Politics

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

Monday

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Don’t cancel Andrew Gwynne

The police are coming for your WhatsApp groups. And if that doesn’t strike terror into your heart, you’re not using WhatsApp properly.  The hapless former health minister and Labour MP for Gorton and Denton, Andrew Gwynne, hasn’t just been sacked by Keir Starmer for his offensive messages about pensioners, Mossad and Diane Abbott. He’s also been reported to the police by a local councillor, meaning that, right now, Greater Manchester’s finest are weighing up whether to open a file on ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ – the group in which Gwynne inflicted his off-colour, often racially charged jokes on some of his fellow Labourites. Personally, I think we need to draw a bright line between public

Steerpike Steerpike

Second WhatsApp scandal MP suspended

Another day, another Labour drama. Now a second parliamentarian involved in a rather distasteful WhatsApp group has been suspended after former minister Andrew Gwynne was sacked at the weekend over his rather strange message exchanges. It transpires that Oliver Ryan, MP for Burnley, has this afternoon had the whip removed after it emerged he was also in the ‘Trigger Me Timbers’ group chat, with the 29-year-old Labour politician admitting he too made comments ‘which I deeply regret and would not make today’. News broke on Saturday that Gwynne had been sacked from his health minister job and suspended from the Labour party after some rather odd message exchanges came to

The Spectator

The Spectator is hiring: US Online Editor (London)

Join The Spectator’s expanding team as our US Online Editor and work with the best British journalists, authors, critics and cartoonists. As US Online Editor you will work closely with the senior editorial team in the UK and US to commission, edit and publish Spectator articles covering the United States. You will take charge of daily output – which includes covering breaking news and responding to world events – curating the US website and promoting Spectator articles on social media. The Spectator was founded in 1828 and is the most influential magazine in Britain. There’s never been a better time to join us. This role is full-time and based in The Spectator’s London offices. The ideal candidate

Sam Olsen

It’s time for Labour to put Britain first

Less than a month into President Trump’s new administration and the change to international norms is astounding. Well-established practices on tariffs have been upended, alterations to national boundaries called for, alliances challenged, and aid spending thrown to the wind. This is only the beginning for a president determined to rewrite the rule book. His shakeup comes on top of the systematic efforts by China and Russia to reimagine the world order. ‘Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together,’ said President Xi to President Putin as far back as 2023. We are,

Steerpike Steerpike

The Labour lawyer love-in with the ECHR

With Sue Gray gone, one might have expected the Labour government’s infighting to have subsided. But there is a new public enemy now: Richard Hermer KC. The Attorney General has caused quite the commotion during his time in the top job, with questions raised over his links to Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial Chagos deal, his legal representation of ex-Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and his stance on Israel. It’s his commitment to the ECHR, however, that has ruffled feathers in recent days as the government attempts to improve its messaging on migration. Hermer sparked outrage among government figures when, on the same day that it was announced that new small

Michael Gove

Keir Starmer and the lost art of political oratory

31 min listen

From Churchill to Thatcher to Blair to Farage, Parliament has seen some truly fantastic rhetoricians over the years. But last week came the news that – in a bid to improve his own oratorical skill – Keir Starmer employed a voice coach: former actress Leonie Mellinger. Mellinger has been at the centre of a fresh COVID-19 row, as the Prime Minister considered her to be so important that she qualified as a ‘key worker’ in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve 2020 to advise Starmer. It is not an unusual practice to employ a voice coach to improve a politician’s public speaking, and on the podcast

Stephen Pollard

A charity boss cancelled for ‘Islamophobia’ has won an important victory

It sometimes feels as if there is never any good news in the fight to preserve freedom of speech in Britain. At the very moment, for example, when the United States has a president who is ripping up the shibboleths of what Suella Braverman memorably called the ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’, our deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is reportedly planning to set up a 16-person council to draw up an official definition of Islamophobia. Rayner’s Islamophobia council could be headed by Dominic Grieve, one of the worst people who could hold such a position But it isn’t all gloom. Last week saw a small but potentially very significant legal victory for

