Politics

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

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s coronation policing muddle

The political fallout from the coronation policing row shows us that if Labour does get into government after the next general election, it is going to have a hard time unpicking even reforms it has complained loudly about under the current administration. Though ministers are having to justify why the Metropolitan Police arrested 64 people, many of whom seem not to have been planning the sort of disruption that the Public Order Bill is supposed to focus on, the bigger difficulty today has been for Labour. Rishi Sunak did his usual thing of being as detached as possible from events, saying the police were operationally independent from the government and,

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Vote Joe Biden, get Kamala Harris?

Since Joe Biden confirmed that he will run for re-election, the odds of Kamala Harris becoming the first female president of the United States have shrunk – and significantly so. For Harris to take over from Biden, several things would have to happen. Biden would have to keep her as his vice-president for the 2024 campaign. Let’s assume, not with total confidence, that the 80-year-old Biden is still alive and well enough to lead by the start of 2025. If not, his vice-president would anyway take over as commander-in-chief, possibly only for a matter of days. But if Biden won in 2024 and didn’t complete his second-term, it would be all hail Kamala, the lady

Steerpike Steerpike

Prince Harry’s ghostwriter takes aim at the British press

Prince Harry kept a dignified silence at his father’s coronation – even if he opted to make a hasty exit back to Los Angeles when the service at Westminster Abbey finished. But the Duke of Sussex’s ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer has chosen this week to talk about the ins and outs of writing Spare. Moehringer reveals that he argued with the ex-royal numerous times during the book-writing process. He also tells, in a piece for the New Yorker, how he called Harry ‘dude’ from the outset. But if that informality suggests Moehringer has little in common with the high-born prince, think again. Although Moehringer and Harry’s backgrounds couldn’t be any more different,

William Atkinson

Tory supporters should curb their enthusiasm for Penny Mordaunt

A confession: Penny Mordaunt was my teenage political crush. Publicly admitting that would be rather more embarrassing if the performance of the Leader of the House of Commons at the coronation didn’t have my fellow Conservatives infatuated. God knows what my 15-year-old self would have made of her eye-catching role on Saturday, but many Tory supporters were suitably impressed. As soon as she appeared in ceremonial battledress, ‘Oh my Gods’ at her outfit mixed with tweets of appreciation for her remarkable ability to carry a weighty sword for an hour. Comparisons have been drawn to other formidable women: Boudica, Athena, and Britney Spears. She may not have been crowned this

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Putin has made Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin eat his words

He huffed, and he puffed, and he damn near blew his own house down. The way Yevgeny Prigozhin, the man behind the Wagner mercenary force, was forced to walk back his threat to pull out of the fighting for Bakhmut is a reminder of the divided nature of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. Prigozhin has periodically and publicly called out defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov for their alleged back of support for Wagner. But on Friday, he escalated with two expletive-laden videos posted on social media. In the first, he pointed at the corpses of dead soldiers and bellowed: ‘Shoigu, Gerasimov, where the

Alexander Larman

Prince Harry has so much to learn from Prince William

In the run-up to the coronation, the Prince of Wales was a rather detached figure. Prince William kept an unusually low-key profile right up until the week of the coronation, along with his wife: a woman increasingly seen as the Royal Family’s secret weapon. The Princess of Wales combines glamour, accessibility and a welcome sense that she genuinely understands everyday British people, rather than merely trying to. In the past few days, William and Kate emerged from the shadows. Firstly, there was a walkabout in Soho for the pair two days before the coronation: carefully planned, of course, but giving a welcome impression of spontaneity, and even, given the area’s

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Was Pim Fortuyn the true Brexit trailblazer?

Twenty-one years ago this week, Pim Fortuyn was being talked of as a future prime minister of Holland. The general election was a week away, and the man described by the Observer as the ‘Gay Mr Right’ had the coalition centre-left government running scared. Everyone from the BBC to the Daily Telegraph to the New York Times was beating a path to the door of the flamboyant 54-year-old former sociology professor.  ‘Highly articulate, telegenic, oozing charisma, he has wiped the floor with establishment politicians in TV debates and his views seem to strike a chord with many in the most densely populated country in Europe,’ reported the Observer.   The New

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Is Putin scared of a Victory Day attack?

In the Russian calendar 9 May holds near-religious significance. Celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War, the occasion is considered Russia’s biggest patriotic celebration of the year.  Last year, following the invasion of Ukraine, the holiday took on a jingoistic significance for the Kremlin as Putin stoked up nationalist fervour to legitimise his war. This year’s celebrations, however, are shaping up to be a muted affair. More than 20 cities across Russia have cancelled their Victory Day parades. Marches of the ‘Immortal Regiment’, during which ordinary people parade through the streets carrying portraits of relatives who served and died during the war, as well as in the Afghan and

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The glumness of King Charles

A detail much noted in the commentary on Saturday‘s coronation was that His Majesty decided against making his first trip to the Abbey in the Gold State Coach. Who can blame him? His mother described riding in that particular wagon as ‘horrible’, and even Queen Victoria had as little to do with it as she could get away with. It may be traditional, and it may look impressive in an antiquated, grotesquely ostentatious, fountains-of-gold-leaf-kind of a way. But by all accounts it is monstrously uncomfortable for its passengers. It was designed for the malnourished and inbred shorties who comprised the royals of a previous generation. It’s freezing cold and has

