Politics

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

Wednesday

24 Apr 2024

Angela Rayner’s staggering admission at PMQs

Angela Rayner stood in for Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, and she opened with fireworks. ‘They’re desperate to talk about my living arrangements,’ she said, referring to her property woes, ‘but the public wants to know what this government is going to do about theirs.’ Brighton resident, Natalie, contacted Rayner about ‘no-fault evictions’. This isn’t much of an issue. When your tenancy ends, you rent a new flat. Big deal. But Labour loves a victim. And they use emotive language to turn the chore of ‘moving house’ into a Dickensian tragedy. ‘Ban this cruel practice,’ cried Rayner. She hasn’t considered that if renters enjoy the same rights as freeholders, the rent

Ross Clark

Who will pay the price for the boost in defence spending?

Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the government will increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP has been warmly welcomed, but how much is it really going to transform the UK’s military? Former armed services minister James Heappey was quick to scotch expectations this morning when he said it wouldn’t necessarily be enough to reverse falls in the size of the Army, Navy or Royal Air Force – the money could quite easily disappear simply in upgrading equipment. Nor is there anything particularly novel about the Prime Minister’s announcement: Boris Johnson made the same promise – to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by by 2030 – at the

Jonathan Miller

French bureaucracy cannot be defeated

When Emmanuel Macron launched his campaign to win the French presidency eight years ago, he promised to cut the number of civil servants in France by 50,000 and impose fundamental reforms on the bloated state. So how’s that going? In 2017 when Macron was elected there were 5.6 million fonctionnaires. By 2021 there were 5.7 million. Last year there were 60,000 more. Debureaucratisation starts to look less like a bonfire of regulations than a tool to let bureaucrats regulate more, with less effort So new promises to streamline France’s gargantuan bureaucracy must be taken with several kilograms of fleur de sel. The announcement this week by Gabriel Attal, Macron’s fourth prime minister (they’re

Jonathan Spyer

What Israel should do about Hezbollah

On Tuesday, Hezbollah launched its deepest attack into Israel since the current round of hostilities between Jerusalem and the Iran-supported Islamist group began last October. Sirens sounded in the town of Acre as drones and rockets were launched at what pro-Hezbollah media described as ‘military targets’ between Acre and Nahariya. There were no casualties. In response, Israeli aircraft struck at Hezbollah targets across the border. Hezbollah’s decision to strike further south appear to have come in response to the targeted killing by Israel of one of the movement’s senior commanders the previous day. Mohammed Khalil Atiyeh, a senior member of the organisation’s elite Radwan Force from the village of Sarfand

Steerpike

Watch: Cameron squirms over Rwanda questions

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill might have got through parliament, but are his own ministers convinced it will work? Among the sceptics appears to be Lord Cameron, who seemed a little apprehensive this morning when grilled on the government’s immigration plan. It’s hardly the best look when your own Foreign Secretary appears unconvinced… Cameron was asked by interviewer Anushka Asthana on ITV’s Peston show whether he would have pursued this same policy if he still was in the top job. A rather reluctant Cameron replied: ‘Well, we had a totally different situation where you could return people directly to France. I’d love that situation to be the case again.’ Hardly a

Ian Williams

The trouble with David Cameron’s China links

In the years following his resignation as prime minister, David Cameron appeared to become the poster child for elite capture by the Chinese Communist party. This is a term used to describe the process by which the CCP co-opts former officials and business people, usually through lucrative jobs and contracts with CCP-linked entities. Usually the officials have retired, or at least are beyond their best-by date, but still deemed useful for extending CCP legitimacy and influence. Rarely – like the reminted Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton – do they return to positions of considerable political power, dealing with the very government that helped keep them in comfort over recent years. That is

