Politics

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

Thursday

Tom Baldwin

Does anyone know what Keir Starmer is thinking?

Even at the best of times, Keir Starmer has remained tantalisingly out of reach for those who crave simple definitions. Before the election, he consistently defied demands to set out a big vision or draw straight dividing lines. He’s always more comfortable with ambiguity and complexity. As he liked to say during the final days of the campaign, ‘There’s always a “but” with me somewhere.’ Now, of course, he really isn’t having the best of times. All those ‘buts’ are piling up. The ill-disciplined briefing battle within his team appeared to elevate office politics above real politics. The Treasury decision to means-test pensioners’ winter fuel allowances was inept. Most damaging

James Heale James Heale

Inside the race for the Chancellor of Oxford

What do we mean these days when we talk about the British ‘establishment’? When Henry Fairlie coined the term in 1955 – in The Spectator, of course – he defined it as ‘the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised’. A lot has changed in the past 70 years. The influence of the monarchy has diminished, the class system no longer holds sway, party politics is almost unrecognisable. Yet the idea of the establishment retains its powerful allure and, in the election of the next chancellor of Oxford University, we see how much it still matters to Britain’s 21st-century elite. Dons complain of candidates inviting

Rupert Harrison

Rachel Reeves has backed herself into a corner on the Budget

As a championship chess player, Rachel Reeves must know that the first few moves can be some of the most important of the game. In preparing her Budget, she appears to be starting her tenure as Chancellor from a position of strength. Her background in the Bank of England gives her institutional credibility, and the size of Labour’s majority means she faces little opposition in the Commons. But the truth is that her room for manoeuvre has been dramatically limited by decisions she has already made. Unforced early errors, as well as an election strategy that prematurely took options off the table, have left her with only a handful of

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Science Secretary failed to declare Taylor Swift tickets on time

Dear oh dear. Science Secretary Peter Kyle has certainly had better days in office. Despite Kyle insisting in the Commons today that his party ‘raises standards in public life’, it has now emerged that the Science Secretary, er, failed to declare his own gifted Taylor Swift tickets in time. Talk about hypocrisy… Members of parliament have 28 days to register gifts – yet Kyle registered £584 worth of Eras tour tickets almost 50 days after receiving the extravagant donation. The Science Secretary received the tickets from the Football Association on 15 August, however it took him until 3 October to log the perk. How curious. The revelation marks another bump

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Could the Catholic vote decide the election?

27 min listen

Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016 and Biden won it in 2020. Polling suggests that Trump is on course to win it back this year. With issues such as immigration and abortion high on the agenda for voters, where will the Catholic vote land?  Ryan Girdursky, the Catholic founder of the 1776 Project PAC and the National Populist substack joins Freddy Gray to discuss. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Steerpike Steerpike

Treasury breaks silence over Labour donor hire

If it’s not the freebie fiasco dogging Sir Keir’s Labour party, it’s the cronyism row. Back in August, the curious case of Ian Corfield hit the news after it transpired that the banker had donated more than £20,000 to Labour before bagging a job as a director of investment at the Treasury. Politico revealed the donor’s generous payments were not, in fact, flagged to the civil service watchdog before his appointment was approved, while ‘cash for jobs’ concerns grew after it emerged that Corfield had not been appointed to the role via the ‘open competition’ route. And now the Treasury has broken its silence on Corfield’s appointment with a rather

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Keir Starmer is full of bilge

Who runs Britain’s foreign policy? Not the government, that’s clear. At PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer got a monumental roasting from Rishi Sunak whose patience seems to be wearing thin.  Technically, Rishi was asking questions but in fact he was correcting Labour’s latest raft of blunders. He began by urging the PM to have a discreet word with his foreign secretary, David Lammy, who appears to be learning on the job. Rishi suggested that Lammy should give China a rap over the knuckles for its ‘dangerous escalatory acts in the Taiwan Strait.’  Sir Keir nodded along. He agreed to ‘co-operate as a permanent member of the Security Council’ and he promised

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Britain’s lax immigration policy is making it an outlier

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has this week put out an official statement that could fairly be described as ‘Wir schaffen das nicht’ – ‘we can’t do it’. Its official title is the rather drier – ‘Work on designing innovative ways to counter illegal migration’ – but you get the drift. It was back in autumn 2015 that Angela Merkel launched a policy towards undocumented migrants that had huge implications for the entire continent. ‘Wir schaffen das!’ – ‘we can do it’ – she declared, in response to the huge flow of irregular (thus also illegal) migrants heading into the EU, mainly from Syria and surrounding countries. However

Iain Macwhirter

Scottish visas are a terrible idea

The last thing Labour needs right now, after the last hundred days of scandal and mishap, is a row over immigration. So the party will not have been pleased this morning to see reports in the Scottish press suggesting that the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is considering introducing a separate Scottish immigration visa, which would help Scotland counter its falling birth rate. This is not the first time the idea of a Scottish visa has surfaced. It has long been campaigned for by the SNP, with the nationalist MP Stephen Gethins tabling an amendment this week to allow Scotland to set up its own visa regime. The UK government certainly seems

Limor Simhony Philpott

Can the US force Israel to bow to its demands on Gaza?

