Politics

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

Friday

Lucy Dunn

What would the SNP leadership candidates actually do if they win?

Have the SNP leadership candidates learned from the mistakes of their first televised debate? Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan competed to trash the SNP’s legacy when they went head-to-head earlier this week. Last night’s Channel 4 clash was tamer: the trio were at pains to defend their party’s record in government. But while the atmosphere was more civil, viewers didn’t learn a huge amount more about the candidates’ plans for Scotland. Kate Forbes was quick to plaster over Tuesday’s wounds, saying that it has been a ‘privilege to serve alongside Humza Yousaf in government and to serve under Nicola Sturgeon’ – though she did not apologise to Yousaf,

Ines Wittke

Why Britain isn’t ready to rejoin the EU – yet

Is Brexit starting to unfold? Some Remain supporters think so. Poor economic performance, supply chain issues, and our inability as a country to fill jobs in sectors that were traditionally performed by cheap EU labour continue to dominate the headlines. But, despite the hopes of some Remainers, this doesn’t mean Britain is ready to rejoin the EU.  It is true that a large percentage of the public seems to have shifted from thinking the country would benefit economically from Brexit, to thinking we are now worse off. According to polling by Public First on attitudes to Brexit, this shift is even present among Leavers: 64 per cent said they thought the

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

How Russia is dodging sanctions

They might not be the quick knock-out blow their champions misleadingly claimed they’d be, but sanctions are having a serious effect on the long-term viability of the Russian economy. However, we should never underestimate the Russians’ capacity to find rough and ready workarounds. Back in Soviet times, I was regaled with stories of Lada cars being fixed with sticky tape and cast-off hosiery. Likewise, people would find ways around onerous bureaucracy and uncaring officialdom, whether turning to the black market or stealing from the state (as one told me, ‘only a fool buys a light bulb if he works in an office and can steal one’). The West needs to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The problem with Boris’s honours list

There are plenty of Boris Johnson hangovers to give Rishi Sunak a headache these days. The privileges committee investigation into whether the former prime minister misled parliament will soon be in full swing. This doesn’t just mean that ‘partygate’ will be back in the news. If the committee finds Johnson guilty then Sunak could face the unappetising prospect of deciding whether to whip his party to vote either way in relation to any recommended punishment (such as a suspension) and what to do himself. For now though, it’s another Johnson legacy issue in the news: his resignation honours list. As I first reported in January, those privy to the full

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Ministers can’t blame Putin for the disaster that is HS2

And I thought the SNP were destined to win the award for this year’s most pathetic excuse – after Scottish transport minister Jenny Gilruth blamed the party’s failure to dual the A9 on Putin’s war in Ukraine. Then UK transport secretary Mark Harper turns up and tries to use the very same excuse for HS2’s soaring costs. The Birmingham to Manchester section of the high-speed line will be delayed for two years, he said yesterday, because ‘Putin’s war in Ukraine has hiked up inflation, sending supply chain costs rocketing.’ HS2 has turned out to be an extremely expensive turkey because it was misconceived from the start Much as I despise

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

GDP grows by 0.3% – but the UK economy remains stagnant

This morning’s release from the Office for National Statistics shows the UK economy grew by 0.3 per cent in January – an improvement on December 2022 figures, which saw the economy contract by 0.5 per cent. There are no revisions to the last update: the UK still avoids the technical definition of recession, and January’s growth was higher than expected (the consensus was that it would be 0.1 per cent). But overall, the economy remains stagnant: the three months to January produced precisely zero growth. What really sticks out in today’s release is just how dependent the UK economy is these days on one-off interruptions. January’s rebound is largely credited to the return of

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris haunts Rishi at Macron summit

It’s Rishi Sunak’s big moment today as he tries to cut a new deal with the French to stop the small boats crisis. The Prime Minister will meet with President Emmanuel Macron later today at the Elysee Palace alongside senior ministers in the first Anglo-French summit for five years. Such shindigs never happened under Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson – the man whose tenure created so many of the problems still occupying ministers’ time. And that impression of Sunak being haunted by the past won’t be dispelled by his latest social media gaffe. The Prime Minister took to Twitter this morning to eulogise the ‘deep’ partnership between the UK and France,

Thursday

William Moore William Moore

Don vs Ron: the fight for the American right

29 min listen

In the cover piece of this week’s magazine, deputy editor Freddy Gray writes about the fight for the American right: it’s Don (Trump) vs Ron (DeSantis). Who will win? On the podcast, Freddy is joined by Amber Athey, Washington editor of The Spectator‘s world edition. (00:37) Political editor Katy Balls writes in this week’s magazine that small boats are a big election issue. Rishi Sunak has promised to stop the illegal crossings, but what will it cost him? Katy is on the podcast with Spectator contributor Patrick O’Flynn. (10:49) And finally, would you let a man with an axe into your house for the sake of art? Cosmo Landesman’s father did, and he

Steerpike Steerpike

Gary Lineker doubles down on his Tory attacks

No red card for Gary Lineker, it seems. The Sun reports this afternoon that the outspoken TV presenter is staying put after comments he made comparing the rhetoric around the government’s new illegal migration policy to 1930s Germany. It appears Lineker has avoided even so much as a slap on the wrist, with a BBC source claiming that: We have spoken to Gary and he won’t face any disciplinary action. From our perspective the situations has been resolved now and we want him to get back to what he’s best at, which is being a brilliant sports presenter. The Beeb’s support seems to have only emboldened Lineker in his attacks

