Politics

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

Wednesday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Trade unions are calling the shots under Labour

Is Angela Rayner really being sidelined in this government, having been steamrollered by the rush for growth championed by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves? That is a hypothesis which has been put forward many times in recent months, but it is not true to judge by the reaction of businesses to the Employment Rights Bill. The CBI – which gave the impression that it couldn’t get rid of the Tories fast enough after Boris Johnson’s Peppa Pig fiasco – is not the least bit impressed, with chief executive Rain Newton-Smith complaining: ‘The government has been commendably open to seeking feedback from industry about these plans,’ but that it ‘has not

Matthew Lynn

Europe could pay the price for Germany’s debt shake-up

Germany has finally decided to join the party – but Europe may come to regret it. After two decades of limited borrowing and fiscal restraint, Europe’s biggest economy is finally joining the high-debt club. Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz will borrow €800 billion (£670 million), and perhaps much more, to pay for extra spending on defence and infrastructure. Sure, Germany needs to spend more on its armed forces and on restructuring its economy. But it will also likely mean the euro-zone no longer has a single solvent member to anchor it. It is hard to see how this situation will end well for Europe. Merz is a centre-right, pro-business leader, but

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Europe’s rearmament is off to a feeble start

If there is one silver lining to Donald Trump’s Oval Office bust-up with Volodymyr Zelensky last Friday, it is that Europe is finally getting serious on rearmament and defence. Or is it? On Tuesday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission (EC), announced a package of measures designed to encourage EU member states to up their defence spending. If they make full use of the new proposals, von der Leyen said, it would amount to an increase of up to €800 billion (£661 billion) spent on defence across the bloc. Announcing the package, she declared: ‘We are in an era of rearmament. And Europe is ready to massively

David Abulafia

Cambridge’s Palestine vandals must be expelled

Frustrated by a High Court injunction that prohibits protestors from occupying University buildings in Cambridge so as to block a degree ceremony on 1 March, ‘Palestine Action’ has resorted to violence (for that is what it is) to make its point. The fifteenth-century gateway to the Old Schools, the administrative headquarters of the University, has been sprayed with red paint, and the slogan ‘Divest’ has been written in red on the adjoining walls. The very fact that these activists campaign to ‘divest’ illustrates their hypocrisy One might have thought that they would want to stand back, even celebrate, the fact that the judge only granted an injunction for a single

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Jonathan Powell scared of scrutiny?

It’s a turbulent time for the Western world, but Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government doesn’t seem to be taking things all that seriously. At least, not where its National Security Adviser is concerned. Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s lineman on the Chagos deal, is apparently banned from speaking to the national security committee on the grounds he is a special adviser – yet it was the government who appointed him to the role in full understanding of the rules. So much for all that talk of transparency. Labour has rejected a request for Powell to attend a forthcoming evidence session – titled ‘The Role of the National Security Adviser’ – despite it

Charles Lipson

It’s morning in Trump’s America

Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was the most powerful, rousing, and pointed of any presidential address in decades. The first line captured the theme of the night. “America is back…and we are just getting started.” It ended with a peroration that his administration would “take up the righteous cause of American liberty,” and “fight, fight, fight for a country our citizens’ believe in and deserve.” Our country’s “Golden Age,” he said, ”has just begun.” Dozens and dozens of applause lines were planted throughout the speech as Trump laid out his ambitious agenda and his accomplishments so far. It was not the dull laundry

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Trump’s whirlwind Congress speech infuriated Democrats

Donald Trump’s address to Congress last night was made up of his greatest hits since returning to the Oval Office. Just over six weeks’ worth of public policy filled a 100-minute speech in what is being reported this morning as one of the longest Congressional addresses in history. The President touched on practically every topic, from the Ukraine war to buying Greenland.  ‘America is back,’ he told the joint-session, to cheers of ‘USA’. Based on the tone of his speech, the Trump we saw on the campaign trail is also making a comeback. The President loves a rally, and this address felt as though it was crafted not for the

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Trump is a bully but it’s a mistake to stand up to him

Everything they taught you in school is a lie. Carthage was not salted, Canute knew he couldn’t control the tide, Marie Antoinette never said ‘let them eat cake’, and Mrs O’Leary did not start the Great Chicago Fire. Yet the biggest fallacy of the best years of your life is peddled not by teachers but by parents and schoolmates: namely, that you must always stand up to bullies. The logic is tempting. It sounds right all of the time, proves right some of the time, but gets you punched in the face most of the time. Bullies are bullies because they have power and should only be confronted directly if

Jonathan Sacerdoti

No Other Land isn’t what it seems

The Oscars, an institution that claims to celebrate artistic excellence, this week played a leading role in a sophisticated and cynical propaganda campaign against Israel. The 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary went to No Other Land, a film that, beneath the veneer of raw storytelling and supposed human rights advocacy, is little more than a masterclass in Palestinian distortion. It is not a documentary in the truest sense of the word but a carefully crafted piece of demagoguery –designed not to illuminate but to vilify, to cast Israel as the villain in a narrative that, in reality, it did not write. The irony is staggering. Even as Israel fights to

Tuesday

Owen Matthews

Trump’s Ukraine strategy is mad. But it might work

Will the real Volodymyr Zelensky please stand up? On Sunday, Ukraine’s president defiantly stated that ‘the final deal about ending the war is very, very far … nobody’s even started all those steps yet.’ But just three days later, Zelensky’s office issued a statement saying more or less the opposite. ‘None of us wants an endless war,’ read his official communiqué. ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer … we are ready to work fast to end the war.’ So is Kyiv’s plan a quick ceasefire or a fight till victory? Zelensky’s mixed messages have left his allies confused

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

How the ghost of Iraq haunts peace in Ukraine

It’s great that JD Vance is all for free speech, though he does tend to shoot off his mouth in an off-putting way. He is, as Disraeli said of Gladstone, ‘a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.’ In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last night, the Vice President said: ‘If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine. That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Does Zelensky have to go?

