Politics Archives

Wednesday

7 Feb 2024

Sunak makes ill-judged gender jibe at PMQs

Rishi Sunak’s £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan continues to cost him more than the wager itself. It dominated today’s PMQs, with both Keir Starmer and Stephen Flynn attacking him on it. The Labour leader also gave a striking retort to one of Sunak’s regular lines mocking him on not knowing what a woman is. When the PM trotted out that claim again, Starmer reacted with outrage, reminding the chamber that he had opened with a tribute to the murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey’s mother Esther, who was in parliament. He said: ‘Of all the weeks to say that, with Brianna’s mother in the gallery. Shame. Parading as a man of

Katy Balls

Starmer’s green spending problem is getting bigger

Once again Labour’s internal debate over its £28 billion green spending pledge is playing out publicly. On Friday there was some talk of clarity following a report that the headline figure would be ditched – with the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones then going out on the media where he appeared to confirm it. Jones said Labour would decide how much to spend on environmental programmes once in government, adding that ‘the number will move around just as a matter of fact’. But then Keir Starmer popped up on Monday to declare in an interview with Times Radio that the £28 billion a year on green spending

Katja Hoyer

Germany’s anti-AfD marches are backfiring

The rise of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has set off one of the largest waves of protest in modern German history. Half-a-million or so demonstrators took to the streets last weekend: they were a mixed bunch of all ages and ethnicities; politicians also marched alongside members of the public. All were united in their desire to stem the rise of the far-right AfD. But while the marches looked impressive, there is little sign that they are working – or that they have the power to actually change anyone’s mind. Much has been made out of the fact that, while the AfD polled at around 23 per cent for much of

Steerpike

Will Holly Valance be Liz Truss’s secret weapon?

They say politics is show business for ugly people. But at yesterday’s right-wing rally, one celebrity singer managed to disprove that maxim and truly put the ‘pop’ in ‘PopCon’. For Holly Candy – formerly Holly Valance of Neighbours fame – was among those who rocked up to the shindig, alongside her husband, the billionaire property-developer Nick. Clearly she hasn’t had enough of soap operas… The Candys were among the crowd gathering to hear the likes of Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and red wall Rottweiler Lee Anderson explain just how they can make conservatism popular again. And the actress even gave a short interview to GB News, reflecting on her own

Steerpike

Sadiq Khan scolded for ‘misleading’ Ulez advertising

Oh dear. Just when Sadiq Khan may have thought he could finally claim victory over the Ulez scheme he rammed through in London last year, his pet project appears to have landed him in hot water yet again. The London Mayor has been scolded by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after Transport for London (TfL), which runs Ulez, ruled its advertising material for the scheme ‘misleading’. The ASA told off TfL, saying that in future it must make sure it can back up any claims it makes in marketing with evidence. Ouch. The advertising body took issue with three claims TfL made in advertising materials before Ulez was expanded last

Dalibor Rohac

It’s time to give Poland nuclear weapons

As Donald Trump marches towards the Republican nomination, a question hangs over Europe: how should the continent prepare for a world in which Nato becomes dead letters? For some, the answer is ‘strategic autonomy’; for others, it lies in procuring as much US-made kit as possible to buy goodwill with the future administration. One obvious response, however, has been left by the wayside: nuclear deterrence. When it comes to Trump-proofing the security of Eastern Europe, few measures would be as effective as arming the largest country of the region – Poland – with nuclear weapons. In a post-American world, a Polish nuclear umbrella could help secure Europe’s Eastern flank Even

Jawad Iqbal

Pakistani politics is like a Monopoly game

The levels of cynicism and disillusionment surrounding the upcoming parliamentary elections in Pakistan – due to take place tomorrow – are remarkable, even for a country with a chequered democratic tradition. Few people believe the vote will be free or fair, with widespread speculation that the country’s all-powerful military has already decided the result and will stop at nothing to get its way. Put simply, the election is a charade. This is how things stand. The country’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, is in jail. More on him later. Another former leader, Nawaz Sharif, who was in exile after his own spell in jail, has returned home, and all outstanding cases against

Tuesday

6 Feb 2024

Cindy Yu

What Liz Truss’s PopCon launch was really about

11 min listen

Liz Truss is back! This time with a conference called ‘Popular Conservatism’, bringing together voices in the Conservative party and aiming to ‘deliver popular conservative policies’. But what does the event really tells us about the state of right wing political thought in the UK today, and why were some of Truss’s key allies not there? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Matthew Lynn

Does the EU’s tech ‘enforcer’ know what he’s talking about?

Thierry Breton is, on the face of it, well qualified to regulate Europe’s tech industry. After a brief spell as French finance minister, from 2009 to 2019 he ran the computing giant Atos, one of the champions of France’s IT industry. Yet Atos is now in deep trouble. Shares have plunged more than 90 per cent in the past five years; an issue of new shares to raise fresh capital has been cancelled. Whether the company will survive without a bailout is far from clear. It is, of course, a while since Breton left Atos for Brussels, where he works as the European Union’s internal market commissioner. A lot may

Steerpike

Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg clashes with ‘left-wing’ broadcaster

Jacob Rees–Mogg’s speech at the Popular Conservatism launch went down well with the assembled crowd in Westminster, but the Tory MP was forced on to the defensive when he came off stage. Rees-Mogg was asked by News Agents journalist Lewis Goodall, formerly of the BBC, to defend his attack on ‘Davos Man’. ‘How much money did you make in the city?,’ Goodall asked Rees-Mogg. ‘That’s such a childish question,’ Rees-Mogg replied, before accusing his interviewer of being ‘a very left-wing broadcaster’: ‘You seem to be representing the left wing. Are you doing your bit of due impartiality?’, Mogg asked Goodall. “How much money did you make in The City?”@lewis_goodall asks

Katy Balls

Truss takes aim at left-wing extremists

This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, announced that he plans to step down at the next election. But there is still at least one senior Trussite who plans to fight on. This lunchtime Liz Truss herself appeared at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster to launch her new outfit, PopCon, a grassroots group to generate new Tory policies. Truss argued it was time for MPs to find ‘resilience and bravery’ to start making conservative arguments Addressing a packed room, the former prime minister criticised ‘left wing extremists’ as she took aim at Tory MPs pursuing policies that would make them popular at ‘London dinner parties’. Truss argued it was time

Liz Truss Launches 'Popular Conservatives' Movement

Freddy Gray

Is 2024 a ‘flip election’?

