Politics

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

Wednesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why would the government pay Gerry Adams?

11 min listen

With rumours swirling around Westminster and after Keir Starmer’s less than convincing defence of his Chancellor earlier in the week, Rachel Reeves has found some brief respite. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that inflation dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before. It’s welcome news for a Chancellor who is under pressure, so is she safe? Elsewhere, there is a fresh row emerging concerning Gerry Adams. The government is proposing to repeal legislation, enacted in 2023, that prevents Gerry Adams and 400 others from claiming ‘compensation’ for having been detained in the 1970s for suspected involvement in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer saved his favourite attack until the end at PMQs

Kemi Badenoch continued with her theme of ‘why can you trust anything the Prime Minister says’ at Prime Minister’s Questions today, covering the economy, the Chagos Islands, Tulip Siddiq and Gerry Adams. The Tory leader also claimed that Starmer was once again not answering the questions that she asked, which was true, but his replies were better than her questions.  Starmer said the Conservatives are ‘economic vandals and fantasists’ Starmer had obviously come armed with the surprisingly good inflation figures, but he also had a number of one liners and attacks that were more effective than those from Badenoch. These included the early description of the Conservatives as ‘economic vandals

Edward Howell

President Yoon’s arrest brings more turmoil to South Korea

This year has commenced in an historic fashion for South Korea – albeit for all the wrong reasons. Earlier today, South Korean authorities arrested the suspended – but still sitting – president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on charges of corruption and inciting insurrection, after several weeks of the embattled leader evading this outcome. Today marks the first time in history that a sitting South Korean president had been arrested, plunging South Korea once again into unchartered waters. Domestic politics in Asia’s fourth-largest economy looks like it will only get messier. It has been a tempestuous month in South Korean politics. For all the personal scandals, skulduggery, and schisms within his party

Steerpike Steerpike

New York Times: Dry January is racist

For a moment, it almost seemed like there was an outbreak of sense at the New York Times, with a column entitled ‘Dry January Is Driving Me to Drink’ .  The piece, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, an NYT columnist for the past three years, ‘known for her incisive essays on social problems’,  begins by insisting that she is ‘happy’ for people doing Dry January, but she won’t be joining them. Why? Because she likes a drink? Or because it’s performative?  No,  because Dry January is in fact racist. She writes:  Consumer-driven health campaigns that get this kind of traction do not happen in a vacuum. A broader modern temperance movement promoting “clean” living

Steerpike Steerpike

Scottish Labour face an uphill battle, poll suggests

All is not well in the Labour party. While Sir Keir Starmer’s government fends off questions about the state of the economy and its worsening poll performance, things aren’t looking much better north of the border. New Scottish voting data has dropped this morning – and Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour lot have much to be worried about… Less than a quarter of Scots say they would use their constituency vote to back Labour in the 2026 Holyrood election, while barely a fifth of the population would vote for Sarwar’s party on the regional list. The survey reveals that the Scottish Labour leader is simply not yet popular enough to persuade

Patrick West

The triumph and tragedy of Tony Slattery

Tony Slattery was outrageously funny. And he was funny because he was outrageous. The actor and comedian, who died yesterday aged 65, may have belonged to that unhappy category of performers who were ‘troubled’ – tormented by insecurities and afflicted by addiction – but he also joins that distinguished pantheon of entertainers who made their mark for their rude and bawdy humour. Slattery was described as a ‘lost anxious teddy bear’ Slattery first came to public attention in the late-1980s as a panellist on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is Anyway?, a programme that entailed playing out scenes in the style of a movie, programme or genre decided by

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Why did Keir Starmer handle the Tulip Siddiq furore so badly?

When the anti-corruption minister is accused of corruption by a foreign government and has no prospect of being able to shut the story down any time soon, it is perfectly obvious that her position is untenable. Yet Keir Starmer allowed the furore over Tulip Siddiq to run for several weeks before the obvious resolution – that she must step down from her ministerial role – was implemented.  The Tulip Siddiq furore may drop out of the headlines but it could return in a more virulent form Siddiq was named as a suspect in a corruption investigation by Bangladesh back on 19 December. Since then the controversy over the Hampstead and

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories overtake Labour despite Badenoch’s ratings falling fast

Uh oh. Labour’s first six months in government haven’t gone quite as swimmingly as Sir Keir Starmer might have hoped and poll after poll has reflected the growing dissatisfaction with the incumbent government. The latest data dump– by pollsters More in Common – now reveals that the Conservatives are leading Labour by a point, with a quarter of Brits backing Kemi Badenoch’s boys in blue. How very interesting. The voting intention survey shows the Tories leading Labour by a point, while Starmer’s army is tied on 24 per cent with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. The results of this latest canvassing, which was carried out between the 10-13 January, follows yesterday’s

Richard Ekins

How to stop Gerry Adams’s taxpayer-funded pay day

The government’s fealty to human rights law is not in doubt. Still, one might have hoped that the human rights lawyers who dominate this government – the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer KC and the Attorney General, Lord Hermer KC – would handle human rights law effectively, distinguishing weak from strong arguments and making a reasonable case for our national interest. The unfolding debacle in relation to cession of the Chagos Islands shows that this is not so. In bending heaven and earth to agree a treaty of cession with Mauritius before the looming change of political leadership in the United States, the government seems to have undersold the UK’s existing legal position,

James Delingpole James Delingpole

The day I was heckled for speaking about the rape gangs

It’s odd being lionised for something you did so long ago you’d almost forgotten you were there. But this is what has been happening to me on social media these last few days, as a result of clips of me on a 2014 BBC3 political debate programme called Free Speech going viral. Free Speech was one of those slightly cringey ‘let’s make politics relevant to da yoof’ programmes once satirised on Not The Nine O’Clock News in a sketch called ‘Hey Wow’. Hardly anybody watched it at the time and I never expected it to resurface again. But it has suddenly become topical – and been seen by an order of magnitude more viewers –

