Politics

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

Friday

12 Apr 2024

The courts can’t solve climate change

It was always a racing certainty that this week’s ‘Swiss grannies’ climate change judgment in Strasbourg would spawn a new wave of environmental lawfare and give new life to that already in progress. A taste of the brave new future duly came from the High Court in London yesterday. Section 58 of the Climate Change Act requires the government periodically to lay before parliament its objectives to deal with climate change. The government has duly produced a so-called ‘National Adaptation Programme 3’, but some people say it is not good enough. They include pressure group Friends of the Earth, and two individuals alleging injury due to climate change: the owner of a

Eliot Wilson

Can Starmer be trusted with Trident?

Three weeks after the Prime Minister visited Barrow-in-Furness to pose with models of submarines, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has made his way to BAE Systems in Cumbria to emphasise his support for the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent. He penned an accompanying manifesto for the Daily Mail, in which he said his party’s commitment to Trident was ‘total’ and ‘unshakeable’. He also expressed a ‘a cast-iron commitment’ to build the four new Dreadnought-class nuclear submarines which will carry Britain’s ballistic missiles from the early 2030s onwards. This is politics. Starmer remembers that at the last election barely one in ten voters trusted the Labour party on defence and national

James Heale

Is Angela Rayner unsackable?

13 min listen

The row over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs has deepened today. This morning, Greater Manchester police have announced that – following a reassessment of the case – they will open a formal investigation into Angela Rayner. What does this mean for Keir Starmer? And why would it be so difficult for him to sack her? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Katy Balls

The Angela Rayner council house row deepens

The row over Angela Rayner’s tax affairs is becoming more serious. This morning, Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into the Labour deputy leader over whether she broke electoral law by failing to properly disclose her main residence in official documents. The investigation relates to two properties in Stockport – one owned by Rayner (on Vicarage Road) and one by her then-husband Mark Rayner (on Lowndes Lane). Rayner is accused of potentially avoiding paying capital gains tax on her property – which she sold in 2015 – as well as potentially breaking electoral law. Rayner denies both allegations. A police spokesperson said: ‘We’re investigating whether any offences have been committed.

Steerpike

Scottish government spent £400,000 on promoting new hate crime law

Back to Scotland and Humza Yousaf’s controversial new hate law. The First Minister’s Hate Crime Act has left an already overstretched and under-resourced police force swamped with trivial complaints. Of the over 7,000 reports made in the first week, only three per cent of these were actual crimes. And now the spotlight is on the rather strange public information campaign released by the Scottish government. Not only was it pretty ineffective at communicating exactly what a hate crime is (hence the low crime to report ratio), it has now transpired that it cost the taxpayer nearly, um, £400,000. Crikey. The questionable ‘Hate Hurts’ campaign — plastered across billboards and TV

James Heale

Reform’s best bet could be in Wales

The great schism on the right of British politics was aptly displayed last week. On Wednesday night, as the Prime Minister attended a ‘pretty downbeat’ drinks reception at the Carlton Club, across town the real action was happening at the Boisdale restaurant in Canary Wharf. Some 300-odd journalists, MPs and donors flocked there to pay tribute to Nigel Farage on his 60th birthday, in an occasion that was somewhere between a reunion and a rally. Much of the talk was about the forthcoming general election, with Farage himself teasing a return as leader of Reform UK. Taking to the stage in his blue velvet double-breasted jacket, he declared ‘This seems

Steerpike

Police launch investigation into Rayner housing claims

Well, well, well. Less than 24 hours after Keir Starmer tried to brush off questions about Angela Rayner, it turns out she is now the subject of a formal police investigation. Greater Manchester Police have this morning confirmed it is looking into claims that the Labour deputy leader may have mispaid capital gains tax over the 2015 sale of a property in Manchester. Rayner has denied wrongdoing but she has refused to publish tax advice which she claims exonerates her – and has not shown it directly to Sir Keir Starmer. GMP re-examined an earlier decision not to investigate after a complaint by Tory Bury MP James Daly. The Times reported yesterday that more

