Politics

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

Tuesday

14 Jan 2025

Rachel Reeves is getting ready for the next market test

Rachel Reeves did her best to keep today’s China visit statement on topic. The Chancellor wanted to talk about ‘cooperation’, ‘competing where our interests differ,’ her efforts to break down market barriers and the £600 million she secured in investment. But other MPs had other ideas. ‘I know the Chancellor has been away,’ said the Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride. ‘So let me update her on the mess she left behind.’ So began the battle between the Chancellor – to stay on topic – and her opposition to bring up the long list of economic woes that have come to the forefront this week: not just the substantial rise in borrowing

James Kirkup

Why Westminster is wrong about gilt yields

It’s gilts season at Westminster. This is one of those unpredictable events, like the passing of a comet, that sees the residents of the political village staring at the skies and imputing all sorts of divine causes to the curious flashing lights they see there. Because of the ongoing excitement in the markets, a lot of political folk have, in the last few days, become authoritative commentators on yield curves. Welcome to the party, guys. A very long time ago, I covered bond markets for a City newswire, and hated pretty much every minute of it. I claim no particular expertise as a result, but I am still confident in

Svitlana Morenets

Putin is engineering a humanitarian crisis in Transnistria

Sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, the tiny republic of Moldova has been easy prey for Russia in the past. Its 2.5 million people are among the poorest in Europe and the Kremlin has been able to exploit the country’s dependence on cheap Russian gas to keep it as an ally. Putin has decided to let the people of Transnistria freeze so he can pin the blame on Moldova’s pro-EU government But Moldovans, like Ukrainians, have begun to choose another path. In 2022, they applied to join the European Union to be part of the democratic world, and then elected a pro-western president last year. Vladimir Putin’s response has been to engineer

Euan McColm

Scotland’s safe consumption room won’t solve the drugs crisis

Quarterly reports from the office of National Records of Scotland confirm time and again the existence of an ongoing drug deaths crisis north of the border. And, time and again, the Scottish government reveals itself to be devoid of ideas for how to tackle it. Now, however, there has been a flicker of progress with the opening of the UK’s first safe drug consumption room in Glasgow this week. But will it make any real difference to the national drugs death crisis? I have my doubts. Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related fatalities anywhere in Europe. And, despite repeated assurances from ministers that they recognise the problem, there is

Kate Andrews

Can Trump claim the credit for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire?

Donald Trump has made a long list of promises for what will be done on ‘day one’ of his second term in the White House. Peace in the Middle East was not one of them. Yet it looks increasingly likely that the President-elect will be sworn in having just helped to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, to (at least temporarily) end the war in Gaza. Trump has made his feelings clear about the war for some time: in line with his broader views about foreign conflict, he wanted the war brought to an end. While positioning himself as a strong ally of Israel, the President-elect was also calling

Steerpike

Fact check: The Rest Is Politics’ grooming gang claims

For a little while now there have been questions as to whether the commentary of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart on their podcast The Rest Is Politics is in tune with reality. Ahead of the US election, Stewart – the former Tory politician – claimed with certainty that Kamala Harris would win only to be left with egg on his face when instead Donald Trump romped home. Meanwhile Campbell was slammed by renowned writer and women’s rights campaigner JK Rowling after he appeared to belatedly discover the degree to which gender ideology concerns voters. Now Stewart and Campbell have turned their attention to Britain’s grooming gang scandal – brought back

Jonathan Sacerdoti

What price will Israel pay for a ceasefire with Hamas?

As reports swirl of an imminent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israel stands at a crossroads, grappling with the profound dilemmas that such a deal entails. While the full details of the agreement remain unknown until officially announced, the fragments emerging suggest a complex and controversial arrangement that raises difficult questions: How much is Israel willing to concede for the return of hostages? And what price, in lives and security, will the nation pay in the future? Within Israel’s government, opposition to the deal is mounting According to reports, the deal is expected to include the release of 33 hostages defined as “humanitarian cases,” a 42-day ceasefire, and the

Gavin Mortimer

The plot to ban X in France

Clara Chappaz is the minister delegate for Artificial Intelligence and the digital economy in the government of Emmanuel Macron. At the weekend she appeared on a television discussion entitled ‘Trump-Musk: Are we ready?’ Chappaz, 35, is very much a Macronist, an entrepreneur who did her MBA at Harvard Business School before launching a successful start-up. French progressives are flexible in their approach to free speech. They’re all for it, as long as they agree with it She expressed her growing concern about the direction certain social media platforms were headed, and the consequences for millions of French people who use them. ‘We have to make sure that wrong opinions are

Steerpike

Tulip Siddiq named in second corruption probe

When it rains for the Labour lot, it pours. Pressure is piling on Labour minister Tulip Siddiq to resign from her anti-corruption role as it now transpires the City minister has been named in a second Bangladesh corruption inquiry linked to her aunt’s corrupt regime. The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition has slammed Siddiq for remaining in post, insisting that the Labour MP ‘currently has a serious conflict of interests’. Oh dear. As reported by the Times, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has claimed that Siddiq ‘reportedly used her influence and special powers’ to influence her aunt and former authoritarian premier of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to allocate land to family members. Deputy director of

Ross Clark

Europe’s car industry is under attack on all fronts

It is half a century since Britain’s native car industry embarked on its long, painful decline, precipitated by Austin Allegros with rear windows falling off, endless strikes over the length of tea breaks and terrible commercial decisions such as to cede the hatchback market to overseas competition. But where Britain led, Germany and France now seem to be following. How much longer before names like Peugeot, Renault, and even Volkswagen, either disappear or become reduced to mere badges affixed to Chinese-designed and produced vehicles? The retreat of the European car industry has cropped up from time to time in recent months. In October, Volkswagen announced, for the first time, its intention to

Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

They drive up prices. Rents go through the roof. And the locals can no longer afford a home. The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is so fed up with wealthy expats inflating the property market he is planning a 100 per cent tax on anyone from outside the EU buying a home in Spain. Of course, that might prove popular in the short term – but Spain will pay a high price for slamming the door shut on well-off foreigners. To pretend driving expats out will make any difference to the average Spaniard is just ridiculous Any who dreamt of buying a small place on the Costa del Sol or

Nigel Jones

Will the AfD’s deportation pledge win over German voters?

