Politics

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

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Time is running out for the Tories to meet their promises

Will the Conservatives have much evidence that they’ve helped the country recover from the pandemic by the next election? Even though all the indications are that the party will go for a later poll in 2024, they still do not have much time to fix the big holes that have gaped wider as a result of Covid. In many cases, such as the NHS backlog, the holes were already there before the pandemic, which makes them even harder to close up. Education is another policy area where the rhetoric and time left to fulfil it just don’t seem to match up. This morning I asked Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi on

Steerpike Steerpike

Tony Benn’s heirs storm the City

It is now just six weeks until the first post-partygate test for Boris Johnson’s Tories, with campaigning for the local elections already well underway. Labour under Keir Starmer are feeling confident: ahead in the polls, they know that the cost-of-living crisis will begin to eat away at the respite afforded to Johnson by Ukraine. Indeed there are even fears that the Prime Minister’s own backyard, Hillingdon council, will go red for the first time in nearly 25 years. An early portent of what could be to come was provided on Thursday when England’s most exclusive electorate went to the polls. Elections were held for the Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body of

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Regime change ‘up to the Russian people’

Nadhim Zahawi – Regime change is Russia ‘is up to the Russian people’ President Biden’s visit to Poland yesterday has caused more than a few ripples in the international community. Referring to Vladimir Putin, Biden declared ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power’. In the BBC studios this morning, Sophie Raworth spoke to the Education Secretary about these remarks, asking if they represented a wider escalation of the war in Ukraine: Strip search of Child Q was ‘appalling’ Turning to matters closer to home, Raworth raised the case of Child Q, the pseudonym given to a 15-year-old black schoolgirl who was strip searched by police at her school

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Could Biden gaffe us into world war three?

‘I want your point of view, Joe,’ Barack Obama once told his vice-president Joe Biden. ‘I just want it in ten-minute increments, not 60-minute increments.’ Obama understood Biden’s biggest flaw – his mouth runs away with him. He’s a verbal firebomb always threatening to go off. Last night, oops Biden did it again. As he rounded off his fiery speech in Poland against Vladimir Putin and autocracy, he concluded: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ The onset of senility had reduced the dangerousness of Biden’s loquacity The White House, in what is now a familiar routine, issued a quick clarification. The President was not demanding ‘regime change’

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

White House backtracks on Biden’s claim that Putin can’t stay in power

In his speech in Warsaw today, Joe Biden said of Vladimir Putin: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ This comes after Biden condemned Putin as a war criminal and ‘a butcher’. So, what did Biden mean by this? At first blush, it looks like a call for either a palace coup or a popular uprising in Russia – the two ways that Putin could be ousted from power. But the White House has been quick to downplay the remark, telling US reporters: ‘The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Damian Thompson, Jade McGlynn and Nick Newman

24 min listen

On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from Damian Thompson on the Patriarch in league with Putin. (00:58) Next, Jade McGlynn on how Russian TV is presenting the war to its people. (08:46) And finally, Nick Newman asks how should cartoonists respond to war? (17:35) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes and Max Jeffery Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Are Rishi’s No. 10 dreams dashed?

24 min listen

For the last two years, Rishi Sunak has appeared the frontrunner in any future Tory leadership election. But has his spring statement and damaged his standing within his party and among the public? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about Rishi Sunak’s future and Britain’s economic forecast.

Justin Bronk

Why Russian tactics won’t win the war

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, the war has settled into a largely attritional struggle – and the picture is very different across the various fronts. Russian forces have been forced on to the defensive in many areas. The Russian ministry of defence has announced that the ‘first phase’ of the invasion is over, to be replaced with a more limited focus on Donbas in the east of Ukraine. The reason for this is simple: Ukrainian forces have not only stopped the Russian advances around Kyiv in the north and Mykolaiv in the south-west but have begun to regain towns and cut key Russian supply routes. In the

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Has Rishi been rumbled?

Poor Rishi Sunak. Within two months the Chancellor has gone from someone confident enough to publicly rebuke the Prime Minister over his choice of words to someone who merely seeks to ape them. ‘I wouldn’t have said it,’ Sunak grandly told a press conference at the start of February when asked about Boris Johnson’s jibe that Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile. That intervention came just minutes after Johnson had suffered the resignation of his policy chief Munira Mirza, whose husband is a close friend of Sunak’s. Events were on such a trajectory that much of Westminster, possibly including Sunak himself, expected him to be ushering in yet

Friday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

A letter won’t educate Afghan girls

Well, that’ll show ‘em. Liz Truss has released a joint statement with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring themselves ‘united in our condemnation of the Taliban’s decision not to reopen secondary schools to Afghan girls’. Also united are the EU high representative and the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Norway. The authorities in Afghanistan issued an order earlier this week suspending the planned return to school of female pupils, citing the need for a decision on uniforms for girls that are compliant with ‘Sharia law and Afghan tradition’. Team Euro-America: World Police say the Taliban’s U-turn ‘contradicted its public assurances to the Afghan people and to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will inflation bring back austerity?