Klaus Dodds

The hitch in Trump’s plan for Arctic dominance

There is an ‘icebreaker gap’ between Russia and the United States. For decades, the Soviet Union and now Russia have recognised that icebreakers not only allowe their remote northern settlements to be resupplied by sea but also ensured that the waters north of this vast country were navigable. Moscow can boast that it has a fleet of over 40 vessels, eight of which are nuclear-powered. The latest vessel is called Yakutia and is a sobering example of how sanction-hit Russia has, despite everything, demonstrated a capacity to source parts and equipment for its fleet domestically. Icebreakers perform an essential service for both transit and destination shipping in the Gulf of Finland and along

Steerpike Steerpike

Keir Starmer’s one-line whip wonders

Is Labour on a legislative go-slow? In recent weeks, Mr S has noticed a theme from conversations in the corridors of power. Across the House, MPs are increasingly noticing the number of ‘one-line’ whips they are on in parliament. This refers to diktats issued by the party whips: a one-line whip means that MPs don’t have to turn up to vote if they don’t feel like it, but if they do, they must then vote with the whip. Three-line whips, by contrast, are non-negotiable. So it says something about the state of the Commons right now that nearly half of the sitting days since the general election have been listed as

Steerpike Steerpike

New Labour minister believes people can identify as llamas

Dear oh dear. In the last hour, Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Ashley Dalton MP to replace Andrew Gwynne as health minister – after the latter was sacked and suspended over the weekend over some rather offensive message exchanges. But it would appear that Dalton is not without her skeletons either. Mr S can reveal that the new public health minister has voiced some quite odd views in the past on gender ideology… Dalton has in the past tweeted that ‘trans women are women’ regardless of biology and believes in gender self-identification, writing in 2016: ‘I think people should be able to define their own gender and that society should

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Has Putin picked up the phone to Donald Trump?

So, did they speak? How often? What about? The very coyness around the question of whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone – Trump says so, maybe more than once, while the Kremlin is neither confirming nor denying – suggests that pre-discussion discussions on the war in Ukraine are indeed already taking place. General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for the war, has stated that no peace plan will be unveiled at next weekend’s Munich Security Conference (the Davos of the security set). But in some ways that is disingenuous. As one Foreign Office staffer suggested, ‘It’s not necessarily the time and place for a public reveal,

Ian O’Doherty

Why won’t Ireland take in Palestinian refugees?

Oh, what a tangled web we weave. When Donald Trump made his rather provocative claim that the US would expel all Palestinians from Gaza and turn the region into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’, international condemnation came thick and fast – matched only by the confusion of world leaders. Did the President of the United States really mean that he wanted to create his very own Mar-a-Gaza, complete with luxurious golf courses and tatty tourist shops, or was there a method to his madness?  Egypt has already insisted that it won’t take a single Palestinian refugee, Jordan has warned the United States that it would consider any such plans an

James Heale James Heale

Have Kemi Badenoch’s first 100 days been a success?

Leader of the opposition is regarded by many as the worst job in British politics. Peter Hennessy called the post ‘a transit camp – to either glory or oblivion’; Denis Healey quoted The Odyssey, saying it was better to be the ‘meanest swine heard on earth’ than ‘king of all the shadows’. Denied Whitehall’s legions of functionaries, they must work on a shoestring, painfully aware that historical odds suggest their efforts are likely to fail. Yet few holders of the role have faced a more awesome challenge than Kemi Badenoch. Today she marks 100 days as party leader, with the Conservatives facing a fight for survival. Her task is harder

Matthew Lynn

Trump’s tariffs could kill Europe’s steel industry

So, it seems that Donald Trump wasn’t bluffing after all. On his way to the Superbowl, the president made time to impose 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the United States, ramping up a trade war that has been looming ever since he moved into the White House last month. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said he would slap the tariffs on “everybody”. “If they charge us, we charge them,” he said. These measures will hit Australia, Mexico, and East Asian manufacturers hard. But it will deliver a terminal blow to the European steel industry, unless it finally abandons Net Zero targets that were already

