Hanham. I wrote to my boarding school children when the election was called to warn them of the impending defeat, but unfortunately they cannot read my handwriting. Throughout the campaign, the mood on the doorstep was excellent and the team full of beans. Many visitors came to help and I regularly had people

James Heale

Who will lead the Tories next?

Rishi Sunak performed a mea culpa when his shadow cabinet convened on Monday, taking full responsibility for the election loss. There were, he said, lots of lessons to be learned. He tried rallying his team, reminding them it was time to knuckle down and prepare for the King’s Speech. When those around the table began agreeing, with some saluting Sunak’s performance during the campaign, Kemi Badenoch decided she couldn’t take it any longer. Isn’t it necessary, she asked, to say that the snap election had been a calamity, the Tory campaign had been even worse – and that it was about time to examine why? She argued that Sunak went

Katy Balls

Starmer must move fast without losing his head

When Keir Starmer’s Labour party gathered on Monday to celebrate their election victory, the difficulty was finding a big enough venue. There were so many MPs that aides had to abandon Labour’s usual meeting room on parliament’s committee corridor, and instead head for Church House, where Tony Blair met his party after the 1997 landslide. Cabinet ministers joked that their biggest problem in government would be learning their colleagues’ names. Later in Strangers’ Bar, the queue for a drink went six rows back. ‘It’s freshers’ week,’ said one newbie. Yet some in the party still felt a sense of unease. ‘This majority is a mile wide and an inch deep,’