Politics

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

Monday

10 Jun 2024

The truth about the rise of the ‘far right’ in Europe

‘The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation but also for Europe,’ said Emmanuel Macron as he announced his general election. Strong talk, as befits his newly-called general election campaign but is that really what has just happened? Look closely and the results are more nuanced – and more interesting. If anything, we can see the taming of some populist shrews. In France, Le Pen’s National Rally hit 30 per cent only after her long attempt to detoxify, mellowing her agenda and, recently, kicking the AfD out of her European Parliament grouping. The fresh-faced Jordan Bardella, 28, was the face of Le Pen’s Euro campaign. Macron’s snap election is perhaps intended

David Shipley

Labour could make Britain’s prison crisis worse

On Saturday night, Labour announced its plans to ‘fix the prison crisis and keep criminals behind bars’. If this announcement is the full extent of Labour’s prison policy, then disaster awaits them in government. At least Labour seems to recognise some of the problems. They point out that as a result of overcrowding our prisons are a ‘powder keg waiting to explode’, and that the early release scheme, under which prisoners are being released up to 70 days early, is ‘creating a potential risk to the public’. They point out that one inmate was freed early despite being ‘a risk to children’. Labour is also right that the Tories’ mismanagement

Steerpike

Starmer’s shadow cabinet split on private schools

Labour have made much of their VAT raid on private school fees, proudly trumpeting the policy as one of the few instances of a ‘popular’ tax. So it must have been to the chagrin of Starmer’s spinners then to see two of their leading frontbenchers contradicting each other about the costs of the policy. Appearing on GB News on Sunday morning, Emily Thornberry appeared to let the cat out of the bag when she discussed the consequences of pricing middle-class parents out of independent schools. ‘If we have to have larger classes, we have larger classes’ she admitted breezily when she was asked about the prospect of an exodus from

Matthew Lynn

France can’t afford a Le Pen government

It is possible that President Macon had some clever plan when he called a general election in the wake of catastrophic European election results last night. After all, he has a reputation for always being several moves ahead on the political chessboard. And yet one point is surely clear. France can’t afford a Le Pen government – and its election may well trigger a crisis in the French debt markets. Le Pen, after all, is a high welfare, big state, economic nationalist It is, perhaps, not quite such a foregone result as Britain’s election a few days earlier. And yet after the second round of voting on 7 July, it looks

Isabel Hardman

Douglas Ross resigns as Scottish Tory leader

Just when you thought this election campaign couldn’t get any more tumultuous, Douglas Ross has announced he will resign as Scottish Conservative leader. He had lost the support of his colleagues – particularly those in Holyrood – following his decision to effectively take over a Westminster colleague’s constituency when that MP was seriously ill in hospital. In a statement released this morning, Ross said he had come to the conclusion was no longer ‘feasible’ to be both an MP, MSP and party leader (something he had previously stated, but changed his mind on), but that he will continue to hold the role until after the election. He will also resign

Lisa Haseldine

Olaf Scholz’s party suffers worst EU election defeat as AfD surges

The mood in Olaf Scholz’s SPD party headquarters in Berlin is despondent this morning. The German Chancellor’s party won just 13.9 per cent in the European elections – placing them third in the country and a full two percentage points behind the far-right AfD party. The SPD hasn’t done this badly in a national vote since 1949 – and the result comes less than 18 months until Germany holds its federal election. SPD Leader Lars Klingbeil called it a ‘bitter defeat’. ‘There is no way to sugarcoat it,’ he said. ‘I think it is crystal clear that things have to change.’ The SPD hasn’t done this badly in a national

Gavin Mortimer

French voters have delivered a damning verdict on Macron

I sensed something significant was going to unfold on Sunday as I took my morning coffee at our village café. Enjoying the June sunshine I watched as a steady stream of men and women walked past on their way to the voting booth in the village hall. Forty-eight per cent of them cast their ballot for Jordan Bardella of the National Rally. The next best was Valerie Hayer, representing president Macron’s party; she managed 12 per cent. The people chose Macron, and got chaos The voter turnout in my village in Burgundy was 60 per cent, an eight per cent increase on the 2019 elections and 17 per cent superior