31 min listen

Donald Trump announced last night he is suspending military aid to Ukraine until Zelensky is ‘ready for peace’. Following this, the Vice President JD Vance sparked further international outrage in a Fox News interview referring to Britain as ‘some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years’. JD Vance has since come out saying that he was not referring to the UK or France in that interview – although critics can’t work out who else he could have been talking about.  Freddy Gray is joined by The Spectator’s Russia correspondent Owen Matthews to discuss whether the only way for there to be peace in Ukraine is

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Will Zelensky’s apology work on Trump?

Volodymyr Zelensky is offering Donald Trump an olive branch after the American president paused all US military aid to Ukraine last night. Zelensky has expressed his regrets about the confrontation in the Oval Office and said his team is ready to come to the negotiating table ‘as soon as possible’. Ukraine wants to sign the minerals agreement with the US at ‘any time and in any convenient format’. Zelensky also praised Trump’s ‘strong leadership’ and offered the first steps towards a cease-fire. Will this be enough? White House officials earlier stated that aid would be on hold until Zelensky apologises for the Oval Office spat and demonstrates his readiness for

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can Kemi Badenoch control her party?

Donald Trump’s decision overnight to pause US military aid to Ukraine has sent politicians across the world into a tailspin. Here in the UK, political leaders are still grappling with the fallout from Friday’s disastrous meeting between the US president and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Keir Starmer has pitched himself as a ‘bridge’ between the two sides but the decision to halt aid, along with an escalating war of words, highlights the limits of his role. Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has a fight on her hands controlling her MPs as there appear to be a series of mixed messages coming from her shadow cabinet and party on Trump and Ukraine. The Tory

Steerpike Steerpike

Assisted dying panel rejects Down’s Syndrome safeguard

The western world might be collapsing but here in Westminster it is business as usual. In one of parliament’s dusty old committee rooms, Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill continues to slowly make its way through the legislative process, one agonising line at a time. But if you hoped that this exercise would be a Socratic discussion of open minds, you might be left somewhat disappointed. Virtually all of the amendments proposed have been struck down by the pro-Bill majority on the committee, by near-identical margins. Today it was the turn of the amendment on Down’s Syndrome. The committee voted by 13 to 8 to exclude specific provision on the face

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Where does Trump’s suspension of Ukraine aid leave Europe?

13 min listen

Overnight President Trump made another extraordinary move in his ongoing attempt to broker a deal between Ukraine and Russia, suspending all U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Katy Balls talks to James Heale and geopolitical analyst Mark Galeotti about how serious this development is and where it leaves Ukraine’s European supporters. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Cindy Yu.

Steerpike Steerpike

JD Vance accused of ‘disrespect’ to British troops

As if transatlantic relations could not get any worse. Barely 72 hours after the Oval Office bust up, the Trump administration announced that the US had suspended all military aid to Ukraine – a move that caught much of Whitehall off guard. Now UK politicians of all stripes have hit out at JD Vance, after the Vice-President made some rather ill-judged comments on Fox News… Speaking to the broadcaster, Vance insisted that ‘if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine’. But the VP didn’t stop there. Going on, Vance remarked: ‘That is

Harvey Proctor

Operation Midland’s guilty men were never held to account

On March 4, 2015, I sat in the bedroom of my home, an old farmhouse overlooking the rolling beauty of the Vale of Belvoir, sipping tea with my partner, Terry. It was an ordinary early morning – until an unexpected knock shattered its peace. Through the glass, I saw the police. My first thought was that something was afoot at Belvoir Castle, where I worked as Private Secretary for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. But as I opened the door, my world collapsed. A police officer handed me a search warrant. Subsequently, I now know it was an illegal warrant. Then, like an invading force, around 20 Metropolitan Police

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory MP: Trump is a ‘Russian asset’

Graham Stuart is perhaps not the best-known Tory backbencher, but the former energy minister has catapulted himself into the national limelight with his remarks this morning. Stuart, the longstanding MP for Beverley and Holderness since 2005, took to X today to float the idea that President Donald Trump is an, er, ‘Russian asset’.  He wrote on the social media site that: ‘We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset. If so, Trump’s acquisition is the crowning achievement of Putin’s FSB career – and Europe is on its own.’ Even Tom Clancy might blush at that plot line… It comes after the Trump administration announced last night that

James Heale James Heale

Keir Starmer’s bridge to Trump is crumbling 

So it turns out he wasn’t bluffing after all. Six weeks after taking office, Donald Trump has made two big decisions overnight: pausing all American aid to Kyiv and imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada. Both will cause consternation in Whitehall – but it is the situation in Ukraine which is of most immediate concern. Less than 24 hours after Keir Starmer unveiled his ‘four-point plan’ in parliament, it already risks falling apart. Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister said yesterday that the West must keep military aid flowing to Ukraine. Asked by Stephen Flynn about the prospect of a pause in contributions, Starmer replied ‘As I understand it,