Politics

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

Wednesday

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Ukraine is becoming a showroom for modern weaponry

The war in Ukraine has become a testing ground for new technology, an opportunity to develop weapons and find different ways of fighting. Nations that are supposedly neutral have been sending weapons to the front line to find out just how they work in the heat of battle. This is a relatively new trend in the history of warfare, one that first emerged in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. The backers of both sides treated the war not just as a testing range but also a showroom. The Germans, supporting Franco’s nationalists, first tried Blitzkrieg on the Spanish peninsula. Hermann Göring saw the civil war as a chance ‘to test

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Robert Buckland: ‘Let asylum seekers work – and pay tax’

When the small boats crisis began, it was seen by some in government as a positive sign. ‘It was an emblem of success,’ says Robert Buckland, who was solicitor general at the time. ‘If you remember, the previous mode of entry for migrants was on lorries.’ Heat scanners had been introduced at the Channel Tunnel in 2015, which meant more stowaways were being caught. The switch to boats, it was argued at the time, was a desperate tactic on the part of the people-smugglers. No one guessed what a problem it would become. Back in 2014, the UK asylum system was coping: 87 per cent of cases were handled within

The Spectator

What Scholz should bear in mind on his trip to Beijing

Olaf Scholz will be in Beijing this weekend, making the first visit of a western leader to China since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. What might at any other time be regarded as a routine piece of diplomatic outreach is instead a matter of deep concern. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has just cemented his position as dictator-for-life at the Chinese Communist party’s 20th congress. Beijing has followed this up with a series of high-profile visits from countries taking Chinese money for major infrastructure projects. The President of Vietnam arrived on Monday, the Presidents of Tanzania and Pakistan on Wednesday. This will culminate in Scholz’s arrival, the first G7 leader

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

At sea: can Sunak navigate the migrant crisis?

It’s not hard to see why migrants come here. For those who make it across the Channel illegally, there is only a small chance of deportation. About 72 per cent of the predominantly young males who leave the safety of France can expect to have their UK asylum claims granted. The success rate is more than twice the EU average (34 per cent). That’s part of the reason for the extraordinary growth in numbers coming across. Three years ago, 2,000 people arrived in small boats. So far this year, it’s 40,000. It’s funny to think that when 40 migrants crossed the Channel on Christmas Day in 2018, the then home

Tuesday

Lucy Dunn

The dire state of Scotland’s hospitals

In hospitals, waiting lists have become so long that people have to queue for over two days to be seen. Patients are advised to avoid turning up if they can help it. Bed shortages mean people spend nights on corridor floors. Over 30 patients markedly deteriorate or even die each week as a result of delays. You could be forgiven for thinking this dire situation is unfolding in a developing country, perhaps without proper health infrastructure. It’s not: this is happening all across Scotland. Since the pandemic, A&Es in Scotland have gone from bad to worse. Extreme wait times have increased tenfold: over 4,000 people spent more than 24 hours

Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

Suella Braverman’s critics ignore an uncomfortable truth

Suella Braverman is in the firing line. But when she took to her feet in the Commons yesterday, she showed exactly why there is so much pressure on Rishi Sunak to get rid of her: Braverman actually wants to reduce illegal immigration. The Home Secretary’s critics have condemned her for using the word ‘invasion’. ‘No responsible person should ever use language that risks inciting hostility and hate,’ says Amnesty International. The problem is that Braverman’s statement is essentially correct. When she asks MPs to ‘stop pretending they are all refugees in distress, the whole country knows that is not true’, she is not engaging in ‘far-right and inflammatory rhetoric’, as

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

What’s Matt Hancock up to?

17 min listen

Matt Hancock has signed up to be a contestant on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! What’s behind the former health secretary’s move into reality television? Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, took to television studios this morning to defend how the government has handled overcrowding at the Manston processing centre for asylum seekers. Is there a rift growing between him and the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman? Max Jeffery speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.  Produced by Max Jeffery.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Matt Hancock signed up for I’m a Celeb

Matt Hancock has this morning had the whip suspended over his decision to appear on the new series of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. Less than an hour after the news broke that the former health secretary – who resigned over a breach of Covid rules through an extra-marital affair – plans to head to the jungle to appear on the primetime reality show, the new chief whip Simon Hart suspended the whip with immediate effect. Announcing the news, Hart said: ‘Following a conversation with Matt Hancock, I have considered the situation and believe this is a matter serious enough to warrant suspension of the whip with

Steerpike Steerpike

Matt Hancock loses whip after signing up to I’m A Celeb

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So what are we to glean from Matt Hancock’s latest comeback initiative under a third successive Tory premier? According to The Sun, the Casanova of the Commons has signed up to appear on the upcoming series of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. What an irony in a man whose career was brought down by intrusive cameras turning to that same medium for rehabilitation.  Such a move is, of course, just the latest initiative for Hancock: a man with no beginning to his political talents. There’s also his bid to become the

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The Tories are addicted to self-destruction

Well, that round of party unity was fun, wasn’t it? Rishi Sunak, the pragmatist, ushered in an unfamiliar sense of calmness and competence as he entered Downing Street. It has lasted less than a week. Yet again the newspapers are chock full of ‘senior Conservatives’ gunning for each other: the target this time is Suella Braverman. The Tory cycle of violence continues. The question is: are the Tories just ‘ungovernable’ — as many said during Liz Truss’s collapse — or now fully addicted to self-destruction?  Braverman says there is a ‘witch-hunt’ against her: you just need to pick up a newspaper today to see what she’s getting at. So far

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak’s potential tax rises would guarantee a recession

It could be National Insurance. It could be income tax. Perhaps it could even be a rise in VAT. We don’t yet know what taxes Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have planned for their fiscal statement later this month. One point is surely clear, however. There will be no point in pretending that those can be paid for by either ‘big business’ or ‘the rich’. And, even worse, it will guarantee a recession, making even more tax rises inevitable in the future. It may not be quite so bad on the day. Both Sunak and Hunt are slick enough political operators to know that if they leak in

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Could Robert Jenrick end up replacing Suella Braverman?