Steerpike

Listen: BBC’s ‘careers week’ blunder

Another day, another BBC blunder. This time it involves Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Breakfast Show this morning, which announced that this week is ‘careers week’. In a call out for contributions, Ball urged listeners to phone in if they feel they have ‘the most obscure job’ and to divulge what their ‘careers officer’ told them at school. There was one rather large problem with Ball’s request, however. It transpires that it is not, in fact, careers week — but rather carers week. Oh dear. The correction came to light after a rather panicked jobs adviser texted into today’s show following a frenzied fact-check at home. So much for the Beeb’s

Katy Balls

Can Sunak get his election campaign back on track?

As a general rule, you know your election campaign has gone off track when politicians are being asked on the broadcast round whether their leader will quit before polling day. This is what Tory minister Mel Stride encountered over the weekend on Sky News following the backlash over Rishi Sunak’s decision to miss part of the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations on Thursday, instead returning to the UK. Stride insisted that Sunak would ‘absolutely’ lead the party until polling day – and said how sorry the ‘patriotic’ Prime Minister was for misjudging the situation. It’s hard to find a Tory MP who believes Sunak will be leader for long after the

Limor Simhony Philpott

Gantz’s resignation from Israel’s war cabinet spells trouble for Netanyahu

Benny Gantz, leader of the Israeli Resilience party and a member of the war cabinet, has resigned from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Gantz, a moderate who joined the cabinet days into the war against Hamas, has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the prime minister over a lack of a plan for Gaza. Gantz positioned himself as a ‘patriot’, in contrast to Netanyahu, whom he accused of operating based on narrow political interests ‘Netanyahu is preventing us from progressing towards a true victory,’ Gantz said in a TV address on Sunday night. ‘For this reason we are leaving the emergency government today, with a heavy heart, yet wholeheartedly.’ Gantz also called on

John Keiger

Macron is trying to scare French voters into rejecting Le Pen’s party

The French presidential list score in the European elections ‘is not a good result for the parties which defend Europe’. So declared president Macron euphemistically on television last night to the French nation, as he called a snap election to be held on 30 June and 7 July. Official results published this morning show the Rassemblement National (RN) has romped home on 31.47 per cent. Macron’s party is in a lamentable second place on 14.56 per cent (way behind its 22.4 per cent in 2019) and very closely tailed by the moderate socialist Raphaël Glucksmann on 13.8 per cent. These European election results are a severe personal defeat for Macron

Sunday

9 Jun 2024

Freddy Gray

The European elections and the ascent of the right

Can the ‘far right’ still really be called the ‘far right’ if it becomes the mainstream? That’s a question for political scientists to ponder as tonight’s European elections results come tumbling in. The right is winning in France, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will win twice as many votes as president Macron’s Renaissance. Macron has already responded to the humiliation by calling for fresh national assembly elections to be held on 30 June and 7 July. The EU may well have to adapt to the worldview of Marine Le Pen In Germany, the AfD, despite a number of scandals, took 16 per cent of the vote, making them the

Gavin Mortimer

Macron’s snap election is his biggest gamble yet

Emmanuel Macron tonight dissolved France’s National Assembly and announced there will be new parliamentary elections with the first round of voting on 30 June and the second round a week later. The president made an unscheduled appearance on television one hour after exit polls declared a crushing victory for the National Rally in the European elections. Marine Le Pen’s party, whose election campaign was run by the 28-year-old president Jordan Bardella, is predicted a score of between 32 and 33.3 per cent, more than twice that of Macron’s representative, Valerie Hayer. She trailed a distant second on a projected 15 per cent, just ahead of the Socialist Raphaël Glucksmann. The