Jonathan Sacerdoti

How Hamas used starvation as a weapon of war

We asked for proof of deliberate starvation in Gaza. On Saturday, we received it. The images of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy, and Ohad Ben Ami – three hostages released by Hamas after 491 days in captivity – were haunting. Frail, skeletal, barely able to stand, they bore the unmistakable marks of prolonged deprivation. The sight evoked painful historical echoes: men whose suffering was etched into their hollowed faces and emaciated bodies, a vision chillingly reminiscent of Holocaust survivors. This was not incidental malnutrition. It was something far worse: starvation as a weapon, inflicted with intent. It was a vision chillingly reminiscent of Holocaust survivors For months, famine in Gaza had

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

What happened to William Dalrymple?

At first impression, William Dalrymple is flying high. This patrician historian of British-Indian relations, who celebrates his sixtieth birthday this year, presides over his own literary festival in Jaipur and has amassed more than a million followers on X (many of them hailing from the subcontinent). In recent years, he has grown to become a totem of centrist dads everywhere. This month, he announced that his Empire Podcast – produced by Gary Lineker’s production company – had surpassed 55 million downloads. Dalrymple’s outbursts can be venomous towards those who do not share his repugnance for the Middle East’s only democracy Increasingly, however, questions are being asked both about the Scottish

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Is a ‘Trump tornado’ about to tear through Europe?

There is a wind of change blowing through the West. It emanates from Washington DC, where Donald Trump continues to dash off executive orders; more than fifty by the end of last week, the highest number in a president’s first 100 days in four decades. The liberal mainstream media is rattled. The New York Times magazine ran a piece at the weekend in which it described Trump as ‘the leading light of a spate of illiberal leaders and parties flourishing in democracies around the world’. The paper namechecked some of them: Poland, Holland, India, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Hungary and Russia. What unites and motivates these ‘illiberal’ parties is their

Felicity Gillespie

A baby phone ban is long overdue

Crucial brain development in the first few years of life depends on the ‘serve and return’ interaction with parents and carers; baby talk, storytime and games. Sitting in front of a screen is one-way traffic: a child is only in receive mode. Maybe that’s why we are seeing the terrible impact of excessive screen time on pre-school children at the start of Reception. According to Kindred’s latest school readiness report, a third of children starting Reception can’t dress themselves or communicate their needs to an adult; 45 per cent are reported to be unable to sit still for a short time. Up to a quarter of children who begin Reception are

Sunday

Jenny Lindsay

In defence of Sandie Peggie

A few days ago I was alerted to a new mental health campaign video for the NHS service Mind To Mind. ‘Life is full of ups and downs,’ the clip started. Cut to a middle-aged woman looking out of her window, a little fraught, but then resiliently donning a colourful bobble hat before leaving her house. ‘So we need to look after our heads,’ she smiled to the camera. This 60-second social media film was posted by NHS Fife on 4 February, urging people to take care of their mental health by connecting with others experiencing the same difficulties. I became aware of it thanks to X’s algorithm repeatedly catapulting

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Andrew Gwynne’s messages condemned

Health Minister Andrew Gwynne has been sacked after he was found to have sent offensive messages in a Whatsapp group with other Labour figures. Gwynne had joked about hoping a constituent would soon be dead, and made sexist and racist comments about Angela Rayner and Diane Abbott. On Sky News, housing minister Matthew Pennycook denounced Gwynne’s comments, and told Trevor Phillips that Keir Starmer had ‘acted decisively’ to ‘uphold the highest standards of public office’. Phillips asked if other Labour politicians in the same Whatsapp group would be suspended. Pennycook said an investigation was taking place, and that if any other Labour MP was found to have fallen short of