Why did Rishi Sunak reappoint Suella Braverman? Her decision to back him rather than Boris Johnson was probably the most decisive endorsement of the recent campaign – this might well have been done with the understanding that she’d be Home Secretary. If so, it would have been an understandable trade. She had been a Johnson uber-loyalist and if even she was not backing his return, her support for Sunak was the biggest symbol of the game being up for Boris Johnson. Her reappointment drove her critics wild and she has become the new lightning rod. Her performance in the Commons yesterday showed her doubling down. If people want to depose

Nigel Jones

Why Sunak shouldn’t sack Suella Braverman

As Home Secretary Suella Braverman struggles to keep her job in the face of vicious attacks from the official opposition, her fate will be the first big political test for new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  If Sunak bows to the almost hysterical shrieks for Braverman’s scalp she will be the fourth big beast brought down by a combined Labour and media assault – aided by a handful of usefully idiotic backbench Tory MPs only too willing to publicly undermine the government – since the Tory election victory in 2019. Already Labour MPs such as Chris Bryant have called on the Home Secretary to resign, while Keir Starmer has said Sunak should sack Braverman

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Sunak would find it tough to lose Braverman

The safest place for a minister in a crisis is meant to be the despatch box. The thinking is that it allows an under-fire minister to influence and even control events. This is what Suella Braverman tried to do this evening when she faced MPs in the Commons chamber following a series of allegations over both her handling of security matters and the detention of migrants under her watch. After apologising this morning for using her personal email address to handle official documents on seven occasions, Braverman appeared in the Commons to address the other crisis facing her: the situation at the Manston migrant centre in Kent. While the disused

Michael Auslin

How Biden can help save Sunak

Spare a thought for Rishi Sunak. The Prime Minister must restore the UK’s fiscal stability, calm markets, and support the pound. He needs to unite a country facing increasing American-style social and political polarisation. He must also assure Britain’s allies and partners that it will remain a global actor, opposing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s belligerence. It is a tall order for any leader. But Sunak could be helped significantly by US President Joe Biden in a few key areas – the question is whether Biden wants to do so. The economic, political, and security health of Britain is no minor matter for the United States. As global

Steerpike Steerpike

Gove gets the gang back together

It’s not just Suella Braverman and Dominic Raab who have got their old jobs back. Following the Truss interregnum, normal service has been restored in Whitehall, with Michael Gove being handed another post in his fourth Conservative administration. The erudite Aberdonian has returned to the Department of Levelling Up – the ministry he left just last month – as its Secretary of State once more, beginning his speech to officials this afternoon ‘As I was saying before I was interrupted…’ Gove’s appointment has cheered many of the department’s long-suffering staff, relieved, at last, to have a minister skilled in the art of Whitehall warfare. The man himself has made clear

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Will the Tories copy Le Pen?

In the three years since its landslide victory in the 2019 election, the Conservative party has shed nearly seven million voters. The astonishing statistic was revealed in a report by the centre right think-tank Onward, released on the same day Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister; at least he’s in no doubt as to the scale of his challenge. To stave off disaster, Onward’s Will Tanner (a former adviser to Theresa May while she was PM) said the Tories must aim to hit a ‘sweet spot’: by appealing to the six in ten voters who are ‘left of centre on the economy, but…socially and culturally conservative’. This year Marine Le Pen’s

James Snell

Russia’s ‘hunger plan’ is back

Until this week, the prospect of global famine had disappeared from the headlines, but earlier in Russia’s war against Ukraine, a sinister possibility had begun to take shape. Ukraine is a breadbasket. Its produce feeds the world. And Russia, knowing this, hatched a plan. Its soldiers could wreck Ukrainian farmland and kill its farmers. Russians would steal and sell all the Ukrainian grain it could. And the Black Sea – a vital artery through which most of Ukraine’s food exports travelled – would be blockaded by the Russian navy. Food shipments would not be let through. The world would starve, Ukraine’s economy would suffer, and – in Vladimir Putin’s mind

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How big is the problem facing Suella Braverman?

How much trouble is Suella Braverman in? Rishi Sunak’s decision to re-appoint her as Home Secretary less than a week after she was forced to resign over a security breach has proved to be the major upset of the reshuffle. Since then, opposition parties have gone on the attack with some Tory politicians also raising concerns about Braverman’s suitability for the role.  Former Conservative party chairman Jake Berry went public last week to say that Cabinet Secretary Simon Case had been deeply worried by the incident which saw Braverman share a confidential document on immigration with an MP using her personal email. He said Braverman – who has developed the