Politics

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

Thursday

30 May 2024

Fewer kids should go to university

Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday what many of us have quietly suspected for some time. As a nation, we have too few apprentices and too many university students. Why not, he said, look hard at the higher education courses we provide at public expense, and where we see high drop-out rates, or poor employment and earnings prospects, be prepared to axe them and use the money to support apprenticeships? Predictably, the call for a cut in the number of university students has led to yelps of dissent, both from Labour with an election to win, and also from the higher education establishment with sales to safeguard. For all that, however,

Steerpike

Vaughan Gething to face no confidence vote

It wasn’t so very long ago that Sir Keir was hailing the Welsh Labour party as a ‘blueprint’ for what he would do in office. But with Vaughan Gething’s government crumbling by the hour, it is no surprise that Starmer has stopped praising his sister party in such gushing terms. The flailing First Minister of Wales is now facing a no confidence vote after just 70 days in post, following a string of scandals in the Senedd. He makes Humza Yousaf look like a model of stability… Gething’s woes started before he even took up office. During his leadership campaign accepted a controversial £200,000 in donations from a businessman twice

Jonathan Spyer

Pressure is piling on Netanyahu over Rafah

On Sunday, 45 Palestinians were killed after an Israeli airstrike on two Hamas commanders in the Rafah area set off a secondary explosion of ammunition, triggering a fire. Nevertheless, the IDF’s Rafah operation is continuing apace. A number of Merkava 4 tanks of the 401st armoured brigade were sighted near the al-Awda mosque close to the centre of Rafah city on Tuesday. The presence of the tanks has not been confirmed by the IDF but if accurate, it represents the furthest penetration by Israel into the heart of Rafah’s urban area to date. Israeli infantry and armoured forces of the 162nd division, meanwhile, continue to push along the Philadelphi Corridor adjoining the border with

Wayne Hunt

Can the Tories avoid the fate of Canada’s Conservatives?

As the Conservatives edge closer to disaster in the general election, the hunt is on for a historical comparison. Tony Blair’s dispatching of John Major in 1997 was mild compared with what polls say could be in store. Those wondering how bad it could get should look to Canada in 1993, when a Conservative-majority government showed the world just how far it is possible to fall. The similarities are clear. Brian Mulroney, the prime minister, had seemed to usher in a new conservative era when he was elected in 1984 with an unlikely coalition of voters. He had managed to cross Canada’s equivalent of a Red Wall by winning support

Douglas Murray

The right must unite

I mentioned here recently that to my mind Boris Johnson bears a fairish similarity to Dr Faustus, as Christopher Marlowe portrayed him: selling his soul only to then waste his time in futile and silly gestures. The Conservative party is one of the only political parties whose leader seems to rather dislike its own voters Perhaps I can now add Rishi Sunak as another possible stand-in for that role. As Sunak announced a general election in the drenching rain last week, I was forced to ask again: ‘What was the point of all this? What was the point of rising up the ladder, of knifing his predecessor, of working, campaigning

Angus Colwell

The TikTok stars taking on the Tories

‘Sorry to be breaking into your usual politics-free feed,’ chirrups Rishi Sunak in his first-ever TikTok video. He is awkward, understandably. TikTok is enemy territory for the Tories. What most users learn about the Conservatives is usually damning, from left and right. ‘I think the Tory party deserves to die,’ says Jess Gill, who with 1.2 million ‘likes’ has a larger TikTok following than the party she wants dead. ‘They’ve betrayed Britain. On all fronts, but particularly immigration. We have an extremist immigration policy that is ruining this country.’ She is from Bolton and commutes from Reading to King’s College London on the two days she has to go in

Rod Liddle

Vote Rod!

