Politics

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

Wednesday

Debbie Hayton

The SNP’s conversion therapy plan is deeply sinister

The Scottish government is once again champing at the bit to satisfy the LGBTQI+ lobby. Holyrood’s grandiose plans for sex self-ID might finally have hit the buffers, but the voters need to keep a close eye on what is coming in its wake. Yesterday, Emma Roddick – the Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees – announced a public consultation on ‘detailed proposals for legislation to end conversion practices in Scotland’. The way Roddick sells it, it sounds uncontroversial: Our approach, set out in this consultation, aims to bridge this gap while ensuring that fundamental rights already enjoyed by people in Scotland, such as freedom of religion and the right to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Battle lines are being drawn over the returning Rwanda Bill

The Rwanda battle is returning to parliament. On Tuesday, Penny Mordaunt confirmed that the ‘Safety of Rwanda’ Bill will go to committee stage in the House of Commons next week. This means MPs will have two days to add and debate amendments to it. Given Rishi Sunak had to fight to even pass it at second reading (the last time the government lost a Bill at this stage was 1986 on Sunday trading), this will be a difficult process. Effectively Sunak is facing competing demands from the left and right of his party. On the one side are the One Nation MPs who feel that, if anything, the current Bill

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Can Scholz convince the EU to continue supporting Ukraine?

New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep. But when it comes to Ukraine, Europe hasn’t made any. There is no clear plan for 2024 on how to stop Russia from winning its war of aggression. With the future of American politics uncertain, it will fall to Europe to make a stand. Initially lambasted for its reluctance to send weapons to Ukraine, Germany has since stepped up to the task and become its second largest contributor of military aid. Now, chancellor Olaf Scholz is leading the call for others to do more, too. ‘Europe must show that it stands by Ukraine, by freedom, by international law and by European values,’

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Putin’s migrant headache

The Russian economy has become heavily dependent on migrant workers, largely from Central Asia. As the defence ministry tries to recruit them into the army, and certain extremists call for them to be sent home, the Kremlin is having to tread a fine line between economic pragmatism, nationalism and the immediate needs of the war. The glittering new metro stations still being built and opened around Moscow are to a considerable extent built by migrant workers. Migrants also shovel the snow off roofs and pavements, pack boxes at the warehouses of Russia’s equivalents to Amazon and drive taxis. In all there are more than four million legal guest workers across

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

One Nation launch charm offensive at new years’ bash

Bright young things mixed with old survivors at the Reform Club tonight. From the backbenches to the cabinet, the great and the good of the Tory left were out in force at the One Nation Conservatives’ new years’ drinks. With the Rwanda Bill returning to the Commons next week, all eyes are on the group in their battle with the Tory right. And doing his bit for Conservative relations was Matt Warman MP, who began the night with a few jokes at the expense of certain colleagues. He told the 200-strong audience that, unlike other factions, the One Nation caucus doesn’t have to pretend they’re ‘five families’ to ‘make ourselves

Sir Geoffrey Nice & Benedict Rogers

When will the West stand up to Xi Jinping?

Since the Umbrella Movement democracy protests in 2014, China’s president Xi Jinping has been dismantling Hong Kong’s freedoms – and its very democratic essence – in plain sight. The culmination of the city-state’s metamorphosis from open society to authoritarianism is marked by the trial of Hong Kong entrepreneur, media mogul and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, which began a week before Christmas and resumed on 2 January. Initially the erosion of Hong Kong’s way of life was gradual. But over the past four years, since the imposition of a draconian national security law in June 2020, the destruction has been rapid, far-reaching and comprehensive. Freedoms of expression, assembly, association and of