Next month’s German federal election on 23 February revolves around the disputed meaning of a single toxic word: ‘remigration’. Until the current fiercely fought campaign began, the word was an unmentionable taboo in German politics for obvious historical reasons, since, according to left-wing linguists, it suggested comparison between the deadly forced deportation of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust with the way that unwelcome immigrants are treated in today’s Germany. But at the weekend that taboo was shattered by Alice Weidel, co-leader of the hard right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, when she used the ‘verboten’ word while launching the insurgent party’s election campaign in its East German heartland. Weidel

Katy Balls

Labour MPs turn on Starmer over grooming gangs

Will Keir Starmer have to change his tune on a public inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal? Just last week, the Prime Minister appeared to suggest those calling for a new inquiry into grooming gangs were jumping on a ‘far-Right bandwagon’. However, since then – and following a backlash over the comment – Starmer appears to be slowly changing his position. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer suggested everyone was entitled to their own opinion on whether there should be an inquiry into the scandal between 1997 and 2013, which saw children as young as 11 raped and trafficked by gangs of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent. Champion is backed by

Steerpike

Reform neck and neck with Labour, poll reveals

Uh oh. 2025 hasn’t gotten off to the best start for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot and YouGov’s first Westminster voting intention poll since the July election is unlikely to brighten the mood in No. 10. The new poll reveals that support for Starmer’s army has plummeted nine points in the survey with just over a quarter of Brits backing the government lot – while Nigel Farage’s Reform party has seen its support soar by ten points to leave it almost neck and neck with Labour. 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

Gareth Roberts

The ‘grooming gangs’ delusion is finally being shattered

The re-eruption of the rape gangs scandal has shone a dazzlingly bright light on the language that makes us flinch and fluster, and clutch at euphemistic straws. For years, the mass sexual abuse of thousands of vulnerable girls in towns across England has been blamed on ‘grooming gangs’. But this euphemism hardly does justice to this appalling scandal. ‘Asian grooming gangs’ is a mealy-mouthed phrase In the last fortnight, there has been a shift to a different, more accurate term – ‘rape gangs’ – that better describes who was responsible. This change in terminology is long overdue. And while it offers few crumbs of comfort to the victims, it is

Alexander Larman

The Sussexes’ tone deaf attack on Meta

Who do the Duke and Duchess of Sussex think they are? Since their quasi-abdication from the royal family five years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have seldom found a publicity angle that they were not prepared to exploit for their own personal (and commercial) gain. But the sheer effrontery of the statement that they have put out this week, criticising Meta for scaling back its fact-checking initiatives from public posts, takes some beating. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg declared that fact-checkers “have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US”. But this is not good enough for the Sussexes, and they have responded with vigour. The pair announced

Daniel Thorpe

Will foreign fighters in Syria export their jihad?

By the gates of the great 8th-century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, a group of Central Asian-looking gunmen stand in the uniform of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It is unclear whether they are visiting or guarding. When I approach, they say they are from ‘East Turkistan’, referring to the Uyghur part of China. Their Arabic is hardly comprehensible, but when I ask in Turkish they speak more fluently. ‘We have been waging jihad in the north in Idlib for ten years,’ the eldest says in a low voice. He looks ten years younger than the age he gives. ‘With the permission of God, we prevailed over the Assad regime. They say we’ll get Syrian citizenship.

Lee Cohen

Trump’s team will show Rachel Reeves how it’s done

As Trump Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent rises, full of promise for his confirmation hearing in Washington next week, the UK is still reeling from a plunge in the value of the pound and a sharp rise in borrowing costs, directly tied to Rachel Reeves’s economic policies. The contrast in the approaches of these respective leaders could hardly be more stark. Bessent, a figure whose appointment has Wall Street buzzing with optimism, contrasts sharply with Rachel Reeves, whose policies, compounded by the net zero fanaticism of Ed Miliband, are proving to be the harbinger of economic catastrophe. This comparison isn’t just about individual competence; it’s about the contrasting philosophies of

James Lewisohn

Here’s what Greenland should do about Donald Trump

Greenland’s prime minister Múte Egede has responded to Donald Trump’s overtures to buy the island by saying it is time to shake off ‘the shackles of colonialism’ and hold an independence referendum. As Egede works out how to proceed on the path to independence from Denmark, and how to respond to Trump as he prepares to take office, he would be advised to do a little background reading. For Donald Trump’s policies are increasingly informed by his key lieutenant, Elon Musk; Musk’s friend and fellow PayPal co-founder Ken Howery will be the next US Ambassador to Denmark; and Musk’s key philosophical text is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which reminds us: ‘Space

Robert Service

Why Trump bullies Nato

President-elect Donald Trump has in recent years talked about ‘buying’ Greenland. Until recently his comments attracted little attention but recently he shocked the world by threatening the use of economic coercion or military force to fulfil his wish. Male gorillas in the forests of west Africa engage in chest-beating to see off their rivals but Nato, to which the Kingdom of Denmark has belonged since its foundation in 1949, is meant to be a zoo park in which all the wardens sign up for a working partnership. What is behind this public breach in diplomatic etiquette? Americans can point to earlier times when they expanded their territory by purchase, not