Isabel Hardman

Rayner outsmarts Dowden at PMQs battle of the deputies

Few politicians have looked more pleased with a joke than Oliver Dowden did with his first offering at Prime Minister’s Questions today. He was deputising for Rishi Sunak, who is in Berlin, while Angela Rayner stood in for Keir Starmer. Labour’s deputy leader decided to address the police investigation into whether she broke electoral law on, telling the chamber: ‘I know the member opposite is desperate to talk about my living arrangements. But what the public wants to know about is what this government is doing about their living arrangements.’ She asked about when ministers were really going to ban no-fault evictions. Dowden then produced his joke, with a very

James Kirkup

How to defuse the pension timebomb

Another day, another smart report arguing for higher payments into our pensions. Standard Life and WPI Economics have published a paper saying that minimum contribution rates into workplace pensions must rise. Today, workers contribute a minimum of 5 per cent of their salary to their pensions while their employer pays in 3 per cent. Not enough, the report says. Both rates should rise immediately to 6 per cent. Otherwise, it is said, millions of today’s workers will face poverty in retirement. Pension contributions should rise. They should already have risen, in fact This is entirely sensible and right and in line with the consensus among pensions experts and pensions industry

Iain Macwhirter

Free the Greens from the SNP’s clutches!

I have not been entirely flattering about the performance in government of the Scottish Green party ministers, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. I have accused them of being responsible for most of the policy failures that have defined Humza Yousaf’s annus horribilis. Everything from the Deposit Return Scheme for bottles and cans to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill; the Hate Crime Act to the ban on wood burning stoves. But it is time for me to put the record straight and say that the Greens aren’t all bad. Some of my friends have been Green and a few even remain in the party – though with increasing annoyance at its policies on

Alexander Horne

The Rwanda Bill won’t survive contact with reality

After significant wrangling in parliament, the government has finally passed its Rwanda Bill – while managing to resist any significant new amendments from the Lords. It is reported that the Bill is likely to gain royal assent this week and that the government has already identified individuals for removal. Given the scheme appeared dead in the water last year, Rishi Sunak may see this as a triumph. He now has this hugely contentious legislation in place, can finally ratify his treaty with Kigali, and is in a position to carry out his Rwanda plan. All eyes will now turn to the courts, to see whether Sunak can actually get removal flights off the ground before the

Steerpike

Watch: Greens grilled on ‘zero murders’ pledge

To the fantasy land of the Greens, where no promises are off the table — no matter how surreal. Just 48 hours after the Scottish branch embarrassed themselves over the Cass report, now it’s the turn of their London counterpart. Step forth Zoe Garbett, the party’s pink-haired nominee for the capital’s mayoralty, who is running on a platform of… ‘zero murders’. Yes, that’s right, if the Greens win, they claim they can end homicide in the capital within ten years. Garbett was rightly grilled on her ludicrous promise last night during LBC’s ‘London Mayoral Debate’. After a somewhat incredulous Tom Swarbrick asked Garbett: ‘You’ve suggested that you would like to

Steerpike

Yousaf faces rebellion from Forbes backers

Will Humza Yousaf ever catch a break? The short answer is: not anytime soon. Last week was dubbed the First Minister’s worst in the job – which is saying something, given the chaos that has engulfed his party over the past year. And if Yousaf had hoped for improved fortunes this week, his wishes were in vain. The pesky Greens are still causing the Nats a headache over the Bute House Agreement and Patrick Harvie’s barmy army could well vote themselves out of their coalition next month. Tuesday’s statement on the Cass review has raised yet more questions about the Scottish government’s tartan Tavistock problem – and now hapless Humza

Euan McColm

Humza Yousaf and his ridiculous, feigned outrage

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is a politician with two settings. If he’s being asked about a difficult issue – the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, for example, or his government’s failure to deliver its policies – he does a reasonable approximation of sincerity, all soft voice and sad eyes. You can see the parts moving but, credit to the man, he gives it a go. At all other times, Yousaf is in outrage mode, shuddering with fury at this or that decision of the UK Government. The First Minister maximises the opportunities for public displays of anger by – in common with all populist nationalists – absolving himself

Gavin Mortimer

Have Londoners forgotten how to stand up to anti-Semites?