Iain Macwhirter

Whoever wins the SNP leadership race, independence has already lost

‘Now is not the time,’ successive Tory prime ministers told Nicola Sturgeon following her persistent calls for another independence referendum. It’s simply too soon after the last one, they said. In August, the Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, caused fury in nationalist circles after he stated there would need to be at least 60 per cent support for independence in opinion polls before the UK government would respond to further Section 30 referendum requests. Strange, then, that this Tory message appears to be exactly what the SNP leadership candidates were parroting in Tuesday night’s now infamous STV debate. So transfixed were commentators by the blue-on-blue attack lines – or perhaps ‘yellow-on-yellow’

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

The rationale for Putin’s latest attack on Ukraine

It has long been suspected that Russia was going to mount a renewed military offensive in Ukraine as spring approached. This fear was realised overnight. From midnight to 7.a.m., Ukraine suffered one of the worst barrages of Russian bombing this year: some 81 missiles were fired at residential buildings and critical infrastructure from air, land and sea, including several hypersonic Kinzhal missiles. Some 34 missiles were intercepted in total, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine was not able to down many, as it does not yet have the Patriot system that can intercept them. The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhny, said eight Iranian-made drones were also launched; four were

Steerpike Steerpike

Twelve of the worst moments of the SNP race (so far)

There’s still nearly three weeks to go in the SNP leadership race and already the clown-car moments are clocking up. A new Ipsos Scotland poll is out today which shows that Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes neck and neck, with the pair on 33 per cent and 32 per cent respectively, followed by Ash Regan on a distant third with 10 per cent. Below is a list of the lowlights so far… Regan invokes 1776 The contest got off to a fairly inglorious start when Ash Regan referred to the American War of Independence as she proof that referendums were not the only way to secede from the UK. Appearing

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Is Labour saying anything new on childcare?

17 min listen

The shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson is giving a speech to centre-right think tank Onward today, all about childcare. But is the party actually saying anything new on the issue? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and the FT‘s Stephen Bush. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What Sunak needs from Macron

Is a new bromance about to blossom? That’s the hope in government when Rishi Sunak meets Emmanuel Macron in Paris tomorrow for the first Franco-British summit in five years. Items on the agenda for the talks include defence and security, energy and, of course, small boats. After Sunak came to an agreement with Brussels on the Northern Ireland protocol – known as the Windsor agreement – there is a sense that this is a ‘barnacles off the boat’ moment which will allow a wider reset of relations. Macron’s words on the issue will be a significant indicator of any wider unhappiness in the EU Sunak is keen to try a

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why is Whitehall intent on burying the Covid lab leak theory?

Why does our government have so much trouble criticising China? It doesn’t seem to have had a problem calling out Vladimir Putin. But Downing Street – along with the rest of Whitehall – seems determined to do Xi Jinping’s regime’s dirty work. Over the past ten days we have become used to seeing Matt Hancock as a mad, authoritarian figure determined to lock Britain down during Covid, even when scientific advice did not call for it. Yet it does seem that he was able to consider the prospect that Covid originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. The evidence is not conclusive or overwhelming, not least because the Chinese have used every tactic to

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Mordaunt eviscerates Labour and Lineker

Another week and another Penny Mordaunt moment. The Leader of the House might not have won either of last year’s leadership contests but she’s positioning herself well for the next one with her forthright appearances in parliament. She used today’s Business Statement to take aim at the difference between ‘what Labour says and what Labour does’ and even managed to throw in a football theme, based on Gary Lineker’s latest shenanigans. She fired off a series of shots at a ‘team captain’ who doesn’t even know what ‘colour shirt’ he’s wearing and accused them of being a ‘party of goal hangers and the occasional left-wing striker’. Mordaunt one, Labour nil…

Steerpike Steerpike

Has CCHQ dropped Suella in it?

Oops. Has Suella Braverman accidentally reignited war with the civil service? On Tuesday, after the Home Secretary announced the details of her new Illegal Migration Bill, a triumphant email from CCHQ landed in the inboxes of Tory party members.  ‘We tried to stop the small boat crossings without changing our laws,’ it declared. ‘But an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour party blocked us. So today we’re changing our laws – and bringing the small boat crossings to an end.’ The signature at the bottom of the email: Suella Braverman. Unsurprisingly, the civil service didn’t take too kindly to being lumped into part of Suella’s ‘activist

Wednesday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Thousands protest against ‘Russian-style’ laws in Georgia

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi for a second day. Riot police have used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons to control the crowds; protestors responded by throwing stones, flares and in some cases even Molotov cocktails. A group of those demonstrating even tried to break into the parliamentary building. Over sixty arrests have been made so far. The focus of demonstrators’ anger is legislation to create a ‘foreign agents’ register. People’s Power (PP), the populist party which introduced the legislation, claim it will encourage ‘transparency over foreign influence’ in Georgia. But critics fear a crackdown on freedom of speech and criticism of

Steerpike Steerpike

Alastair Campbell spins for Gary Lineker

Good old Alastair Campbell has been out and about today, showing just why he was once such a valued spin doctor. The onetime master of the dark arts has been vexed, nay outraged, over Tory MPs daring to question Gary Lineker’s decision to liken the government’s rhetoric on asylum seekers ‘to that used by Germany in the 30s.’ For good measure the BBC star added the legislation proposed was ‘immeasurably cruel.’ Campbell has been working himself into a self-righteous lather about those pointing out that Lineker is supposed to be bound by the Beeb’s impartiality guidelines, firing off endless tweets that suggest the row is a storm ‘whipped up by