It suddenly occurred to me that I need to stop dressing like a radical lesbian bag lady if I am going to ingratiate myself with the voters in the constituency in which I am, perhaps unwisely, standing for the SDP. ‘Always look better than them’ is the injunction made by Steve Martin in the underrated film Leap of Faith: he plays a charlatan evangelistic preacher, which is not a million miles away from standing for parliament, although probably rather more fun. Logically, you might assume that as far as the polls are concerned, Labour’s lead can only decrease It’s a tall order – at least five people in my Middlesbrough

Katy Balls

Project Dunkirk: Rishi Sunak’s real election strategy

Since Rishi Sunak called the election last week, Tory MPs have been in a state of discombobulation. ‘It’s an absolutely crazy decision,’ pronounces a minister, after seven days of chewing it over. ‘It is the dumbest thing that has ever happened.’ To most Conservatives, every aspect of the campaign has seemed eccentric, even self-defeating – from Sunak’s rain-drenched announcement speech to his visit to the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. The policy announcements, moreover, seemed designed to further alienate young voters. The plan for mandatory national service for 18-year-olds – 95 per cent of which would consist of compulsory ‘volunteering’ at weekends – is an idea which had never been seriously

Wednesday

29 May 2024

Steerpike

Now Labour blocks Lloyd Russell-Moyle from standing

It is a bad time to be a member of the Socialist Campaign Group. Hours after Mr S revealed that Labour activists in Poplar are urging the party to intervene against Apsana Begum, tonight Lloyd Russell-Moyle has confirmed that he will be blocked from standing again in Brighton Kemptown. The left-winger, a former frontbencher under Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer, told activists tonight that ‘yesterday, out of the blue, I received an administrative suspension letter.’ According to Russell-Moyle, an unknown person has made ‘what I believe to be a vexatious and politically motivated complaint about my behaviour eight years ago. This is a false allegation that I dispute totally.’ He

Gavin Mortimer

Why are French politicians obsessed with world war two?

War talk is all the rage in France. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are often cited, but the war that has come to increasingly obsess the political class in recent weeks is the one that began in 1939. Almost every day brings another reference to a period that barely anyone in the Republic experienced first-hand. The latest example was a radio interview on Tuesday morning between Marion Maréchal, Vice President of Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party, and a journalist from France Inter, a radio station that describes itself as ‘progressive’. ‘What difference is there,’ the journalist asked Maréchal, ‘between the defence of the family that you propose and that proposed by Marshal

John McTernan

Diane Abbott has been treated abysmally

Diane Abbott should be allowed to stand as a Labour MP at this election. It is a relief that she has belatedly had the Labour whip returned to her after a ridiculously long ‘process’ involving the Labour party and the whips’ office. But to be reinstated the day before parliament is dissolved is an insult. To make things worse, she has been told that she will be banned from standing as a candidate on 4 July – although Keir Starmer has said it is ‘not true’ she is barred from running. There are many problems with the Labour party’s approach here. Firstly, the delay in dealing with her case is entirely

Stephen Daisley

Matheson’s suspension has come at a terrible time for the SNP

The Scottish parliament has voted to suspend former SNP cabinet minister Michael Matheson for 27 sitting days and dock his salary for 54 calendar days. It comes after Matheson was found to have broken the MSP code of conduct on expenses and use of parliamentary resources. Matheson ran up an £11,000 mobile data bill during a family holiday in Morocco and tried to have the taxpayer pick up the tab. Despite initially claiming no knowledge of how such a large bill was incurred, he later said that his sons had run up the charges while using the device’s hotspotting function to stream Celtic football matches. The vote broke down 64

Jawad Iqbal

Labour can’t avoid questions about Diane Abbott forever

The Labour leadership has only itself to blame for becoming embroiled in a bitter and divisive row over the future of Dianne Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She was suspended from the party in April last year after writing a letter to the Observer that appeared to play down racism against Jewish people. The party is now facing growing questions about how the disciplinary process around Abbott unfolded. Abbott apologised for her remarks, but was placed under a months-long investigation and lost the Labour whip. She finally confirmed this morning that she would not be allowed to stand again as a Labour candidate, even though the