There are some among the tens of thousands who march through London each week who genuinely seek peace in Gaza. There are others who march because they are anti-Semites. They hate Jews and want them eradicated. They sing songs about genocide and they brandish Swastikas and sport stickers celebrating the massacre of 1,200 Jewish men, women and children by Hamas terrorists on October 7th last year. This is not the first time that anti-Semites have paraded their bigotry through London. But the difference between now and 1936, when Oswald Mosley led his black-shirted British Union of Fascists through the capital’s streets in what came to be known as the ‘Battle of Cable

Francis Pike

Narendra Modi is unbeatable

Voting in India’s national elections started last Friday. It will take six weeks to complete, which is less of a surprise when one considers that in a population of 1.4 billion people there are 969 million voters, 2,600 political parties, 28 states and 780 languages. It is a logistical task of dazzling scale, not only for India’s election commission but also for its political leaders. Why then, in January, did Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick off his re-election campaign to secure his record third five-year term of office in the remote northern city of Ayodhya? This city, in a district with only a few million inhabitants, is a pinprick

Tuesday

23 Apr 2024

Steerpike

Does Labour really love the St George’s Cross?

Following last night’s mammoth parliamentary ping pong session, a funny thing happened early this morning. As various members of HM Press Gallery began to stir themselves today, the social media feeds of various Labour candidates began to be bombarded with graphic after graphic of the English flag, emblazoned with a message wishing one and all a happy St George’s day. Clearly, the free thinking men and women of the Starmer army had all got the message from on high. And then the great Keirleader himself published a rather snazzy video, waxing lyrical — in true Shakespearean style — about what England means to him. Eat your heart out Prince Hal.

Lisa Haseldine

Sunak and Scholz gear up for an awkward meeting in Berlin

Rishi Sunak arrived in Poland today to announce a £500 million boost in aid to Ukraine, using the trip to Warsaw to also finally put a timeline on increasing Britain’s defence spending. By 2030, the Prime Minister pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. His announcements come ahead of a much anticipated meeting with German chancellor Olaf Scholz tomorrow – one which may prove to be more awkward than either leader had originally anticipated. This morning, Berlin briefed out its displeasure at Westminster’s heel-dragging on UK spending contributions to European security. ‘There does not seem to be any plan to increase defence spending at all,’ a senior

Jawad Iqbal

Campus Gaza protests are crippling US universities

University campuses across the United States are facing a growing wave of student-led protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Campus officials have responded by taking unprecedented measures, including calling in the police, to try to clamp down on the unrest and contain an increasingly chaotic situation. The end result? Some of America’s most prestigious educational institutions look less like places of learning and more like crime scenes. At Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, hundreds of people gathered on campus yesterday, refusing to leave. Police, some in riot gear, arrested nearly 50 protesters. Similar student demonstrations have paralysed campuses at the University of California in Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of

Eliot Wilson

Why did it take Rishi Sunak so long to up defence spending?

Britain is putting its defence industry on a ‘war-footing’, the Prime Minister has said, as he vowed to boost spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030. It was only a matter of time that Rishi Sunak made such an announcement. After all, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine illustrated a simple truth: that the world is more dangerous now than for a generation, and nations will need to increase their defence spending if they want to protect themselves and their interests. Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat had all expounded this view from within government, and now it seems the PM has given his seal of approval. The money

Steerpike

Why is Labour so ‘angry’ about our next man in Washington?

Civil service appointments rarely generate much excitement in Westminster. But it’s not every day that Britain’s most senior diplomatic posting comes up for grabs. The Financial Times this week reports that our next man in Washington is going to be national security adviser Sir Tim Barrow. The Brexit-era veteran is set to succeed Dame Karen Pierce in the States later this year. One Tory MP praises him as ‘a serious figure’; another describes him as being in ‘very much the old mould of ambassadors – competent but not inspiring.’ Barrow will take up his new post in December or January – a timeline that has not gone down well with Labour. Critics argue that the