Politics

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

Tuesday

28 May 2024

The Tory ‘tax-cutting’ agenda is fooling no one

Something has to go badly wrong for anyone to become nostalgic for 2020. But the Tory’s latest election announcement – to create the ‘Triple Lock Plus’ – is just the thing to do it. The first autumn after the pandemic hit, then-chancellor Rishi Sunak was looking at the public finances in dismay, wondering how he might even try to account for the heavy spending that he, his party and Labour had rushed through parliament earlier in the year. But the strange circumstances of the pandemic – including the mandate for young and low-risk people to ‘stay home’ – also created an opportunity to address some outstanding and unfair public policy: the triple

James Price

The Conservatives must offer something to young people

Another day, another controversial new announcement from a Conservative campaign keen to show that it has new ideas. Today, it is the so-called ‘Triple Lock Plus’, which will mean that, should the Tories get back in, pensioners’ tax-free allowance will automatically increase in line with the highest of wages, earnings, or 2.5 per cent. The state pension will never be taxed. They claim it would give pensioners a tax cut of almost £300 per year by the end of the next parliament. Younger people expect a quid pro quo from the government, and from older people who have had it pretty good. This follows the national service announcement, and both in conjunction

John Oxley

The Tories have become the party of the pensioner

In several countries across Europe, ‘pensioners parties’ sit in parliament expressly to reflect the interests of older voters. The most successful is perhaps Slovenia, where the Democratic Party of Pensioners had a parliamentary presence from 1992 to 2022, and often made up part of the governing coalition. In the UK, attempts to create pensioners parties have faltered. Now, in a desperate grasp for survival, the Conservatives are attempting to become one. Rishi Sunak has kicked off the first full week of the campaign with a policy to further entrench the Tory support of better-off older people. Where once the triple lock was enough, now he has unveiled the ‘Triple Lock

James Kanagasooriam

The Dunkirk Strategy

13 min listen

The Conservatives have unveiled a new pensions policy: the ‘Triple Lock Plus’. What does it mean and what’s the thinking behind it? Will it help shore up the Tories’ core vote? Katy Balls and Focaldata’s James Kanagasooriam join Natasha Feroze to discuss. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Katy Balls

Rachel Reeves avoids the Miliband trap

Rachel Reeves is out once on the campaign trail once again today as she gives her first major speech since Rishi Sunak called a July election. Addressing business leaders in the East Midlands, Reeves will vow to ‘lead the most pro-growth Treasury in our country’s history’. So far, no surprises – the shadow chancellor has made similar promises before. However, what Reeves and her team will be patting themselves on the back for pulling off is a letter in today’s Times. Over one hundred business chiefs have signed a letter endorsing Labour’s economic plans and saying it is time for change. They include Iceland supermarket founder Malcolm Walker, the TV

Eliot Wilson

Labour needs to be clearer on defence

It used to be axiomatic of British politics that the Conservative party held a reputational advantage when it came to defence and security, and that Labour always had to make a greater effort to reassure the electorate. Opinion polls suggest that’s no longer true, but atavistic political instincts are resilient, and even now Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow cabinet colleagues feel a degree of pressure. Hence the deployment of Yvette Cooper. The Labour party should know what its foreign and security policy goals are, beyond nebulous ambitions of ‘keeping Britain safe’ The shadow home secretary, who is only 55 but one of the veterans of the modern Labour party,

Steerpike

Will Sunak debate Farage on small boats?

It’s a big day for Reform UK as Nigel Farage hosts his first campaign event down in Dover. But prior to his speech this morning, the former Brexit MEP decided to kick things off by throwing the gauntlet down to Rishi Sunak. In his Daily Telegraph column today, Farage challenges the beleaguered premier to have a one-to-one debate on Channel crossings. The honorary president of Reform says that if Sunak refuses to debate him on this ‘national security emergency’, it will prove that he ‘can’t stop the boats’. According to Farage: The Channel crossings must be designated a national security emergency. For two years, we have been promised a Rwanda

Anatol Lieven

National service won’t create real soldiers

There are strong arguments for national service in terms of national solidarity, training and self-discipline. In the end, however, the real question for any army worth the name is: would the soldiers fight? And would their families at home tolerate them being killed? It is indeed grotesque that Britain now has only one brigade immediately available in an emergency; but it wouldn’t help to have 30 brigades if they could not in fact be deployed for war. From this point of view, it is important to realise that national service has always involved an explicit or implicit understanding between citizens and states. It is that conscripts are there to defend the homeland,

Monday

27 May 2024

Katy Balls

Sunak introduces the ‘Triple Lock Plus’

Another day, another big policy pledge from the Tories – and this time it’s a pitch for the grey vote. Rishi Sunak is pledging to cut tax for pensioners. A Conservative government would increase the personal allowance for pensioners in line with the Triple Lock by introducing a new age-related allowance. It is being billed as the ‘Triple Lock Plus’ whereby both the state pension and their tax-free allowance rise in line with the highest of earnings, wages or 2.5 per cent. As things stand, tax thresholds are being frozen for three years – which would not only drag five million more into higher tax bands but mean the basic

Steerpike

Tory MP suspended for backing Reform successor

It never rains but it pours for poor Rishi Sunak. After a difficult start for his election campaign, the Prime Minister tried to steal a march on his Labour opponents by proposing the reintroduction of a form of national service. One person he would presumably now like to conscript is Lucy Allan, the longtime Telford trouble-maker. Having been elected in 2015, Allan announced last June that she intended to stand down as an MP. Unfortunately for Sunak she has decided to mark her leaving this week with a final two-fingered salute at the Tory leader. In a statement posted on Twitter/X today, she announced that she was supporting the local

Stephen Daisley

Which seats are the Scottish Tories targeting in the election?

