Politics

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

Thursday

6 Jun 2024

Steerpike

Tories take £5 million from racism row donor

Oh dear. As election campaigns ramp up, the Tories have found themselves in another spot of trouble. It transpires today that the Conservatives accepted another £5 million donation from donor Frank Hester — the Yorkshire businessman who back in March was condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his ‘wrong’ and ‘racist’ remarks about Labour politician Diane Abbott. Talk about a lack of contrition… Hester faced intense criticism after it emerged he had told colleagues at work that looking at Abbott makes ‘you just want to hate all black women because she’s there’ and that ‘she should be shot’. The Tories were hesitant to condemn the remarks at first — and, it

Isabel Hardman

Labour is breaking one of the last taboos in politics

Labour has decided to lean into the £2,000 tax hike claim by the Tories, and turn it into a row about lying. Keir Starmer yesterday accused Rishi Sunak of ‘lying’, saying: ‘That’s why the choice at the next election is starker now than it was yesterday. It’s a choice between chaos and confusion, the sort of thing we’ve seen now for 14 years, and now lies on top of it. Or turn the page and rebuilding with Labour.’ The problem is that this £2,000 tax claim is not out of the ordinary It is not a strategy without risk: it allows the £2,000 claim to be repeated. But given that was going

Eliot Wilson

Have the Tories done enough for veterans?

The Conservative party is returning to defence and security for another election pitch and has unveiled a series of measures to support armed forces veterans. The proposals include a Veterans’ Bill enshrining rights, cheaper railcards for former service personnel and tax allowances for those who employ them. Taken with a plan to introduce a form of national service and Labour’s performative commitment to renewing the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent, it is making the election campaign more defence focused than anything we have seen since the 1980s. The challenges facing veterans as a result of their service are real and substantial A few weeks after the general election, the Office for

Paul Stott

Keir Starmer and the truth about the Camden cadre

Since 1997, every new government has been defined by an inner-London postcode. Remember the David Cameron era ‘Notting Hill set?’ Tony Blair’s ‘Granita summit’ in 1994 with Gordon Brown and the frequently elicited mockery about the ‘Islington elite?’ Even Liz Truss lasted just long enough for a headline or two about her ‘Greenwich gang,’ which included her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. Camden represents a sort of finishing school for Labour’s politicians For thirty years, with only a three-year break, the Labour party has been led entirely by men living within three miles of the Arsenal football ground. Even when power shifted left in Labour, it was to Islington’s radical flank –

Matthew Parris

The moment Starmer lost control of the Labour left

‘Tony Blair walks on water.’ Decades ago this statement led a Times photographer and me to the front door of the dismal Hackney North & Stoke Newington Labour party offices. It was 23 April 1997, and a fateful general election loomed. I was my newspaper’s 46-year-old political sketchwriter, and Labour’s local candidate was a 43-year-old MP called Diane Abbott. She had hit the headlines with her withering response to New Labour demands that she cease her unhelpful noises-off from stage-left and toe the line. There were Labour colleagues who could have attested without sarcasm to their leader’s amphibian powers. She was not one of them. ‘MPs are pack animals. They’ll

Lionel Shriver

Another election boost for Trump

Last Thursday evening a companionable London dinner party was just wrapping up when our hostess returned to the table brandishing the New York Times headline on her phone: in giant letters for such a tiny device, ‘TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS’. Three American Democrats and one British Democrat-by-marriage, my fellow diners were exhilarated. One guest declared, ‘We got him’ – soon a triumphant refrain in my home state of New York. Democrats are so blinded by their own goodness that they fail to grasp how badly this strategy could backfire Technically a Democrat, sometimes as a sly rhetorical convenience, I was more muted, mumbling quietly once the cheers died down:

Douglas Murray

Britain is an anachronism as the world goes right

Some of us have vindictively long memories. I am one such person. So let me summon up just two stories from the not-so-distant past that have some bearing on our unhappy present. In 2009 the Dutch politician Geert Wilders was barred by Jacqui Smith, the then Labour home secretary, from entering the UK. In a letter explaining her decision, Smith (or rather her Home Office lawyers) wrote that Wilders’s ‘statements about Muslims and their beliefs would threaten community harmony and therefore public safety in the UK’. Perhaps Smith was partly influenced by the possibility that if Wilders came to the Houses of Parliament and gave his speech (in which he

Katy Balls

Can the Tories survive Nigel Farage?