David Shipley

Why the Channel smuggling business will never end

‘Have you got a light mate?’ The shout came from the top of the slipway on Deal beach. Bill, who had just arrived on the shore with a boat of migrants, looked up. Between him and the car park, two men were walking towards him. It was 1am, but the bright full moon lit them up like daylight. As Bill passed, worried what the men wanted, he went to pull his fist out of his pocket.  ‘ARMED POLICE!’ the man yelled and sprang forward, rugby tackling him. Bill’s face and chest smashed into the pebble-strewn beach and his knees slammed into the hard concrete slipway. All around him crowded black-clad

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Jill and Akshata keep the Special Relationship strong at Soul Cycle

After the Coronation festivities, there are a fair few hangovers in London today. But there was no sign of that over in Notting Hill, where fitness fanatics were up early for Soul Cycle. And Mr S understands that among the more high-profile attendees at the 9:30 a.m class this morning were none other than Akshata Murthy, Rishi Sunak’s wife, and Jill Biden, America’s First Lady. Talk about a Special Relationship… The better halves of the two world leaders both enjoy Soul Cycle, with Murthy also once owning a 4.4 per cent stake in boutique London gym chain Digme Fitness, where she was a director. Downing Street declined to comment but

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Nish Kumar’s podcast is actually not bad

Nish Kumar’s grandiosely titled podcast Pod Save the UK isn’t anything like as annoying as you’d expect. Yes, his speaking voice – a high-pitched nasal gurgle – can grate a little, especially when punctuated, as it is often and loudly, with a laugh that is very obviously insincere. But I listened to the full hour without experiencing a single violent urge. This wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. Not at all. When he was on the telly, as he was improbably for four long years fronting the BBC’s truly godawful The Mash Report, like much of the rest of the nation I found I could manage about ninety seconds of him

Nicholas Farrell

France’s migrant hypocrisy

The French have revealed yet again their shameless hypocrisy in regard to Europe’s illegal migrants crisis that this year looks set to break all records. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, keen to divert attention from the riots that characterise France on his watch, managed to tell three lies in a single sentence last week about Italy’s new prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Emanuel Macron’s right-hand man told Radio Monte Carlo: ‘Madame Meloni, a far-right government chosen by Madame Le Pen’s friends, is incapable of solving the migration problems on which she was elected.’ His remarks prompted Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, who said they were ‘unacceptable’, to cancel a meeting that same

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: no Tory coalition, says Davey

Lucy Frazer – ‘Rishi’s only been the prime minister for six months’ This week the fallout from the local election results mingled with news of the coronation. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer spoke to Laura Kuenssberg about the Conservatives’ disastrous results, claiming her party just needed to deliver on their promises. But Kuenssberg questioned whether they might need to reflect more deeply, given they lost more seats than even their worst-case scenarios predicted: Streeting –  ‘Keir Started could be on his way to Downing Street… and the talking points would still be “Labour could have done better“‘ After Labour’s strong results, Wes Streeting claimed they were ‘confident but not complacent’ that

John Curtice

What the local election results really mean

The last twelve months have been traumatic for the Conservative Party. It has elected and deposed two party leaders. It has found itself caught in a financial crisis of its own making. And most recently it has faced a still largely unresolved ‘winter of discontent’ from a public sector workforce that, like much of those who are reliant on them, is unhappy about the state of public services.  The opinion polls have long since registered their estimate of the damage this sequence of dramas has inflicted on the party’s popularity. But the local elections last week provided us with the first firm evidence from across the country of actual choices

Andreas Koureas

The fact that collapses the case for slavery reparations

The case for slavery reparations seems to be growing louder every day. This week, indigenous representatives from 12 Commonwealth countries called on King Charles to begin the process of paying reparations. The King has personally expressed sorrow for the suffering of slaves and Buckingham Palace has said that it is taking the issue of reparations ‘profoundly seriously’. Earlier this year, a former BBC journalist committed to sending £100,000 in aid to the Caribbean to atone for her own family’s historical links to the slave trade.   The voluntary role that many Africans played in the transatlantic slave trade is ignored The central thesis of slavery reparations is that white majority countries owe

Saturday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The shame of the coronation arrests

What century is this? I ask because today, in London, peaceful protesters have been handcuffed and arrested for daring to express disapproval of King Charles. For daring to believe Britain should be a republic, not a constitutional monarchy. This is a grotesque assault on freedom. It is borderline medieval. No one’s feelings, not even the King’s, should ever trump the people’s right to freely express their beliefs in public. ‘Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties’ The footage coming out of Trafalgar Square shames Britain. We’ve seen protesters in ‘Not My King’ t-shirts being arrested. Cops apparently seized hundreds

James Heale James Heale

Local elections 2023: Tories lose 1,000 councillors

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his party is on track to win the next general election after the Tories were hammered in local polls across England. The story of these local elections however appear to be Tory disaster rather than Labour triumph. The BBC’s Projected National Share (PNS) of the vote – based on key wards – suggests that Labour would struggle to win a majority at a general election on the basis of last night’s performance. The BBC’s PNS gives Labour 35 per cent, Conservatives on 26 per cent, the Liberal Democrats 20 per cent and others 19 per cent. It is the biggest Labour lead over the

William Moore William Moore

William Moore, Katy Balls, Dan Hitchens and Ysenda Maxtone Graham

31 min listen

This week: William Moore recalls the 1953 coronation with those that were there (01:02), Katy Balls reads her politics column (10:13), Dan Hitchens discusses the art of coronation (16:20) and Ysenda Maxtone Graham reads her review of The Seaside by Madeleine Bunting (25:20).  Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson.