Politics

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

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Why hasn’t Marco Rubio been announced as Trump’s Secretary of State yet? 

Rubio, Rubio, wherefore art thou Rubio? How Little Marco, as Donald Trump dubbed him in 2016, must be squirming. It was reported on Monday, with great confidence, that Trump had chosen Rubio as his Secretary of State, along with Congressman Mike Waltz as his National Security Adviser.  The news came as a relief to national security establishments across the West. There had been grave concerns in the foreign policy world that Trump would choose somebody antithetical to the interests of Nato. The elevation of Rubio and Waltz also served as further evidence of the growing power of Florida in Trump’s America – Waltz and Rubio are both politicians from the

Matthew Lynn

If anyone can fix America’s bloated state, it’s Elon Musk

Perhaps he will walk through the lobby of the Pentagon with a kitchen sink. Or fire the entire IT department at the Fed, shift the IRS to Mars, while replacing traffic police with fully autonomous Tesla robo-cops. No one has any real idea yet what Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, might come up with now he has been appointed by Donald Trump to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency (or ‘Doge’). One point is certain, however. There will be some spectacular fireworks. And it will throw down a challenge to bloated governments everywhere.  Nobody gets to amass a $300 billion fortune, working in manufacturing and

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Lib Dem MP flounders on assisted dying

The Terminally Ill Adults has at last been published and MPs can finally pour over the detail. But one supporter of assisted dying who might want to brush up on her answers is Christine Jardine, the Honourable Member for Edinburgh West. Jardine – who is co-sponsoring Kim Leadbeater’s bill in the Commons – appeared on Newsnight last night to try to make the case for the legislation. Yet the Lib Dem MP came unstuck when host Victoria Derbyshire asked about coercion of patients. How, Derbyshire asked, would anyone know if someone had been coerced? Jardine babbled about ‘medical knowledge’ before her host – correctly – pointed out that ‘doctors are

Eugene Finkel

How Ukraine can survive Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s triumph in the US presidential election is seen as a tragedy for Ukraine. Trump and Ukraine certainly have a troubled history. During Trump’s first term, when he pressured president Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, this effort led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump’s sympathy for, indeed admiration of, Vladimir Putin is well-known. Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance claim to have a plan to swiftly end the Russian–Ukrainian war, presumably by strong arming Kyiv to cede territory to Russia and abandon its bid for Nato membership. Is Ukraine doomed and headed toward defeat and subjugation by Russia? Putin prefers fighting to a ceasefire and will likely reject any Trump

Tuesday

Iain Macwhirter

Closing the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields is a net zero own goal

Environmental campaigners are hoping to announce at Cop29 that they’ve halted two major oil and gas fields in the North Sea. A crucial court battle over the fate of the the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh today.  The greens smell victory over evil fossil fuel companies. But closing these two fields won’t advance net zero by a single day since we will still have to import oil and gas from abroad. Shell, Equinor and Ithaca had received consent from the North Sea Transiton Authority last September to proceed with drilling in the fields following an environment impact assessment (EIA). However, Greenpeace and Uplift, who

Steerpike Steerpike

How many parliamentary police are failing fitness tests?

They’re the redoubtable men and women who keep our legislature safe. But is the thin blue line around the Commons looking a little bigger these days? Mr S has done some digging and found a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the Metropolitan Police on fitness tests undertaken by the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit – the elite squad assigned to protect MPs. The Met sent The Spectator figures which show that the number of officers failing their JRFT – job related fitness test – doubled between 2019 and 2022. According to the Police Single Operating Platform, 771 employees took tests in 2018, of which five failed – a rate of

Danny Kruger

The Terminally Ill bill deserves to die

They tried, they really did. Dignity in Dying, the lineal descendent of the 1930s Euthanasia Society and therefore great-great-niece of its sister the Eugenics Society, has been struggling for weeks to frame a bill that’s innocuous enough to pass through parliament. Today we saw the fruit of their efforts. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has ‘the most stringent safeguards in the world’, says its sponsor, Kim Leadbetter MP. It’s only for the sickest people with less than six months to live; you need two doctors and a judge to confirm you’re really dying and really want to end it all early; you have to commit ‘the final

Joanna Cherry

The SNP must stop playing politics with the rulebook

There are 18 months until the 2026 Holyrood election and already talk is ramping up about who will stand. There are sure to be candidate vacancies – nobody seriously thinks that former first ministers who have had their day and fallen from favour are going to run again. Other MSPs may retire and there are sitting parliamentarians who could do with some healthy competition during the re-selection process. Fear of such competition no doubt underlies some of today’s expressions of antipathy towards SNP members of the Westminster parliament with Holyrood ambitions. Anyone paying attention knows that the unprecedented rule change was specifically designed to stop me challenging Angus Robertson for

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Welby resigns: crisis at the Church of England

18 min listen

After mounting pressure, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned. His resignation comes days after a damning report into the child abuser John Smyth who was associated with the Church of England. Welby was apparently made aware of the allegations in 2013, yet Smyth died in 2018 before facing any justice. Since the report was published, Welby and the Church have faced questions about the failure to act and the lack of urgency. The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove joins Damian Thompson to discuss what Damian calls ‘not just a shocking moment in the history of the Church of England, but in the history of English Christianity’.   Produced by

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Justin Welby quits as Archbishop of Canterbury

13 min listen

Justin Welby has announced he is resigning as Archbishop of Canterbury over his handling of serial child abuser John Smyth. In a statement, he said ‘it is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024’. He says he believes stepping aside ‘is in the best interests of the Church of England’. Did he have to go? And who might replace him?  Also on the podcast, the assisted dying bill was published last night, 38 pages long, and will be debated in just under three weeks’ time. Keir Starmer admitted that he hasn’t decided yet which way way he

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How will progressives explain Amsterdam’s latest anti-semitic violence?

