Politics

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

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Nadine’s book is delayed until after conference

Some sad news to bring you from the literary world. Those who have saved up £25 for Nadine Dorries’ upcoming The Plot: The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson, will have to keep waiting a little longer. Publication day for the explosive real-world political thriller has today been pushed back from September to November to allow ‘the required legal process needed to share her story’ to take place, according to HarperCollins. The book has netted the author a £60,000 advance and was originally intended to be published in time for October’s Conservative party conference, in order to cause as much collateral damage as possible to Dorries’ bête noire Rishi Sunak. The

Andrew Tettenborn

What’s the point of forcing murderers like Lucy Letby into the dock?

We all recoiled when Lucy Letby, a nurse of all things, was convicted of killing seven babies in cold blood. But this murderess had one more card up her sleeve. When called to court for the last time to receive the inevitable sentence – not only life, but in her case whole-life – she casually declined to appear. By doing so, Letby added insult to injury, constraining the grieving parents of her victims to watch the judge address an eerily empty dock.  Under the present law she was arguably within her rights. But not for much longer. The government, with it seems the full backing of Labour, has promised to change things. In

James Heale James Heale

Who is Claire Coutinho?

12 min listen

Rishi Sunak may have shelved his plan for a big reshuffle but we have had some cabinet changes today. Grant Shapps has taken his fifth cabinet position in one year, replacing Ben Wallace as Defence Secretary, and Sunak loyalist Claire Coutinho will take over as Energy Secretary. What does Coutinho’s appointment reveal?  James Heale speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Claire Coutinho is a revealing choice as Energy Secretary

Rishi Sunak has completed his very mini reshuffle with the appointment of Claire Coutinho as Energy Secretary, the role left vacant by Grant Shapps’s move to the Ministry of Defence. Coutinho leaves her role as a minister in the Department for Education and becomes the first of the 2019 intake to make it to the cabinet. Her speedy rise will come as little surprise to her parliamentary colleagues. She is a key Sunak ally, having worked for him as a special adviser when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury. On entering parliament, Coutinho served as Sunak’s PPS. The Brexiteer – and former banker – backed him in both leadership

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Grant Shapps got the job as Defence Secretary

Grant Shapps is the new Defence Secretary, after Ben Wallace officially resigned this morning. The seasoned cabinet minister moves from energy secretary to the coveted role. As I reported in this week’s politics column for the magazine, the desired criteria in No. 10 for the candidate included ‘efficient, non-flashy, loyal, decent’. Does Shapps fit all four? Well, he’s certainly loyal having backed Rishi Sunak not once but twice for leader. He’s also viewed as a capable minister both in terms of running a department and performing on the media. Shapps – who famously took the media round over Barnard Castle when Boris Johnson was prime minister – is seen as

The Spectator

Full text: Ben Wallace’s resignation letter

Ben Wallace has resigned as defence secretary. Here is the full text of his letter to the Prime Minister: Dear Prime Minister, Last month marked my fourth year as Secretary of State for Defence. It also marks the ninth year as a Minister. I have had the privilege of serving you and your predecessors in the task of protecting this great country and keeping its citizens safe. As you know that responsibility carries with it a 24/7 duty to be available at almost no notice. In my time as both Security Minister and at Defence, I have been able to contribute to the Government’s response to a range of threats

Ben Domenech

Will Senator Mitch McConnell step down after his latest freezing episode?