Iain Macwhirter

John Swinney’s wounds are self-inflicted

John Swinney has said that he will make sure the public sees enough of him over the election campaign. But do they want to? In the latest Survation poll, conducted for True North over the weekend he is now the third most popular leader in this race of also-rans, with an approval rating of -7. Sir Keir Starmer is top and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, is second most popular at -3. This fall from grace may not be unconnected with Mr Swinney’s much-criticised defence last week of his disgraced ‘friend and colleague’ Michael Matheson, of iPad fame. Mr Matheson had been censured by the Holyrood Standards Committee for trying to claim,

Kate Andrews

A stand-off between Labour and the BMA is coming

Junior doctors will be staging yet another walkout in the week running up to the election: five days in total, from 27 June to 1 July. It is the 11th walkout since March last year, as the union insists they will not settle for less than a 35 per cent pay raise. The dates are no coincidence: there is no moment more politically fueled than the run-up to polling day. This gives more weight to the government’s argument that these strikes have always been political in nature, and certainly resulting in political consequence: the NHS waiting list rose by roughly 500,000 after Rishi Sunak pledged to get the waitlist falling,

James Heale

Is Diane Abbott in or out?

11 min listen

The drama in Westminster never seems to end. Last night the Times reported that the Labour party would not allow veteran MP Diane Abbott to represent the party at the upcoming general election. Abbott has reportedly been given the Labour whip back as a middle way, causing something of a backlash. Seeking to clarify the situation, Keir Starmer has today insisted that, ‘no decision has been taken to bar Diane Abbot’ and that ‘she is a member of the parliamentary Labour party.’ What’s going on? Will she be standing? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Brendan O’Neill

The tragedy of Diane Abbott

Here’s the tragedy of Diane Abbott. She entered British politics as a trailblazer for black Britons and now she leaves public life on the sour note of insulting Jewish Britons. She started out as a warrior against racism but ended up seeming to minimise racism. She devoted her political career to standing up for beleaguered minorities and then made the grave moral error of playing down the beleaguering of Britain’s Jewish minority. The moral fall of Diane Abbott tells a broader story about the moral decay of the left How did this happen? How did our first black female MP end up in the eye of a racism storm? How

Matthew Lynn

Daniel Kretinsky may come to regret buying Royal Mail

Foreigners are stripping the UK of its assets. Vulture capitalists are swooping down on our historic companies. We need a strategy to defend jobs and services. We will hear lots of arguments over the next few days about why the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky should not be allowed to complete his agreed takeover of Royal Mail. And yet, the more interesting question is this: why on earth would he want it? In reality, Royal Mail is a dog of a business, and one that is likely to be very difficult to turn around. Kretinsky may well come to regret his latest acquisition. Royal Mail has been a poorly performing business

Callum Hunter

Could the election be closer than you think?

Yesterday, the firm I work for, J.L. Partners, released a poll showing a 12-point lead for Labour over the Conservatives. This gap between the parties is much narrower than other polling companies are predicting – with several other polls showing a 20 point plus lead for Labour. Our poll still shows that Labour is heading for victory, but it has already been seized on by the Conservatives as a sign that they are still in contention in this election campaign. What explains the difference in these polls? And could the election in fact be closer than many think? To understand how we have arrived at this result, you also have to understand the

Steerpike

Is Apsana Begum next to go from Labour?

It’s a busy day in Labour land, following the mishandling of the Diane Abbott disaster. But now Mr S hears of a fresh row brewing in another of Labour’s London safe seats. In 2019, the Corbynite candidate Apsana Begum was chosen to replace the moderate Jim Fitzpatrick for the Poplar and Limehouse constituency. Her first two years as an MP were dominated by her trial for housing fraud, of which she was cleared in court in July 2021. She subsequently fell out with her constituency party to such an extent that in July 2022, the local branches and their affiliates voted for a full ‘recall’ process to determine who would