Politics

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

Saturday

8 Jun 2024

Why was George Orwell a socialist?

When George Orwell’s publisher, Fredric Warburg, read the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four in December 1948 he wrote a rapturous report to his colleagues, saying that the book was ‘worth a cool million votes to the Conservative party’. He described it as ‘a deliberate and sadistic attack on Socialism and socialist parties generally. It seems to indicate a final breach between Orwell and Socialism’. Warburg had known Orwell for more than a decade. If he believed that Orwell had swung to the right, it is hardly surprising that other readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four got the same impression. Orwell was too sick with tuberculosis in 1949 to write more than a few book reviews. He told

Friday

7 Jun 2024

Iain Macwhirter

Nigel Farage will be disappointed by his BBC debate performance

It had been called the dinner party from hell. A seven-strong convention of the also rans. But only one dinner guest really mattered: Nigel Farage. The populist politician’s last-minute decision to stand as a Reform candidate in Clacton has struck fear into the hearts of Conservative MPs across the country, but especially in the 60 marginal seats that Professor John Curtice says Reform could help the Tories lose on 4 July. The surprise of the night was a new coalition on electoral reform between Farage and the Lib Dems But none of tonight’s participants in the BBC debate were going to allow the debate to turn into the Nigel Farage show. He

Isabel Hardman

Mordaunt’s debate strategy was to pretend Farage wasn’t there

How is it possible that a seven-way debate between the main parties in this election was more civilised than the two-way stand-off between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak earlier this week? Tonight’s BBC debate was bizarrely better viewing. Sure, the party representatives interrupted one another, attacked each other, and flung about fake figures. But it was easier to follow. Mordaunt did not defend or praise Rishi Sunak It was also fascinating to see who attacked who. Penny Mordaunt largely pretended Nigel Farage didn’t exist, but interrupted Angela Rayner frequently. Farage – who was in much better humour and shape than the 2015 election and 2016 Brexit debates, which he largely

Steerpike

Watch: Sunak heckled by local GP

When it rains for Rishi Sunak, it pours. Just hours after the Prime Minister was forced to apologise for leaving D-day commemorations early to film a pre-recorded ITV interview, Sunak was faced with more challenges on the election trail. During a campaign visit, a frustrated member of the public — who is also a local doctor — had a go at the beleaguered PM over his party’s NHS workforce plan. It supports the training of physician associates to work in the health service, which has caused outrage in the medical community amidst fears that doctors in the country are not being adequately supported by the government. In a rather robust

Coffee House

As it happened: Mordaunt clashes with Rayner in BBC election debate

Nigel Farage traded blows with Labour’s Angela Rayner and the Tories’ Penny Mordaunt in tonight’s seven-way BBC election debate. Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations in France early was also a big talking point in the debate which involved Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn, Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru and Green party co-leader Carla Denyer. Here’s all the action and analysis as it unfolded on our live blog:

Fraser Nelson

Farage is wrong to question Sunak’s patriotism

It didn’t take long for Nigel Farage to weaponise Sunak’s D-Day debacle. ‘Rishi Sunak pops into Normandy but omits to go to the big international commemoration,’ he says in a pre-debate warmup video. ‘He doesn’t really care about our history. He doesn’t really care, frankly, about our culture…This man is not patriotic. Doesn’t believe in the country, its people, its history or frankly even its culture. If you’re a patriotic voter, don’t vote for Rishi Sunak.’ Jeremy Corbyn was frequently attacked for being unpatriotic but that’s more to do with his links with Sinn Fein and taking the non-British side in a few too many international disputes. It is absurd

Steerpike

Watch: Galloway blasts ‘believers’ who support Labour

Oh dear. While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struggles to fend off criticism about leaving Thursday’s D-day commemorations early, another party leader is causing controversy elsewhere. A video of George Galloway of the Workers Party of Britain is doing the rounds in London WhatsApp groups. In a heated campaign speech, Galloway blasted Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party in an angry tirade: Anybody who considers themselves to be a religious believer, who intends to vote for Keir Starmer, the genocide agent, should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, should forget about the Eid, should forget about fasting, should forget about praying. You think God is listening to someone who’s praying one day and

Stephen Daisley

Sunak is out of touch, and always has been

Rishi Sunak says it was a ‘mistake’ to leave the 80th anniversary commemorations for D-Day early. That’s one way to describe ditching a memorial to the liberation of Western Europe to record an election interview for the telly. We have heard the various reasons as to why this was such an error. It was dreadful judgement. Terrible optics. Anathema to the very Silent Generation and Baby Boomer voters his election campaign is tailored to. But while I have no designs on defending him, I suspect this is just who Sunak is. As one highly astute commentator, who isn’t above saying ‘I told you so’, once observed: ‘He combines the perception he is out

Gavin Mortimer

Why are Europe’s progressives often intolerant?

For Robert Fico it was a bullet, for Nigel Farage it was a milkshake. The targeting of both men demonstrates the alarming rise of intolerance spreading across Europe. Most of it is perpetrated by people whose political ideology can best be described as progressive, but they are extremists, prepared to make the leap from words to acts. Across the West, elite society is dominated by progressives, overwhelmingly middle or upper-middle class graduates Fico, for example, the prime minister of Slovakia, describes himself as the leader of a left-wing populist party. The man charged with shooting him last month is a 71-year-old poet and supporter of the liberal party, Progressive Slovakia. The

Steerpike

SNP’s musical campaign efforts fall on deaf ears

With only four weeks to go until the general election, party campaigns are rapidly ramping up. Politicians and staffers are desperately searching for more creative (and crazy) ways of getting voters’ attention — and north of the border the Nats have mobilised the musical wing of their party. Taylor Swift is in town for the start of the UK leg of her Eras tour and the SNP’s Swift-mania is in overdrive. One press release from the Nats managed to include a whole, um, 11 references to the star’s songs, including a line from social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville that read: There’s no question that the Tories are out of Style in Scotland

James Heale

Will Labour’s manifesto contain a surprise?