The Scottish Conservatives were facing a difficult election this summer but SNP leader John Swinney may have thrown them a lifeline. In choosing to attack Holyrood’s standards committee for proposing a 27-day suspension for nationalist MSP Michael Matheson, Swinney has put his party on the wrong side of public opinion. Matheson was censured for running up an £11,000 data bill on his parliamentary iPad during a family holiday in Morocco and trying to have the taxpayer cover it. Swinney claims the standards process was prejudiced by one of the committee’s members and says he will oppose its recommendations. This has been a welcome surprise for the Scottish Tories. A senior

Katy Balls

Tory backlash grows over Sunak’s national service pledge

The Conservative campaign pledge to introduce mandatory national service is still dominating the news two days on. Many of Monday’s front pages carry details or questions over the practicality of the policy. There are also questions about what sanctions 18-year-olds would face for refusing to take part in community service or take part in a twelve-month armed forces placement. Officially, this is one for the royal commission to decide (if Sunak is somehow prime minister after 4 July) – but ideas floating around include being blocked from civil service jobs, fines or credits in relation to university applications. There is plenty of bad will in the Tory party However, the

Steerpike

CCHQ memo blasts ‘noncommittal’ Tory MPs

It’s all a barrel of gaffes at CCHQ these days. The latest slip-up comes in the form of a leaked memo in which party staff criticised Conservative MPs for failing to ‘get behind’ the election campaign — accusing some of focusing too much on ministerial business, others of being more concerned with holiday plans and adding that a number of seats were rather low on funds. Oh dear… The controversial email in question delivered to Tory politicians was mistakenly sent with two attachments: one with a constituency breakdown with constructive comments, and another with rather frank remarks about what CCHQ staff thought of the Conservatives’ campaign efforts. The memo focused

Fraser Nelson

Does Keir Starmer have enough to say?

16 min listen

Keir Starmer set out his first major speech to kick of Labour’s general election campaign. The Labour leader prioritised national security, a strong economy and the borders. But with a ‘policy light’ campaign – has he done enough? Kate Andrews speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson.

Matthew Lynn

Why is Rachel Reeves so proud of working at the Bank of England?

We don’t know much about what taxes she will impose. Nor do we have many clues as to how she will boost growth, or find the money to improve public services. Still, not to worry. It turns out that we can, at least according to her feed on X, trust the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves to ‘run the economy’ for a very simple reason. She used to work at the Bank of England, and apparently they know about that kind of stuff over there. There is just one problem. In reality the Bank is not as brilliant as Reeves seems to think it is – and it is questionable, to

Isabel Hardman

Starmer’s ‘why Labour’ message needs to get slicker

Keir Starmer has been considerably less discombobulated by the election announcement than the party that made it, but he still has some catching up to do. The Labour leader knows that he has to answer the question of ‘why Labour’ to voters who have already largely accepted that there is a strong reason to change from the Tories. To that end, his speech this morning was an attempt to explain to the public what Labour now stands for. Slightly improbably, Starmer started by telling the audience that they really should visit Oxted. The reason for this was that Starmer sees Oxted as being the way he can explain his politics

Steerpike

SNP candidates struggle to Crowdfund campaign money

Uh oh. As election campaigns kick off, a number of nationalist politicians have had a rather rocky start. The SNP has already gone into election season on the back foot as polls consistently predict the party is likely to lose around half its Westminster MPs in the next election. To make matters worse the SNP is also having trouble attracting investment while the police probe into party finances hangs hangs over it. The latest accounts show the Nats saw an £800,000 financial loss as membership numbers fell and donations dried up. Now it transpires that Scottish National party candidates have had to resort to launching Crowdfund pages to try and

Jan Camenzind Broomby

There’s trouble ahead for Taiwan’s new president

Not many inaugural ceremonies bring together dragons, dancers, rappers, and a 10-metre-high blue horse breathing steam out of its nostrils. But last Monday morning, as thousands gathered to watch the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president William Lai, Taipei’s residents were treated to just that. And as Lai danced on the stage, he may well have been very happy. His inauguration ceremony, an eclectic display of Taiwanese culture, had gone off without a hitch. Moreover, his inaugural speech, designed to outline a pragmatic foreign policy while developing new ideas to stimulate Taiwan’s economy, had elicited what felt like a relatively muted reaction from Beijing. Like his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, Lai committed

James Heale

Tories race to find 160 candidates

The decision to call a snap election last Wednesday caught many in Tory and Labour high command by surprise. Both parties are now racing to finalise candidate selections for all 630 seats in Britain by the deadline of Friday 7 June, with Labour much further advanced in this process than the Conservatives. Fewer than 35 constituencies currently lack a Labour candidate, and some in Keir Starmer’s team are keen to highlight the contrast in readiness between the two parties. The Tories now have 12 days to fill 160 vacancies – the equivalent of picking one candidate every 100 minutes. Within CCHQ, however, there is confidence that this target can be

Steerpike

Labour refuse to say if Bercow’s ban is lifted

It is now 812 days since John Bercow membership of the Labour party was suspended on an ‘administrative basis’ pending an investigation into his bullying. Back in March 2022, the former Speaker was banned from ever holding a parliamentary pass after an independent panel upheld the findings of Kathryn Stone, who found him guilty on 21 counts of 35 complaints over five years. The panel’s 89-page review of their probe revealed that Bercow threw phones at staff, displayed ‘undermining behaviour’, and ‘lied extensively to try and avoid the damning reality of the truth’. Since then, there have been various reports that Labour’s investigation remains ongoing, despite Stone’s comprehensive findings. So Mr S was