Jawad Iqbal

Channel 4 is tearing itself apart over diversity

The chairman of Channel 4 has taken a swipe at the lack of diversity of the latest appointments to its board. The appointees, who join the board for a three-year term, were announced by Ofcom and approved by Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary. In a leaked memo to staff, Sir Ian Cheshire hit out at the appointments of four new white non-executive directors which he claimed lagged behind the broadcaster’s own diversity targets. ‘These appointments will improve representation on the board but do not yet meet the levels of representation throughout the organisation’, opined Cheshire. Following the latest round of appointments, 14 of the 15 members of Channel 4’s board

Joanna Williams

Free breakfasts won’t solve the school truancy crisis

How do you solve a problem like truancy? Lockdowns and school closures may be a distant memory but far too many children are still not regularly attending school. One in five pupils is reported to be ‘persistently’ absent from the classroom, a figure which has barely budged since schools fully reopened in March 2021. It’s up from around one in 10 who persistently missed school before the Covid pandemic. What’s more, the attendance gap between poorer children and their better-off peers is widening. New polling from the Centre for Social Justice suggests more than one in four parents think Covid has shown it is not essential for children to attend

Limor Simhony Philpott

Why everyone is worried about Hezbollah

Hezbollah has escalated attacks against Israel in the last few days. The Iran-backed Lebanese militant organisation started firing missiles into Israel when the war against Hamas started last October. In the three months since, it has kept attacks limited in order to avoid an escalation into a full-scale war, but the situation is highly volatile. Since the Israeli assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut a week ago, tensions have been rising. Hezbollah’s attacks have intensified further this week, following the killing of top commander Wissam Tawil. Tawil commanded Hezbollah’s elite Radwan fighting forces based close to the border with Israel. Today Israel killed two more Hezbollah commanders:

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Paula Vennells hands back her CBE

10 min listen

Paula Vennells, the former head of the Post Office, has handed back her CBE. Will her decision put more pressure on politicians like Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader who has so far refused to resign? Max Jeffery speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Labour plan to find lockdown’s ‘ghost children’ will rile the Tories

Bridget Phillipson spent the morning setting out what she will prioritise in the Department for Education if Labour wins the election. The shadow education secretary parked her party’s tanks on the Tories’ lawn by giving a speech at the Centre for Social Justice, the thinktank co-founded by Iain Duncan Smith. She follows the shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, who also delivered a keynote speech on out-of-work benefits at the CSJ. Phillipson kicked off her address by praising Michael Gove for championing high expectations and standards during his time in the education brief – something that, she said, was no longer the case. Labour MPs giving speeches at the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Paula Vennells has lost her CBE. That’s not enough

Paula Vennells has announced she will hand back her CBE with immediate effect, meaning the former Post Office boss now suffers the pain of a slightly shorter name as a consequence of the wrongful conviction of hundreds of subpostmasters. The former Post Office boss now suffers the pain of a slightly shorter name A petition demanding that she be stripped of the honour had reached 1.2 million signatures, and Rishi Sunak had let it be known that he was very supportive of the Honours Committee looking into whether she should lose the gong. So it was only a matter of time – and Vennells has clearly decided to cut the

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Why has Xi Jinping purged his senior commanders?

The Chinese Communist party will no doubt throw a militarised tantrum should Saturday’s election in Taiwan be won by Lai Ching-te, the more independence-minded of the candidates. Yet behind these histrionics lies an army in turmoil, with a purge of top generals raising serious doubts as to whether it is up to the task of fighting a war.  The CCP has spent billions of dollars expanding and modernising its armed forces at a pace rarely seen in peacetime, with the aim of creating a cutting edge force. But the money thrown at the generals and their hunger to acquire shiny new kit has fuelled increasingly deep-seated corruption in its rapacious

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Can Macron’s ‘Brutus’ PM stop Le Pen?