31 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by pollster and writer Patrick Ruffini. They talk about why the strengthening economy isn’t improving Biden’s numbers, and the other factors that will influence the 2024 election.

Niall Gooch

Who will oppose Labour’s racial dystopia?

Britain’s ruling class are currently conducting an enormous experiment – perhaps not consciously or intentionally, but with great enthusiasm – to discover the effects of extremely high levels of immigration on British society. We will not be sure of the result for some time yet. In the meantime, we need to be doing all we can to ensure that our multi-ethnic society remains as harmonious and peaceful as possible. Our overriding aim ought to be reducing and minimising, rather than heightening, the salience of ethnicity as a political issue. Once upon a time, this appeared to be the goal of self-proclaimed anti-racists. In my naïve way, I assumed that they,

Steerpike

Kwasi Kwarteng quits the Commons

Happy PopCon day! Liz Truss will this morning launch her ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement in Westminster. The 49-day premier will be speaking alongside the likes of fellow Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson – though, sadly, not Simon Clarke nor Ranil Jayawardena, both of whom dropped out after the former’s ill-fated call for Rishi Sunak to quit. And one Conservative who certainly won’t be at Truss’s launch is Kwasi Kwarteng, her Chancellor of the Exchequer for 38 of the 49 days she spent in office. In September, he revealed that the formerly close allies had not spoken about his sacking since the day she ignominiously fired him, eleven months prior.

Jawad Iqbal

Muslim voters are falling out of love with Keir Starmer

The Labour party has a problem with Muslims. A new poll suggests that British Muslim voters, who have traditionally supported Labour in huge numbers, are deserting the party over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war. Backing for Labour from the Muslim community has fallen massively since the 2019 general election from 86 per cent to 60 per cent, according to a poll conducted by Survation. It was commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network (LMN), which promotes British Muslim engagement with the party. Some within Labour’s ranks have now accused the party of being ‘outflanked’ by the Tories on Gaza This isn’t the only finding that will set alarm bells ringing:

Max Jeffery

Dmitri Trenin: the pro-West Russian radicalised by Putin’s war in Ukraine

The circus of American and European diplomats in Moscow loved Dmitri Trenin while he was on their side. Trenin was a former colonel in a Soviet intelligence agency. He became known in the early 2000s for writing books that argued Russia, diminished after the Cold War, should get friendly with the West by joining Nato and the European Union. He was a pro-West Russian, and it earned him the directorship of the Moscow branch of a rich American think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Trenin built contacts in the Kremlin, wrote for the New York Times, and was in the phone book of every foreign ambassador in the Russian capital.

Lisa Haseldine

Will Boris Nadezhdin be allowed to run for president against Putin?

Will the anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin be allowed to run against Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency? That’s the question Russians are wondering this week after the independent candidate submitted the signatures he needed to get onto the ballot for March’s election. Nadezhdin claimed to have collected 105,000 signatures from across Russia – the maximum a non-party affiliated candidate can submit to be considered for the presidency. But just days after he submitted them last Wednesday, Russia’s central electoral commission declared that the paperwork was littered with ‘surprising errors’ – including, allegedly, the signatures of ‘dozens of people no longer of this world’. There have been questions as to how and

Gareth Roberts

Why can’t Peter Tatchell leave Cliff Richard alone?

Leave Cliff alone! Peter Tatchell has weighed in on Cliff Richard’s refusal to declare his sexual orientation. Tatchell was spurred on by the reemergence of a video clip of Cliff declaring on Loose Women: ‘I don’t mind talking about things but there are things that are mine, that will go with me to my grave…I don’t talk about my family, I certainly don’t talk about my sexuality.’ This interview, from 2016, rattled Tatchell’s cage. As ever he can’t keep his nose out of anybody else’s business. ‘Sure, it is up to him,’ said Tatchell, ‘But –’. (As usual, everything after the ‘but’ is nonsense.) ‘Hiding his sexuality colludes with the

Monday

5 Feb 2024

Alexander Larman

What should Buckingham Palace do following the King’s cancer diagnosis?

The news, when it came, was as stark as anyone could have imagined. As a Buckingham Palace statement observed: ‘During the King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted.’ And then the line that cannot fail to produce a gulp of empathy. ‘Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer.’ There had been rumours of ill health ever since the King went into hospital last month, but there are always rumours concerning the health of the Royal Family, most of which are little more than tittle-tattle. The recent discussion as to what is wrong with the Princess of Wales has been particularly

William Atkinson

What’s wrong with Tory MPs supporting Trump?

Asking Liz Truss for advice on how to make conservatism popular seems as wise as consulting Paula Vennells on how best to treat your employees. That hasn’t stopped the ex-PM from giving her blessing to the new Popular Conservatism group. But at least one of her fellow PopCons might suggest it isn’t their former leader that the Tories should look to for salvation, but across the Atlantic. Recently selected for the seat of Epsom and Ewell, Mhairi Fraser is a City lawyer who has dabbled in Donald Trump fangirling. She travelled to America to see the ex-president win in 2016 because she had ‘never been as excited’ about a politician.