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The arrest of South Korea’s president won’t end this saga

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after police officers scaled fences and cut through barbed wire to detain him in his luxury Seoul residence. Suk-yeol, the first ever sitting South Korean leader to be taken into custody, was held in connection with his failed attempt to impose martial law last month. But while South Korean authorities have finally got their man, this is far from the end of the saga. Yoon’s talk of ‘bloodshed’ was probably hyperbolic A motorcade believed to be carrying the president was seen leaving his compound and he appears to be being held at the CIO (Corruption Investigation Office) headquarters in the nearby city

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Inflation dip marks a welcome surprise for Rachel Reeves

Rachel Reeves has found brief respite this morning, with the Office for National Statistics confirming that inflation dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before. This is a smaller rise than had been expected (the consensus was 2.6 per cent) and roughly in line with the Bank of England’s forecast from November, which had predicted a 2.4 per cent increase. It’s welcome news for a Chancellor who is under pressure. Core inflation slowed too, from 3.5 per cent in the year to November, to 3.2 per cent in December. This competes for the best news in the update, as core

Jenny Lindsay

The ‘self-cancellation’ trend taking over the literary world

The phenomenon that has blighted the live literature world over the last ten years could be classed as a ‘stooshie’, or ‘a big commotion’, in Scots. Indeed it feels rare for any books-based event or literary festival not to provoke one these days. The last decade has seen a huge increase in fractious warring in the world of books, driven in no small part by the use and abuse of the powers of social media by certain activist-writers. In my experience as a writer and former events organiser of two decades in Scotland, there has been a rising intolerance amongst a significant minority of often mid-career or even debut authors

Eliot Wilson

How much longer will Starmer back Reeves?

It’s not been a happy new year for Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister’s Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has been forced out following an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh. Siddiq’s job became untenable following questions over links to her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Siddiq has denied wrongdoing and an independent investigation found that she had not breached the Ministerial Code, but it was clear over the weekend that Siddiq’s position was untenable. Starmer, however, bafflingly allowed to her to stay on until yesterday afternoon. ‘Starmer dithered and delayed to protect his close friend,’ says Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. Reeves’

Druin Burch

When did the A&E winter crisis become the norm?

Not a winter goes past without hospitals overflowing; the situation is so predictable it deserves a better word than ‘crisis’. Yet for patients and staff the sense of crisis is real, and connoisseurs of this annual event say that this year’s is especially dire.  Health Secretary Wes Streeting has spoken of his distress and shame, saying the state of A&Es breaks his heart. Hospital and ambulance trusts have been declaring critical incidents – as they do every winter. The real problem is not that this year is merely worse than the last, it’s the trajectory. Something is rotten in the state of our healthcare. The mantra of ‘care in the community’

Chas Newkey-Burden

Starbucks and the hell of the modern café

Starbucks has announced that it is reversing its rule that allowed people to hang round in cafés in the United States even if they’d not bought anything. From 27 January, Americans will have to buy something or leave. Some people think that’s a bit harsh but it doesn’t go far enough: there are also plenty of paying customers that should be simply banned from cafés everywhere.  The first to be shown the door should be remote workers who rock up in the morning with their laptops, order a small coffee, grab the best table and jealously hog it all day long, nursing their solitary flat white and treating the place

Tuesday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

It’s no surprise that democracy is losing its appeal

The Guardian reports that one in five voters under the age of 45 would prefer to do away with democracy and have an authoritarian strongman govern Britain. It’s almost touching that so many think Britain is still capable of being governed, but it’s concerning that a fifth of millennials and Gen Z have adopted the Kent Brockman position: ‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work.’ The findings come from the as yet unpublished FGS Global Radar report. More than 2,000 UK adults were asked to say whether ‘the best system for running a country effectively’ was democracy or ‘a strong leader who doesn’t have

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Have the wildfires exposed America’s class divide?

28 min listen

The LA wildfires have been mostly extinguished, but there is growing concern that more fires could be imminent as strong winds are expected this week. Many believe that the destruction has shone a light on the broader mismanagement of  California, run by the Democrat Gavin Newsom – who has proposed billions in new funding for ‘Los Angeles 2.0’. Freddy Gray speaks to energy specialist Robert Bryce about the policy failures which have contributed to the wildfires, what the clear up could look like and why this crisis will expose the class divide in America.

Steerpike Steerpike

Reform overtake Tories on Spectator poll tracker

The new year is off to a bad start for Kemi Badenoch’s Tories. The latest update to The Spectator data hub’s poll tracker shows that – on average – Reform have just overtaken the Conservatives to become the second-placed party in British politics. As Steerpike reported this morning, YouGov’s first Westminster voting intention poll since the July election revealed that, while support for Starmer’s army has dropped nine points since polling day, Nigel Farage’s Reform has seen support rise by ten points. Combine that with the Tories dropping two points, and The Spectator poll tracker – which looks at the average of all political polling – puts Reform in second

Oscar Edmondson

Is Reform about to overtake Labour? And Tulip Siddiq resigns

13 min listen

New voting intention polling today puts Reform neck and neck with Labour. The YouGov/Times poll reveals that support for Starmer’s army has plummeted nine points, with just over a quarter of Brits backing the government – while Nigel Farage’s Reform party has seen its support soar by 10 points. Kemi Badenoch’s Tories have lost two points, while the canvassing of 2,279 adults – carried out between 12–13 January – shows the Lib Dems and the Greens both gained one. Perhaps the most damning news, however, is that only half of those who backed Labour in the 2024 election would vote for them next time. Where is Reform drawing these votes from?