Svitlana Morenets

Ukraine’s controversial new conscription law takes effect

The Ukrainian parliament has finally stopped delaying the inevitable and voted for a new law that tightens mobilisation processes, strengthens penalties for draft dodgers and allows the government to track Ukrainian men of military age who are living abroad, at its second reading yesterday. Once the law is signed by Volodymyr Zelensky, more men aged 25 and over will undergo military training for two to three months, then head to the front line in time for Russia’s summer offensive. But not everything went smoothly. By the request of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, lawmakers have removed provisions on demobilisation and the rotation of military personnel from the bill.

Kate Andrews

Did the UK leave its recession behind in 2023?

The economy grew by 0.1 per cent in February: not much to celebrate on its own but the small uptick in GDP all but confirms that the UK is leaving its recession in 2023. February wasn’t a booming month: services output only grew by 0.1 per cent, with transportation and storage services contributing the most to the sector’s growth (the former seeing its biggest boost since June 2020). The construction sector decreased by 1.9 per cent in volume terms, as the ‘fourth wettest February on record in England’ delayed projects. But a bounceback in production – the ‘largest contributor to the growth in GDP’ that month – provided some balance:

Limor Simhony Philpott

Israel is still committed to eliminating Hamas

On Wednesday, three sons of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed by an Israeli airstrike. The three were killed when their car was bombed in Gaza’s Al-Shati camp. According to reports, at least three of Haniyeh’s grandchildren were also killed in the strike. Upon hearing of their death, Haniyeh, who resides in Qatar, said ‘I thank God for this honour that he bestow upon us the martyrdom of my three sons and some grandchildren.’ The targeted killing of high-level Hamas operatives is an extremely complex operation, and a tactic that Israeli forces specialise in. It requires accurate intelligence and quick action using precision weapons – often fired from drones

Katy Balls

The Laura Farris Edition

31 min listen

Laura Farris comes from something of a political dynasty, both her father and uncle were MPs. The former even represented the same Newbury seat that she currently holds. She studied PPE at Oxford before working as a researcher for Hilary Clinton but she eschewed a political career to work firstly as a journalist and then as a barrister. In 2019 she became MP for Newbury and she now works across both the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. On the podcast, Laura tells Katy what she learnt from Hilary Clinton, the things she hopes to achieve by the next election and why Jonathan Sumption has a point about the ECHR.

Thursday

11 Apr 2024

Stephen Daisley

Have Scottish politicians read the Cass Review?

The Cass Review may prove to be a tipping point in radical gender ideology’s march through mainstream politics, institutions and civil society. It certainly appears to spell the end of routinely sending children who express confusion about their bodies or their identities down the transition path. The political responses to the report, especially from those who were until recently fully signed on to this ideology, suggest that under what remains of this government and the next Labour government there will be a more cautious approach. Few who enabled this barbarism – we are talking, after all, about chemically coshing adolescents to suppress puberty – will pay any kind of price

Katy Balls

Has Rishi Sunak failed on the NHS?

13 min listen

One of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s five promises is to cut NHS waiting lists. However, even he’s admitted progress is slow, with new data showing key targets on waiting lists have been missed. Can Sunak ever solve the NHS problem? Elsewhere, Lee Anderson has been telling us about the price of friendship, revealing he won’t be campaigning in certain constituencies where his old Conservative pals are running… Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and Kate Andrews. Produced by Megan McElroy.

Ross Clark

The irresponsibility of ‘two years to save the planet’

Hurrah, we can all relax. We have been granted an extra two years to save the planet. So suggested Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a speech at Chatham House yesterday. Some people might say that calling a speech ‘two years to save the planet’ might be a bit melodramatic, he added. But not at all. It is nice to have the luxury of all that extra time, given that I thought we were supposed to have had it already. That, at any rate, was the logic behind warnings such as that by the WWF in 2007 that we then had five

William Moore

Will Biden support Ukraine’s attacks on Russia?

