Politics

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

Thursday

William Moore William Moore

Macron’s last adventure: the President vs the public

36 min listen

On the podcast: In his cover piece for the magazine, journalist Jonathan Miller argues that President Macron is pitting himself against the people by refusing to back down from his plans to raise the age of retirement. He is joined by regular Coffee House contributor Gavin Mortimer, to ask whether this could be Macron’s last adventure (01:06). Also this week: In the magazine, travel journalist Sean Thomas says that – in comparison to other cities he has visited – American cities are uniquely struggling to bounce back from the impacts of the covid pandemic. He is joined by Karol Markowicz, columnist at the New York Post and contributing editor at Spectator World, to discuss

James Heale James Heale

Are MPs doing the ‘chicken run?’

It’s a sign of the tensions within the parliamentary Conservative party that talk of colleagues swapping constituencies is currently a major talking point in the Commons tea rooms. This week two more members of the 2019 Tory intake announced that they would not be seeking re-election in their constituencies. Both Nicola Richards and Stuart Anderson released lengthy statements explaining their decision – but neither MP explicitly ruled out standing again in another seat. Keiran Mullan has meanwhile declined to comment on claims that he will switch from Crewe and Nantwich to the new Chester South and Eddisbury seat. Some Tories disparagingly refer to the ‘chicken run’ – the term coined

Lucy Dunn

Humza Yousaf’s debut FMQs descends into chaos

Humza Yousaf’s debut at First Minister’s Questions was never going to be straightforward. The First Minister’s questionable track record in government offered, to use his own words, an ‘open goal’ to his opposition. Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar was quick to point to Yousaf’s ‘incompetence’, while Scottish Conservative’s Douglas Ross belittled the new cabinet. But what made Yousaf’s FMQs debut even more chaotic were seven serial interruptions by climate activists. When the protests eventually stopped – after the public gallery was, in an unprecedented move, cleared bar two groups of schoolchildren – the attacks against Yousaf continued while today’s guest, the ambassador to Iceland, looked on. Riding the wave of SNP

Kara Kennedy

Is this the reason Harry and Meghan stepped down as working Royals?

Stepping down as working royals would ‘provide our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity,’ Meghan and Harry wrote in their infamous bombshell statement of January 2020.  Just one month before, the Sussexes had launched their Archewell website, with childhood photos of themselves with their mothers, Doria Ragland and the late Princess Diana.  ‘I am my mother’s son, and I am our son’s mother,’ the official letter read. ‘Together we bring you Archewell. We believe in the best of humanity. Because we have seen the best of humanity… from our mothers and strangers alike.’ Anybody who has been keeping

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Evan Gershkovich and Russia’s descent into thugocracy

It’s a crude but inescapable fact of history that many states had their origins in better-organised bandit gangs. It’s a depressing feature of the present that some states seem determined to slide back into bandit status. While Putin’s Russia retains the institutions of modern statehood, he and his clique of cronies and yes-men have no problem adopting the tactics of the thug – including kidnapping. The arrest of American journalist Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges appears to be the most recent example. The Kremlin is tiptoeing closer to a kind of ‘North Koreanisation’ Gershkovich, part of the Wall Street Journal’s Moscow bureau, was on assignment in Ekaterinburg when he was

Natasha Feroze

Will the locals be a horror show for Rishi?

11 min listen

The first day of Easter recess is a chance to reflect on the last couple of months in politics and look at the challenges that lie ahead. As Keir Starmer launches his local election campaign in Swindon today, how are the parties going to position themselves for their largest reckoning this year? The polls predict a hammering for Rishi Sunak, and could this be a good result for the Lib Dems? Natasha Feroze speaks to James Heale and Katy Balls. 

Joanna Williams

How trans ideology took over our schools

Concern with what schools are teaching about sex, gender and relationships has been growing. Parents worry their children are being exposed to inappropriate sexualised content and that they are being taught to question their gender identity. Some even report discovering their children are using new names and pronouns while at school without their knowledge or consent. Yet these fears are frequently dismissed as reactionary parents trading in anecdotes and panic. Nothing to see here, has been the message from schools and campaigning organisations alike. Until now. A report from Policy Exchange reveals the extent to which gender ideology is being promoted in schools and the shocking ways in which this

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Rishi Sunak now sees a future for fossil fuels in Britain

The location of Rishi Sunak and Grant Shapps’s net zero relaunch today shows there has been a change of emphasis since the PM set up the Department for Energy Security and Climate Change last autumn. One suspects a bit of ideology creeping in: fossil fuels have become a great bogeyman, and nothing will make them acceptable Whereas Boris Johnson might have sought to make such an announcement at a wind farm or solar farm, today’s relaunch took place at Culham in Oxfordshire, the site of Britain’s nuclear fusion research facility. Fusion is the holy grail of carbon-free energy which even enthusiasts admit is decades away from being commercialised, if it

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Joining CPTPP shows Britain is finally seizing the benefits of Brexit

Even the most ardent Brexiteers would likely admit that the UK has been slow to embrace one of the biggest benefits of leaving the European Union: the quick and nimble pursuit of trade deals. There are understandable reasons for the delay. It made sense for trade secretaries to start with the bi-lateral deals which could be copy-pasted from the arrangements we had in the EU. The first bespoke deal with Australia took time (albeit perhaps didn’t need so many concessions) as it was intended to be a framework that could be used to strike future deals with new countries. But the UK’s biggest trade win to date may be just

Steerpike Steerpike

Why Humza Yousaf faces a nightmare start as First Leader

The Yousaf terror has begun and already the new regime isn’t off to a great start. Day one saw his calls for another referendum brushed aside by No. 10. Day two brought the refusals of Kate Forbes and Ivan McKee to serve in his government. And now on day three, the Privileges Committee have handed Margaret Ferrier a 30-day suspension from parliament, potentially triggering a by-election in her seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West (majority: 5,230). What joy will day four bring? Ferrier of course is the hapless halfwit who admitted travelling down to London after developing Covid symptoms. Not only did the MP fail to stay at home to prevent

Wednesday

James Heale James Heale

Was Yousaf wrong to snub Forbes?