Nigel Farage had given less than a day’s notice, yet hundreds stood ready to welcome him on Tuesday morning on the pier of Clacton-on-Sea. There was a woman with Union Jack sunglasses and a man wearing an ‘I love gas and oil’ T-shirt. More stood on the bridge above, peering down. Everyone wanted to catch sight of their would-be MP. ‘I’m here to blow him a kiss and say thank you, thank you Nigel,’ explains Yvonne, in her sixties. ‘He 100 per cent has my vote.’ This is a Tory seat now but it was once a Ukip seat and these voters may well send Farage to parliament as the

Annunziata Rees-Mogg

I’m a lifelong Tory. Should I vote Reform?

For more than 30 years, I have knocked on doors and dutifully recorded voting intentions. I’m sure every party has their own abbreviations but during my Tory canvassing career, ‘U’ stood for undecided. I often wondered at – and, in part, admired – those people who were genuinely open to any party. It was an affliction that I did not suffer from, but I could see its merits. If people like me don’t vote Tory, Keir Starmer will, of course, have an even bigger majority Now that Nigel Farage has entered the race for a Reform party whose agenda is very close to the principles I’ve always believed in, I

Wednesday

5 Jun 2024

Steerpike

Watch: minister squirms on rising tax burden

Oh dear. As the Conservative £2,000 tax claim continues to implode, poor Bim Afolami has been sent out on the airwaves to prop up his party. Only Sky News aren’t taking his defence quite as well as he might have hoped. ‘How much has tax gone up under the Conservatives over the last parliament term, per household?’ Sky News’s Sophie Ridge quizzed the former Tory politician. ‘Well it’s difficult to calculate,’ Alofami confessed, before his interviewer stepped in again. ‘I’ll give you the answer,’ Rigby replied. ‘Since 2019, according to our Economics Data Editor Ed Colway and analysing OBR figures, taxes have gone up £13,000 per household since 2019. £2,000

Euan McColm

Is Stephen Flynn’s seat really at risk from Labour?

In public, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is all humility. Starmer might currently be heading towards a general election landslide victory but the line is consistent: The party’s taking nothing for granted. Privately? Well, one of two of the party’s candidates and strategists might concede they expect things to go rather well for them on July 4. Quite a few will admit they expect a landslide. In Scotland, confidence among the Labour lot is so strong that they have their eyes on a win that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. The Times has reported today that Labour fancies its chances of unseating the SNP’s Westminster

Jawad Iqbal

Vaughan Gething’s impressive failure

Vaughan Gething, First Minister of Wales, has managed to achieve the remarkable feat of losing a no confidence vote – just 77 days into his leadership. Defeat was inevitable after two of his Labour colleagues in the Welsh Senedd called in sick. During an often heated debate, Gething at one point appeared visibly emotional and had to be comforted by a colleague. The vote was called by the opposition Conservatives after a series of controversies that have dogged the first minister since he came into the top job. With Labour holding 30 out of the 60 seats in the Senedd, and with every other party set to vote against him, Gething

Stephen Daisley

Farage’s milkshake attack and the perils of progressivism

Much worse than the fact of a banana milkshake being chucked over Nigel Farage is the inevitable discourse it has occasioned. This has mostly involved progressives finding it very funny and others trying desperately, and unsuccessfully, to reason with them. This is as good a time as any to reiterate a point I hope to drive home to all those who belong to a rival political tradition to progressivism, be they right-wingers, liberals, social democrats or Marxists. That point is this: you can’t reason with a progressive. Not because they are irrational, although some are, but because progressivism operates outwith the philosophical and ethical confines of these other ideologies. It

James Heale

Will Vaughan Gething follow Truss and Yousaf?