46 min listen

This week: will Biden support Ukraine’s attacks on Russia? Owen Matthews writes the cover piece in light of the Zelensky drone offensive. Ukraine’s most successful strategy to date has been its ingenious use of homemade, long-range drones, which it has used to strike military targets as well as oil refineries and petrol storage facilities in Russia. The strikes are working but have alienated the US, who draw a red line when it comes to attacks on Russian soil. Owen joins the podcast alongside Svitlana Morenets, author of The Spectator’s Ukraine in Focus newsletter to debate what comes next. (01:44) Next: Will and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces in

Steerpike

Watch: Tetchy Starmer wriggles over Rayner’s tax affairs

Angela Rayner appears unable to shake off questions about her tax affairs — literally. And now in an interview with ITV Granada, even Sir Keir Starmer’s confidence in his deputy doesn’t seem to be watertight. The media attention on his second-in-command continues after weeks of speculation about whether Rayner avoided capital gains tax on her council house and broke electoral law. The deputy Labour leader has refused to make her tax details public and Starmer hasn’t even seen the legal advice she received on the matter himself. So much for due diligence… When asked by interviewer Andrew Misra if he was ‘100 per cent confident Angela Rayner’s done nothing wrong’,

Jay Mens

Don’t be scared of Iran

Why are people so scared of ‘escalation’? The escalation paradigm is the outstanding relic of the Cold War. There is no situation where it cannot be applied. No foreign policy cause – from arming Ukraine, to antagonising Iran, to engaging diplomatically with Taiwan – can be discussed without fearing ‘escalation’. It sits among the other dud words beloved by foreign policy wonks: deterrence, compellence, persuasion, dissuasion. It is lazy, and leads to unthinking punditry. Worse still, our enemies use the escalation word-trap against us. On 1 April, an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus killed seven Iranian officers. Everyone is on the edge of their seats. Will Iran escalate?

Eliot Wilson

Has Iran saved Israel’s relationship with the US?

Only a few days ago, President Biden was framing remarks about Israel in tones which were astoundingly critical for an American leader. For decades it has been axiomatic that there is barely a cigarette paper between Washington and Jerusalem, but Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza has threatened to push them apart. Biden condemned the ‘indiscriminate’ bombing, and last week made his views unmistakable clear: ‘Israel has not done enough to protect civilians.’ Suddenly, though, without meaning to, it looks like the Islamic Republic of Iran may have saved Israel’s most important bilateral relationship. Last week, an Israeli air strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus killed 16 people, including

Steerpike

Reform apologises for not realising candidate had died

Uh oh. Reform UK has not had an easy ride with its general election candidates, to put it mildly. Richard Tice’s party has already had to drop ten prospective candidates for posting inappropriate comments on social media, including one who identified as a ‘pastafarian’ while another called for documentary maker David Attenborough to be ‘killed off’. It has now come to light that over 50 others were ditched for ‘complete inactivity’ — including York Central’s Tommy Cawkwell, whose lack of campaigning was down to the fact that he was, um, deceased. A party spokesperson said today that Reform was ‘mortified’ for not knowing the RNLI volunteer had died, adding: ‘I

Kate Andrews

Why no one is celebrating a small fall in NHS waiting lists

The NHS England waiting list has fallen for a fifth month in a row: to 7.54 million in February, down from 7.58 million in January. Since September last year, the overall waiting list has fallen by nearly 200,000 treatments, the ‘biggest five-month fall…in over ten years outside of the pandemic’ according to the Department of Health. So why is no one celebrating? The problem for the government is not the trajectory of the waitlist, but the total number of appointments on it. While the NHS waitlist appears to have peaked last autumn, there are still hundreds of thousands more appointments on the list compared to when Rishi Sunak promised, at