11 min listen

Kate Forbes has quit the government after turning down an offer to be rural affairs minister in Humza Yousaf’s cabinet. With some suggesting the new First Minister of Scotland should keep his friends close as his enemies closer – was this offer wise? Also on the podcast, James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about asylum hotels, a topic that is becoming increasingly contentious as the government explores new ways to house migrants. 

Lucy Dunn

Humza Yousaf’s cabinet will do little to unite the SNP

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf has risked widening the split within the SNP by effectively ousting Kate Forbes from the cabinet. Having dispensed with his leadership rival, Yousaf has now appointed those who will make up his top team – and insists that his choices demonstrate a party united. But for all his warm words, Yousaf appears to have done little to reach across the SNP divide. Instead, he has opted to reward those who have stayed loyal to him throughout his campaign, such as Shona Robison and his campaign manager Neil Gray. Those who backed Forbes are nowhere to be seen. For all his warm words, Yousaf appears to

Steerpike Steerpike

Rishi’s favourite Peloton instructor: ‘I had to Google him’

It’s a hard life in No. 10 – so it’s no surprise that Prime Ministers need to relax. Margaret Thatcher had her whiskies; Harold Macmillan went ‘to bed with a Trollope’. But for Rishi Sunak, it seems his trusty Peloton is how he takes his mind off the job. He likes to get up at 6 a.m to get on the bike with his favourite instructor Cody Rigsby, a 35-year-old New York dancer, who describes himself to his 1.3 million Instagram followers, as an ‘opinionated homosexual’. In 2021, Sunak eulogised Rigsby’s classes, telling the 20 Minute VC podcast that ‘You do have to listen to a lot of Britney. But

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

A totally unmemorable PMQs for Raab and Rayner

Rishi Sunak missed PMQs to attend Betty Boothroyd’s funeral and a half-empty chamber watched the deputies, Dominic Raab and Angela Rayner, slug it out. Rayner, always a crowd-pleaser, began by hailing the late Paul O’Grady as ‘a true northern star.’ And she had fun with the new crackdown on street thuggery or ‘anti-social behaviour’ as our genteel government puts it. Rayner linked this to the Dominic ‘Raabspierre’ allegations made by a handful of snowflake civil servants who felt that the Justice Secretary had mistreated them. It was good knockabout stuff. Rayner suggested that Raab had personal knowledge of louts ‘exploding in fits of rage and creating a culture of fear,

Andrew McQuillan

The Good Friday Agreement hasn’t solved Northern Ireland’s troubles

Northern Ireland is a few weeks out from a Davos-style gathering of the great and the good to mark 25 years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement. The Clintons will be in town, Joe Biden will be there to presumably tell some folksy, paddywhacking wisecrack and Tony Blair might even feel the familiar touch of the hand of history upon his shoulder.  Unhelpful, then, that the real world is deciding to intrude. Outside the backslapping get-togethers planned at venues such as Queen’s University in Belfast, villains still roam the streets and backroads of Ulster. After an attack on a police patrol in Strabane by dissident republicans in November and

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Macron’s last adventure: the President vs the public

Montpellier Every generation or so, French politics is decided on the streets. The May 1968 unrest in Paris spread worldwide; Jacques Chirac’s welfare reform agenda was ended with the 1995 disturbances. The spirit of revolt is so alive in French society that a special police force exists for such occasions, specialising in crowd control. Now President Emmanuel Macron is facing another sustained revolt. Eight weeks into the battle over his pension reforms, it’s far from clear who – if anyone – is winning. Police cars and buildings have been set alight in Strasbourg, Lille, Saint-Étienne and Bordeaux. In Paris, bin men have just ended a three-week strike: some 10,000 tonnes

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

It is becoming impossible to ignore the problems with the NHS

One of the most remarkable things about the National Health Service is the extent to which it avoids national criticism. Only a few years ago it was borderline blasphemy to point out problems with the NHS; for politicians, to do so was to dig your own political grave. For the first time in the survey’s history, the majority of the British public are ‘dissatisfied’ with the health service In the aftermath of the pandemic, things have started to change. Several politicians have spoken about the poor outcomes delivered by the health service. Most notably the Labour party is distinguishing itself from the Tories, not simply by offering more money, but

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Humza Yousaf is the Union’s best hope

After the narrow victory of the Brexit campaign in 2016, it was often said that the result would lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom. Just 38 per cent of Scots voted for Brexit, so Nicola Sturgeon argued that Scotland was being taken out of the EU against its will, necessitating a second Scottish independence referendum. And in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist party blocked the formation of a new power-sharing administration last year in protest at the Westminster government’s approach to the Brexit Protocol. Now things look very different. DUP MPs may have voted against the Windsor Framework, but polls suggest that Rishi Sunak’s renegotiated Brexit deal is

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The banishment of Jeremy Corbyn

Rishi Sunak is on a policy blitz. Humza Yousaf is facing party backlash after losing former leadership rival Kate Forbes from his cabinet. Ed Davey has this morning launched the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign. And Keir Starmer? The Labour leader is once again making headlines for his bid to distance the Labour party from his predecessor. On Tuesday, the party’s National Executive Committee met to vote on Starmer’s motion to block Jeremy Corbyn from running to be a Labour MP at the next election on the grounds that the party’s chances of winning the next election would be ‘significantly diminished’ if Mr Corbyn was endorsed. The motion passed by