Senator Mitch McConnell appeared to have another elderly moment in Kentucky following an event yesterday, where a question about whether he would run for re-election in 2026 left him silent as the cameras tracked the awkward scene. It is obviously not the first time that this has happened for McConnell — and the eighty-one-year-old deserves the grace that we would grant to anyone struggling with the inevitability of age. But this is also a moment that presents a challenge for the Republican party, an effort that is larger than just one man (despite what diehard fans of Donald Trump would sometimes have you believe), and one that Senate Minority Leader

Nigel Jones

Rishi Sunak’s crime crackdown is too little, too late

Conservative parties everywhere have traditionally been identified with maintaining law and order and cracking down on crime. As part of his successful campaign to appeal to right-of-centre voters, even Tony Blair before his 1997 election triumph famously vowed to be ‘tough on crime – and tough on the causes of crime’. So, in yet another sign of the approaching election, it was unsurprising this week to see Rishi Sunak doing his belated best to scramble on board the law and order bandwagon. In a series of announcements on the topic, the Prime Minister pledged a judge-led public inquiry into the crimes of Lucy Letby, convicted of the murders of seven babies

Wednesday

David Spencer

Mark Rowley is right to tell Met officers not to take the knee

The Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has hinted that the capital’s police officers are to be banned from activities such as wearing political badges on their uniforms, flying colourful flags from police stations and ‘taking the knee’ at protests. ‘Once you start having environmental and other subjects there are lots of people in the organisation who will personally support those causes and that is OK, but the Metropolitan Police explicitly supporting them is quite tricky. I’m fairly narrow-minded on this. There are very few causes policing should be attached to,’ he said. Some will dismiss this announcement as mere frippery, not worthy of the time of someone in as important

Nicholas Sheppard

New Zealand’s election spells trouble for Hipkins’ Labour party

New Zealand’s parliament adjourns this week, officially kicking off six weeks of political campaigning ahead of a general election on 14 October. But it seems that Chris Hipkins and his Labour party might find it difficult to maintain their grip on power.  Persistently high food prices at the supermarket, and a string of cabinet mishaps have seen a waning in support for Hipkins’ Labour government. For the first time, he has found himself on a level pegging with Christopher Luxon, the leader of the National party, in the race to become prime minister. Several weeks ago, a poll conducted by pollsters Taxpayers’ Union-Curia, revealed support for the Labour government stood at

Steerpike Steerpike

Wanted: Hackney seeks £145k climate change director

Hackney Council taxpayers, breathe easy. The fight against global climate change will be fought hardest, not on a global or even national level, but, er, by the emergency responders at the local council, apparently. The local authority’s apparatchiks are advertising for a ‘climate change director’ to enact their ‘climate action plan: a five-point action memorandum that Hackney hopes will turn heads in big pollutin’ states like the US, China and India. The incentive for the right candidate? A whopping £145,193 salary. Mr S imagines this to be reflection of the scope and depth of Hackney’s climate response. After all, that’s £30,000 more than Graham Stuart, the Minister for Climate Change

Ian Williams Ian Williams

James Cleverly is clueless on China

At least James Cleverly had somebody to meet. The Foreign Secretary’s last effort to get to Beijing was postponed after his Chinese counterpart disappeared in late June. Former foreign minister Qin Gang has not been seen or heard of since. Gang’s whereabouts are as mysterious as Cleverly’s China policy, which is beginning to feel a lot like a re-tread of the incoherent and failed past strategy of ‘engagement’. That policy, as far as it can be described as one, was driven by greed and gullibility. It added up to little more than kowtowing to Beijing, largely ignoring its growing repression at home and aggression overseas, while at the same time

The Spectator

British conservatism is lurching from one crisis to another

No. 10 quickly asserted that the meltdown at National Air Traffic Services was a technical issue rather than a cyber attack. This was presumably meant to be reassuring. It is anything but. It speaks, once more, of a Britain with creaking infrastructure, where national paralysis has become a regular occurrence. The highest tax revenues in peacetime history have not created a properly functioning country.  The breakdown was caused by a single mis-filed flight plan. That such havoc can result from one trivial event does little credit to the organisation entrusted with our airspace. This week’s event may not be a cyber attack, but hostile states and organisations will be taking

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Tories need a shake-up – and Sunak knows it