The return of inflation has changed politics, I say in the Times today . Until recently, it was possible to argue that the government should borrow to slashes taxes, or to cover almost any additional spending. It was so cheap to do so that it was almost rude not to, the argument went. Inflation was also dismissed as a dog that hadn’t barked since the early 1990s. Johnson was relaxed, while last September Liz Truss thought that – if necessary – borrowing would be a better way to pay for the government’s social care policy than raising National Insurance. But debt payments are now expected to quadruple. They will absorb an extra £96 billion between

Steerpike Steerpike

Zarah Sultana sweats her seat

Ping! An email lands in Steerpike’s inbox. ‘Will you join me?’ reads the email line. Gosh. Who was this damsel in distress, this online agoniser in search of aid? Step forward none other than Mr S’s favourite student politician, Zarah Sultana. It seems that Coventry’s answer to Citizen Smith is in a bit of a jam, as the ring light-loving leftie apparently needs good comrades to come and help save her seat.  Back in 2017, Coventry South was a solid Labour constituency, re-electing veteran Jim Cunningham with a handsome majority of 7,947 votes. Two years on and the candidacy of Sultana saw that fall to a wafer-thin 401, as the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is Nato still unified?

11 min listen

The Prime Minister has just returned from a Nato meeting in Brussels. So far, the alliance’s members have been unified in their response to Russia, but with President Zelensky now asking for Nato to send tanks to Ukraine, are we going to see cracks emerge? Katy Balls talks with James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Was Biden’s chemical weapons threat a gaffe?

Did Joe Biden mean to threaten Russia with a chemical weapons attack? That seemed to be what he implied at yesterday’s Nato summit when he said Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine ‘would trigger a response in kind’ from the US. To respond ‘in kind’ means to respond in the same way – i.e. by firing chemical weapons back at Russia. Given that the US committed to destroying its remaining stockpiles of those munitions when it signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993, it would seem very unlikely that this is what Biden meant. Or indeed, that he would have any chemical weapons to unleash in the first place. There

Andrew Tettenborn

Don’t prosecute Soldier F

Sometimes old grievances are best laid to rest. That was certainly the view of Tony Blair when his government issued nearly 200 ‘comfort letters’ to Irish nationalist gunmen in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. But a decision by the Northern Ireland High Court on Wednesday will upend that principle, setting back years of compromise and reconciliation. For some time it has been all but impossible to prosecute IRA men for murders committed during the Troubles. British security forces, however, remain vulnerable, although most are now in their seventies and long retired. One, indeed, died during a trial last year, one suspects partly from the trauma of being dragged through the courts

Steerpike Steerpike

Are standards slipping on the Standards Committee?

Ah, the Standards Committee. Where would we be without the parliamentary watchdog? The 14 men and women who sit on this panel have a noble task: policing behaviour within the Commons by overseeing the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner, Kathryn Stone.  Half the committee are lay members, who cannot ever have been members of either chamber; the others are seven MPs drawn from across the House. But unfortunately it seems that some of these MPs have been exhibiting less than exemplary behaviour that you might expect from those in such an exalted position. Take the committee’s chair, Chris Bryant. He was forced to declare in June that, almost two years late,

Nigel Jones

What Ukraine can teach Britain about patriotism

I live near the small Sussex seaside town of Selsey. It’s the sort of place that gets right up the well-bred nose of Labour’s Emily Thornberry with her famous disdain for flag wagging patriotism. For in normal times the many flagpoles in the tidy gardens of the resort are flying the St George’s flag of England, or sometimes the Union Flag. Not this month however. Suddenly, most of the same poles are sporting the blue and yellow flags of Ukraine. In a touching show of solidarity with that faraway country of which we now know all too much, the patriots of Selsey are putting out more flags to demonstrate their

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Anji Hunter Edition

48 min listen

Anji Hunter is the former gatekeeper to Tony Blair’s Labour government. She was once described as the most influential non-elected person in Downing Street and became one of Blair’s closest confidantes. Acting as an alliance broker, Anji worked across businesses and the media, including Murdoch’s empire. After decades by Blair’s side, Anji moved to the private sector to take up various roles across industries from BP to the Royal College of Engineering. As Boris Johnson welcomes the new Anji Hunter of 10 Downing Street, Samatha Cohen, Anji reflects on what it takes to do her former job – you’ve got to have balls.

Thursday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Did the spring statement go far enough?

12 min listen

Well the papers haven’t been too kind about Rishi Sunak’s spring statement. To unpack if it truly deserves this level of vitriol Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth about the UK’s economic future as well as Nato’s more unified front.