There’s something in the British waters right now – and it’s not Ed Davey on his paddleboard. After Liz Truss in Westminster and Humza Yousaf at Holyrood, could Vaughan Gething be the next leader of a UK government to find himself out of office in a record space of time? The Welsh First Minister this evening lost a confidence vote in the 60-member Senedd by 29 votes to 27. Labour holds exactly half of the seats with 30 members, with 16 Tories, 13 representatives for Plaid Cymru and a solitary Liberal Democrat. Two of Gething’s backbenchers were off sick and thus missed tonight’s vote, which followed an afternoon of passionate debate

Lisa Haseldine

The European elections will test the AfD’s strength

As Olaf Scholz gathers alongside other European leaders on the beaches of Northern France tomorrow to commemorate 80 years since the allied invasion of Normandy, the German Chancellor may have another D-Day in mind. Tomorrow morning, the polls open across the continent for the European parliamentary elections. Over the coming three days, voters in each EU member state will vote for candidates put forward by their home country’s national parties. The natural result of this model is that voters tend to cast their ballots based on domestic concerns, rather than what those MEPs might necessarily be able to do for them in Brussels. As such, for Scholz and his traffic

Jonathan Spyer

Will Netanyahu declare war on Hezbollah?

The war in Gaza is perceived internationally as a limited affair, pitting Israel against the Islamist Hamas organisation within the confines of a narrow strip of territory on the Mediterranean coast. This view has long been reductive. A number of other fronts are active as a result of the outbreak of war in Gaza. And one of them – Lebanon – is currently showing signs of erupting into full conflict. In November, the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement commenced their targeting of shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. In the same month, the Iran-allied Shia militias in Iraq began attacks on Israel, and on US and

James Heale

Reform’s Farage poll bounce spells trouble for the Tories

‘I’m back’. Nigel Farage’s two-word tweet on Monday heralded the return of one of Westminster’s great celebrities. Barely 48 hours later, we are already seeing the impact that he is making in the polls. A YouGov survey published this afternoon suggests Reform are now on 17 per cent of the vote – just two points behind the Tories. It is the first polling done since Farage announced he was standing in Clacton and returning as leader. ‘It’s all about momentum’, he told me last week in Dover. Reform looks to have that in spades. The survey – which gives Labour a 21 point lead on 40 per cent – is

Katy Balls

Who won the first leaders’ debate?

17 min listen

Last night, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer went head-to-head in the first TV debate of the campaign. They clashed on a variety of topics, including housing, the NHS, and immigration. But who came out on top? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Megan McElroy.

Laurie Wastell

The Nigel Farage milkshaking is no laughing matter

Emerging from a pub after his campaign launch in Clacton yesterday afternoon, Nigel Farage was milkshaked. A 25-year-old woman has been charged with assault by beating and criminal damage. The incident has, quite rightly, been widely condemned. Farage’s Conservative opponent in Clacton, Giles Watling, tweeted that ‘every candidate has the right to campaign without fear of violence or intimidation’. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called it a ‘disgrace’ and ‘completely unacceptable and wrong’. They were right to condemn the attack: this act of narcissistic nihilism is an affront to the democratic process, whatever side of the debate you are on. Farage has done his best to shrug off the attack So it has been disappointing to see that, since the news

Lucy Dunn

Alex Salmond’s Alba party isn’t serious about the general election

In the second-floor room of a building on Tufton Street, Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond delivered a press conference this afternoon to London journalists. An untouched tray of biscuits sat on a coffee table at the back, while the rest of the space was rather merch-light thanks to forgetful organisers not transporting more materials from Scotland: a party banner was illuminated on a TV screen and seats were covered in ‘general election briefing’ PDF print-outs. Hydrating not with water but with Lucozade — the party leader confessed a ‘lifelong addiction’ to the sugary drink, admitting it was neither Irn Bru nor Aperol Spritz, a favourite tipple of some nationalist