Emmanuel Macron has begun the new year by replacing one Socialist prime minister with another. Out goes Elisabeth Borne and in comes Gabriel Attal, who at 34 is almost half as young as his 62-year-old predecessor. Macron hopes that Attal will provide his ailing presidency with some youthful vigour after the disastrous 20 months of Borne’s premiership. The arch technocrat wasn’t Macron’s first pick for the choice of PM in May 2022, but the left-wing members of his party made it known that his first choice, Catherine Vautrin, was unacceptable on account of her conservatism. So Borne got the job, but proved inadequate and uninspiring.   As Le Figaro put it, her government

David Shipley

Police are in a muddle over transgender strip searches

Have you ever been strip searched? I have. The date it happened – 7 September 2020 – is etched on my mind. That morning, as part of a security sweep on HMP Wandsworth’s H Wing, a group of male and female officers ‘span’ my cell. With the door closed, the women left, and one of the officers asked me to remove my vest, then shorts, then boxers. Next, they asked me to squat, while one of the men bent down and shone a torch at my anus. I felt vulnerable. My knees shook. When he said: ‘Sorry mate, I promise you this is worse for me than it is for

Terry Barnes

Australia sees sense on its plan to ditch the monarchy

Australia’s government has been determined to ‘do a Barbados’ and ditch the British monarchy for an Australian republic with an Australian president. But now, it seems, prime minister Anthony Albanese has lost his nerve. In the week that the first Australian coins of Charles III’s reign entered general circulation, and it was confirmed the King and Queen will visit Australia later this year, Albanese and his government scuttled away from his party’s proclaimed republican intentions with a speed that makes even Rishi Sunak look decisive and in control. After campaigning for office with a commitment to put the future of the monarchy to a constitutional referendum in Labor’s second term

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Trump mocks Macron’s accent

Emmanuel Macron is facing something of a crisis at home: his prime minister has resigned and his party is trailing that of his fierce rival Marine Le Pen by up to ten points in the run-up to crunch European elections. But Macron’s troubles don’t stop there: his ‘friend’ Donald Trump has been busy on the campaign trail in the United States, mocking his old ally and imitating the French leader’s accent. During a rally in Iowa, Trump told the crowd what happened when he threatened to slap tariffs on French wine and champagne if France imposed duties on US tech giants: Trump told the crowd: ‘I said, ‘Emmanuel, how are

Monday

Sebastian Milbank

Could Idris Elba’s solution help tackle knife crime?

Actor Idris Elba took to the airwaves on the Today programme this morning to call for more to be done to tackle the scourge of knife crime in Britain. Elba asked the government to speed up the ban on the sale of machete and ‘zombie’ knives to prevent more young people dying in knife attacks. Few will disagree with Elba’s practical solution for tackling this issue. It is, at least, more likely to succeed than some of the more fashionable solutions – particularly so-called ‘public health’ approaches – which are occasionally suggested as a solution to knife crime. The rhetoric of a ‘public health’ solution to violence is very popular

James Heale James Heale

The problem with Chris Skidmore’s resignation

12 min listen

Chris Skidmore has formally announced his resignation today, triggering another by-election in the process. His departure from the Commons is in protest against the government’s bill on new oil and gas licenses, which is set to be debated later this evening. What’s the reaction been in Westminster? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Oscar Edmondson. The Spectator is hiring! We are looking for a new producer to join our broadcast team working across our suite of podcasts – including this one – as well as our YouTube channel Spectator TV. Follow the link to read the full job listing: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/wanted-a-broadcast-producer-for-the-spectator-2/

Andrew Liddle

Why Anas Sarwar is succeeding

Few politicians had a better 2023 than Anas Sarwar. The Scottish Labour leader began last year with his party still in the doldrums, languishing behind a seemingly impregnable SNP led by a seemingly indefatigable Nicola Sturgeon. A resignation, a camper van, and an incompetent successor later, and that has all changed. Scottish Labour is now in the ascendency and looking towards the coming general election in not with its normal trepidation, but with newfound relish. That much, at least, was clear from Sarwar’s speech – notionally kickstarting the party’s general election campaign – earlier this week (MON).  This desire for change is Sarwar’s strongest suit As in the rest of