When prime ministers sense the end is near, they tend to follow a similar pattern. They change senior civil servants and appointees, as Boris Johnson and Gordon Brown did. They avoid consulting their cabinet and instead hide behind special advisers. They declare they don’t like polls, before saying that the only poll that matters is the election. But before all of this, they usually attempt a ‘reset’. It’s rarely a sign of rejuvenation, but rather the start of the embalming process. Rishi Sunak is aware of this, which is why there’s no use of the word in No. 10 as politics prepares to resume. He has so far resisted calls

Steerpike Steerpike

Five possible ‘Portillo moments’ at the next election

Michael Portillo. Nick Clegg. Jo Swinson. Every election has its defining moments: the viral clip when a big beast is brought low, humbled by the voters in his or her patch. So, in 2024, who are the long-faced losers likely to be? Steerpike’s crystal ball is by no means infallible, but given the way of the polls, it seems Tories are more likely to be overrepresented among the defeated than not. Back in June, the pollster Frank Luntz was asked to speak to the 1922 committee. He helpfully told its members that those Conservative MPs that with a majority under 15,000 ought to now all consider themselves to be at

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can Cleverly handle China?

10 min listen

James Cleverly is in Beijing, a decision which he has been pushed to defend in a clip given to the BBC. Much has changed in the five years since a British foreign secretary last visited China. What’s the purpose of the trip? How has it been received in Westminster?  Katy Balls speaks to Cindy Yu.  Listen to Cindy’s fortnightly podcast on Chinese politics, society and culture here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/chinese-whispers/

Rahima Mahmut

James Cleverly’s China trip is a betrayal of the Uyghurs

Think of the genocides that have taken place in the past. Picture the hardened faces of the perpetrators you’ve seen in photographs on historical documentaries. Now imagine a British Foreign secretary standing beside these perpetrators, shaking hands with them, gushing about how much he values their relationship. It seems unthinkable.  As a Uyghur, I don’t need to imagine this though – it happened today when James Cleverly traveled to China to stand beside the men who are attempting to destroy my people. Cleverly will be well aware of China’s treatment of Uyghurs. Xi Jinping initiated his genocidal campaign against them as far back as 2016. The last few years have

Andrew Tettenborn

The break up of Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot come soon enough

If you fret about a democratic deficit in the EU or even Britain, turn your mind for a moment to one European country with a very peculiar form of democracy indeed. In this country, divided into two parts which hardly deign to speak to each other, your right to vote, to be returned, and in certain cases to stand for office, depends on your declared ethnicity. The presidency is split among three people, again chosen by law on ethnic lines.  The whole affair is presided over by a High Representative, a kind of international proconsul (previous appointees include Paddy Ashdown; the present one is a softly-spoken German former agriculture minister).

Rupert Shortt

Spain’s MeToo problem goes far beyond the Rubiales scandal

The Luis Rubiales scandal is being presented in Britain as ‘The kiss that started Spain’s MeToo movement’. But, in reality, the overseas coverage of the Spanish Football Federation’s president’s kiss – and his refusal to resign – tells us more about the UK and our own ignorance than it reveals about the country we visit in vast numbers but still struggle to understand. It’s not just that anyone with the slightest knowledge of Spain will know that it has been having multiple MeToo moments for many years – especially after the searing manada (mob) case of 2016–19, when five men were sentenced for the gang-rape of a women in Pamplona.

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

‘I want to see my parents. I’ll take any deal’: the Tiananmen Square leader desperate to return to China

Taipei Anyone in China who remembers the Tiananmen Square protests will remember Wu’er Kaixi. As thousands of students began a hunger strike in May 1989, premier Li Peng held live, televised talks with the protest leaders. Wu’er Kaixi, then 21, turned up to the talks in hospital pyjamas, oxygen bag in tow, and berated the elderly communist leaders. It was an electrifying moment. After the CCP’s bloody crackdown, he found himself second on the party’s most-wanted list. He fled China and eventually ended up in Taiwan. We meet in a Taipei jazz bar, which he tells me is his ex-girlfriend’s favourite spot.  Kaixi, as he asks me to call him,