Steerpike

Watch: Green leader’s nuclear disaster

There are some decent arguments in favour of unilateral disarmament. So it’s a pity then that Carla Denyer did not make any of those when she appeared on LBC to give a car-crash interview earlier today. The Green co-leader decided that the best way to convince the British people to get rid of their Trident submarines at this election was to liken nuclear armageddon to, er, knife crime. Host Lewis Goodall began by asking Denyer whether ‘We would be less of a target if we didn’t have nuclear weapons?’ pointing out that ‘Poland doesn’t have nuclear weapons, it’s still a target’. ‘I don’t think that the argument for a deterrent

Steerpike

Watch: Tory aide stops Holden grilling

Which Tory minister is having the worst week in politics? It’s a title that Rishi Sunak seemed to have sewn up after his D-Day disaster on Thursday. But it appears his Tory chairman is now giving him a late run for his money. Richard Holden was sent out to defend the government today, following Sunak’s absence from the airwaves since Friday. But he faced his own interview embarrassment after Jon Craig of Sky decided to ask Holden as to why he switched seats this week at the very last-minute. ‘So you can’t justify the way you have been parachuted into Basildon and Billericay?’ Craig jibed. ‘You’re not deciding it’s a

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Farage doubles down on D-Day attack on PM

Rishi Sunak has been accused of making a massive error of judgment after he exited the D-Day commemorations early on Thursday, leaving Foreign Secretary David Cameron to deputise for him at the international leaders event. Speaking to Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips asked whether the PM understood the weight of the event. Stride said Sunak was deeply patriotic, arguing that his actions as Chancellor during Covid demonstrated how much he cared about the country. Stride said a mistake had been made, and the Prime Minister had ‘unequivocally apologised’. Nigel Farage: Sunak is ‘utterly disconnected by class, by privilege’ Laura Kuenssberg questioned Reform leader Nigel Farage

Steerpike

Minister: ‘No question’ of replacing Sunak

It’s three days since Rishi Sunak’s Normandy gaffe but there’s no sign of the row going away anytime soon. The Sunday Times reports that Lord Cameron was ‘apoplectic’ about the Prime Minister’s decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early but, when asked why he had not ‘picked Sunak up by his lapels’, replied ‘There is only so much I can do.’ The papers adds that there is also ‘fury at Buckingham Palace’ as ‘the King, who is being treated for cancer, was advised not to travel but was determined to do so, despite being in pain.’ Talk about getting a full house on the outrage front… It was left to

Julie Burchill

Why I’ll be voting Reform (reluctantly)

I’ve always loved voting. No matter how many times I’ve been disappointed, I’ll be out there next time round getting all misty-eyed as I put my X on the ballot paper and embarrassing the poor people running the show by blurting ‘Thank you for everything you do for democracy!’ before bolting for the door. It’s something to do with feeling connected with history and the bravery of people before me – the Suffragettes getting force-fed – but also feeling linked to the people fighting and dying for the right to vote all around the world. As Peter Robins wrote in The Spectator back in 2014: ‘If you want to see

Alexander Kolyandr

How Putin plans to fund a forever war in Ukraine

Vladimir Putin’s costly war in Ukraine has transformed Russia as the president has forced the country to pivot onto a war footing to support it. Now, going a step further, Russia is embarking on a significant tax regime overhaul, a move that hasn’t been seen in almost a quarter of a century. The tax shake-up will allow the Kremlin to further prioritise military spending as it attempts to keep its invasion going. In the early years of Putin’s rule, Russia sought to attract a lot of foreign investment, boost the number of small and medium-sized businesses, grow the middle class and encourage them to spend. As a result, in the 2000s, private investments

Steven Fielding

Does the fate of Foot’s Labour show what could happen to the Tories?

The party is floundering. Its leaders are at odds with their activists about what are their core beliefs. It is in danger of being relegated to third place in the popular vote by an organisation whose prominent figures are former members. And many commentators wonder whether the party has any kind of future. No, this is not a description of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party in the 2024 campaign but of Michael Foot’s Labour party as it faced disbelieving voters in 1983. Opinion polls since Nigel Farage’s restoration as leader of Reform have provoked feverish speculation about what might happen after the polls close on 4 July. Will Reform and the