14 min listen

Overnight, details of Labour’s manifesto were leaked. There are several new policies, but how surprising are they, and how will they land with voters? Elsewhere, Rishi Sunak has denied he planned to skip D Day events altogether since our episode this morning. Can the row get any worse? James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair.

Katy Balls

The Nickie Aiken Edition

37 min listen

Nickie Aiken has been an elected public servant for 18 years. An MP since 2019, she has served as a deputy chairman and a vice-chair of the Conservative Party. She was also a councillor in Westminster for 16 years including as leader of the council and previously worked in public relations. On the episode, Katy Balls talks to Nickie about how she got into politics, why the tea room is the most useful part of Parliament, and the scourge of pedicabs in London. Not seeking re-election at this general election, Nickie also reflects on the politics of the past few years and on what the future might hold for the

Kate Andrews

Nigel Farage’s biggest gift to the Labour party

Labour has a lot of reasons to be thankful for Nigel Farage. Reform was already creeping up on the Tories in the polls, even before the party’s honorary president announced this week that he would take up the role of leader and stand in Clacton. Now the polls are nearly neck-and-neck. The most recent YouGov survey – published on Wednesday, accounting for Farage’s announcement but not Tuesday night’s debate – showed Reform on 17 per cent, a mere two points behind the Conservatives. As Katy Balls notes in this week’s magazine, Farage likes to insist that Reform tends to take more votes from Labour than the Tories, but the main bloc up for

Ross Clark

How many more houses will Labour actually build?

Is Labour really going to help get 80,000 people on the housing ladder over the next five years under its Freedom to Buy scheme, as it is claiming this morning? Given the rather light ambition of this target, I would say it probably has a chance of hitting that target, although it won’t transform the life-chances of young people. According to the ONS, 51.4 per cent of 20 to 24-year-olds were still living with their parents, along with 26.7 per cent of 25 to 29-year-olds. That is several million people who in past generations might have been expected to be making their own way in the world – indeed, the

Steerpike

Watch: Sunak grovels over D-day ‘mistake’

Oh dear. The story of the day may well become the story of the election campaign as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struggles to explain why he missed part of Thursday’s D-day commemorations in Normandy to film a pre-recorded ITV interview. On Friday morning, Suank apologised on Twitter for snubbing aspects of the 80th anniversary events — which were attended by a number of international leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz and President Biden — and at lunchtime the PM eventually faced the cameras. A solemn Sunak told journalists: I’ve participated in a number of events, in Portsmouth and France, to honour those who risked their lives to defend

Damian Reilly

Voters won’t forget Sunak’s D-Day snub

It’s hard to think of anything Rishi Sunak could have done that would cause greater offence to the British sensibility. You do not, not if you’re the British prime minister, sack off the D-Day commemorations in Normandy to return home early under any circumstances – least of all in order to do an ITV interview on tax. It’s not just disrespectful to the fallen. His early exit suggests that this is all just a game for Sunak. It seems to send a message that he stands for precisely nothing – beyond being prime minister. Can you imagine Boris Johnson – whom Sunak knifed so expertly on his way to the top

Patrick O’Flynn

Rishi Sunak is bad at politics. Who knew?

Everyone is finally noticing that Rishi Sunak is rubbish at politics. Given the scale of his faux pas in bailing out of D-Day commemorations early to get back on the campaign trail, it is hard not to. As a longstanding member of the ‘Rishi is Rubbish’ club, I find it difficult not to feel the kind of proprietorial irritation that fans of cult rock bands suffer when their heroes become mainstream. In fairness, this theory of Sunak’s ineptitude – now so validated by evidence it could almost be referred to as ‘the science’ – was first aired not by me but in a New Statesman blog before Sunak even became

Eliot Wilson

Sunak’s D-Day departure was extraordinarily disrespectful

Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave Thursday’s 80th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy was extraordinary, stupid and disrespectful. He accompanied the King to a British ceremony at Ver-sur-Mer in the morning, at which Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition, was also present. But Sunak returned to the UK before the afternoon’s international event at Omaha Beach. It transpired that he spent the rest of the day recording an election campaign interview with ITV. Failing to attend a major commemoration of one of the most important events in recent history, during which 1,500 British service personnel were killed, is staggeringly disrespectful Downing Street sources have since told the BBC

Freddy Gray

How can you stop Donald Trump?

29 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Alex Castellanos, Republican Party strategist who has served as media consultant to seven U.S. Presidential campaigns. They discuss Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his search for a vice president, and if there’s any way Joe Biden can tarnish his image.

Katy Balls

Backlash grows over Sunak’s D-Day mistake

When Rishi Sunak’s team were mapping out this week, Wednesday and Thursday were viewed to be non-political days as the Prime Minister and most UK political leaders would be focusing on the D-Day commemorations. Yet somehow Sunak has found himself facing the biggest backlash of his campaign to date over his attendance at the anniversary. His decision to leave Normandy in the afternoon and therefore miss a ceremony on Omaha beach that world leaders – including Joe Biden – attended has been met with bafflement and anger by his own side. As Isabel reports here, Sunak has this morning issued an apology for leaving early – ‘on reflection, it was