Since the scenes of Jews being hunted, beaten and kicked as they lay on the ground pleading for mercy in Amsterdam, antisemites have sought excuse, or that weaselly insinuator ‘context’, in the reported behaviour of a number of Maccabi Tel Aviv football hooligans, who are said to have attacked a taxi, tore down a Palestinian flag and sang anti-Arab chants. Video footage reportedly shows rioters chanting ‘kankerjoden’, Dutch for ‘Jewish cancer’ I wrote in the wake of those events that any Israeli fan who engaged in such yobbery is to be condemned but that their actions did not justify a modern-day pogrom that plunged Israelis and other Jews into a

Steerpike Steerpike

Who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury?

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has this afternoon announced he will resign from the role after days of pressure from Church of England bishops. The move follows the publication of the Makin Review’s report on the Church’s handling of ‘serial child abuser’ John Smyth – which suggested Welby did not deal with complaints rigorously enough at the time.  In a statement today, the Archbishop wrote of his ‘long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England’, adding:‘I hope this decision makes clear how seriously the Church of England understands the need for change and our profound commitment to creating a safer

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs should take their time over the assisted dying bill

You don’t need to have a strong opinion either way on assisted dying to be concerned about the latest attempt to legalise it: from a scrutiny perspective, Kim Leadbeater’s bill leaves a lot to be desired. It was published last night, 38 pages long, and will be debated in just under three weeks’ time. Most MPs only find out the implications of a bill when they see them in human form Critics who are saying MPs will get just five hours to debate the bill are referring to the second reading stage, with further detailed scrutiny available at its committee, report and third reading stages. However, once a bill passes

Andrew Tettenborn

Surely no MP can vote for this assisted dying bill

There’s a beguiling simplicity to the idea behind Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, published yesterday. If someone is terminally ill and likely to die within six months and wants to accelerate the process, surely it’s only kind that the state should give two doctors the ability to help them do it rather than force them to endure months of anguish and possibly severe pain. Put in safeguards against undue pressure, make sure proper legal procedures are followed by requiring the imprimatur of a High Court judge, and who can rationally complain? Well, I can. Any MP thinking of voting in favour at the second reading in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Justin Welby quits as Archbishop of Canterbury

In the past few minutes, Justin Welby has announced he is resigning as Archbishop of Canterbury over his handling of serial child abuser John Smyth. In a statement, he said ‘it is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024’. He says he believes stepping aside ‘is in the best interests of the Church of England’. At the end of last week, Welby had said he had considered resigning, and had decided that it would not be in the best interests of the church to do so. So what changed? Like so many resignations, it came after those

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will the NHS’s £22bn cash boost disappear into the abyss?

What will happen to the additional £22 billion allotted to the NHS in Labour’s first Budget? Will it transform the service – and reduce the NHS England waiting list – or disappear into the abyss?  This remains one of the biggest outstanding questions from the Budget just under two weeks ago. Over half the tax rises announced – roughly £22 billion – went to topping up day-to-day spending in the NHS. Yet despite Labour repeatedly prompting that there would be no cash without reform, there were no new requirements or productivity improvements attached to the additional funds.  So what can the public expect? An interesting new report from the Institute for Fiscal

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

What’s gone wrong at Winchester Cathedral?

The Dean of Winchester, the Very Revd Catherine Ogle, has announced that she will be retiring on 1 May 2025. The timing is interesting, as news of Ogle’s retirement emerged just hours before the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned over the John Smyth abuse scandal. They walked out during the sermon The congregation of Winchester Cathedral started making their feelings about Ogle clear earlier this year, by going on a kind of Holy Communion hunger strike during services. Deeply unhappy about the damage being done to the musical life of their beloved cathedral under the reign of the controversial Precentor Andrew Trenier and the weak (but steely beneath her

Steerpike Steerpike

Sue Gray rejects Starmer’s non-job

Goodbye Sue Gray. A mere 32 days after taking a ‘short break’ from No. 10, Keir Starmer’s ex-chief of staff has today confirmed she will not continue working for the Prime Minister. Quelle surprise. Gray, who was axed after less than 100 days in the role, was offered the consolation prize of being Starmer’s ‘envoy for the regions and nations’. Yet now, after a mere five weeks mulling over this tempting offer, she has let it be known that she has declined.  The Financial Times today quotes a ‘friend’ of the ex-Partygate enforcer who says ‘She’s taken time to think about it properly, talking to stakeholders, but ultimately she’s decided she doesn’t want

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Ex-Blair aide takes a pop at Britain’s farmers

Farmers across the country have been in uproar since Rachel Reeves’s Budget. Just weeks ago the Chancellor announced that agricultural land and property worth over £1 million would be subject to an inheritance tax – sparking widespread outrage among family farmers fearing for the future of their businesses. Yet while Sir Keir Starmer and his Rural Affairs Secretary Steve Reed have been busy trying to placate landowners across the country, former Tony Blair adviser John McTernan opted for a somewhat, um, alternative approach on GB News. Questioned on the impact the tax could have on Britain’s farmers, McTernan pushed back against earlier comments made by former PM Boris Johnson, insisting:

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Keir Starmer isn’t being honest about his COP carbon pledge

‘It’s not about telling people how to live their lives. I’m not interested in that’ said Keir Starmer of his new target for Britain to reduce its carbon emissions by 81 per cent on 1990 levels by 2035. Really? In that case perhaps he would like to tell us how he does intend to reach his target. If he thinks he can do it without mandating changes to our lifestyle he must have a cunning plan indeed. His target is very much going to have to involve telling people what cars they are allowed to drive and how they are allowed to heat their homes Let’s have a look at