The White House wants Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and implement humanitarian ceasefires within 30 days. If they don’t, the US has threatened to withhold military aid to the country. That’s according to a leaked letter sent over the weekend by secretary of state Anthony Blinken and defence secretary Lloyd Austin in which they set out a short but punchy list of demands. The letter’s unusually harsh tone seems to be motivated by domestic pre-election pressure on the Democratic party. President Joe Biden’s fractured relationship with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has also played a part – which is why the letter was addressed to defence minister Yoav Gallant

Oscar Edmondson

Starmer denies being soft on China

13 min listen

Starmer and Sunak debated Labour’s position on China at today’s PMQs, with Starmer denying going soft on the Asian superpower. Did Sunak draw inspiration from Katy Balls’s cover article in last week’s Spectator? Katy and Isabel Hardman speak to Oscar Edmondson about the party dynamics behind the debate; how much pressure is each party under from their own China hawks?  Isabel also gives an overview of the debate around the Assisted Dying Bill, which was introduced to Parliament today. Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.

Druin Burch

I’ve seen too many deaths to think that assisted dying is a good idea

Over my quarter-of-a-century of being a doctor, I have overseen thousands of deaths. For a busy hospital physician, this is not an unusual number. Helping people die is a core part of our job. In the Commons today, the Assisted Dying Bill gets its first reading. But the debate about this bill is missing a crucial detail: assisted dying is already something of a reality. For those in unsalvageable agony, I like to think it happens almost automatically. Neither people, nor the NHS, being perfect, there will be errors and omissions. But I’m confident that assisted dying, in a sense, happens often already, and I speak from experience.  As junior

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP will regret expelling John Mason

You might have missed the news that the SNP has expelled one of its MSPs, announced as it was following the death of Alex Salmond. John Mason has represented the SNP almost continuously for a quarter-century, first as a Glasgow councillor, then as the MP who wrested away Labour heartland seat Glasgow East in a seismic 2008 by-election, and for the past 13 years as an MSP for the equivalent Holyrood constituency, Glasgow Shettleston. Shettleston is a place with many social and economic problems and even Mason’s opponents acknowledge that he is a hard-working representative. Mason’s expulsion has nothing to do with principles or rules and everything to do with

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Jenrick drops the ball over England manager hire

To the Tory leadership race, which is picking up pace with only three weeks to go. The two finalists are set to take part in a GB News TV debate on Thursday, and have today been busy prepping viewers with their visions for the party. Kemi Badenoch featured in today’s Telegraph while Robert Jenrick hosted a campaign event in Westminster. Jenrick’s team are insistent that their man’s public-facing approach is better than Badenoch’s journalist-shy stance – but his rather awkward football fumble today may give them cause to think otherwise… After a speech on house-building, income tax and the future of the welfare state, Jenrick opened the floor to a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer denies being soft on China

Prime Minister’s Questions today asked the same question that Katy raised in her magazine cover piece last week: what is the new government’s stance towards China? Oddly, the man asking that question never really answered it himself. Rishi Sunak spent much of his premiership in a semantic quandary over what kind of challenge or threat Beijing posed. Today, he opened by asking whether David Lammy would use his meetings in China this week ‘to condemn China’s dangerous escalatory acts’ in the Taiwan Strait.  Keir Starmer’s response was that the continued military activity in the strait was ‘not conducive to peace and stability’ and that the UK planned to: cooperate where

Eliot Wilson

Britain shouldn’t take part in joint EU defence missions

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to ‘reset’ the United Kingdom’s relations with the European Union. But at what cost? The EU has reportedly set out part of the price the UK might have to pay to be allowed back into its good books: Brussels wants Britain to contribute to the EU’s defence missions. Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to Luxembourg this week to a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council to address the issue of security – an important element of Starmer’s intended ‘reset’. In Monday’s meeting, the EU reportedly pressed the Foreign Secretary for UK participation in its peacekeeping and conflict prevention missions, of which there are currently

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Science Secretary grilled over latest cronyism row

Labour’s cronyism row has reared its head once again. It now transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s government failed to disclose an official’s links with the Labour lot when trying to nab her a civil service job – omitting to add the rather significant detail on important transparency forms. As Mr S wrote in August, the appointment of Emily Middleton to the Department for Science and Technology raised ‘cash for jobs’ concerns after it emerged she was a party donor, with the former businesswoman’s consultancy firm having given a whopping £66,000 to the party in the past. With Starmer’s government already struggling with the freebie fiasco, this latest development is hardly likely

Coffee House

Who’s backing whom for Tory leader?

There have now been four ballots of MPs to decide the next leader. Following the elimination of Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, two finalists remain. Now Tory members will vote on who they want of Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick to lead their party, with the victor to be announced on 2 November. While MPs won’t have the final say in this last round of voting, endorsements now may inform the next leader’s shadow cabinet. Below is The Spectator’s guide on which of the final two candidates is backed by the 121 Conservative MPs in parliament: Robert Jenrick (23): Kemi Badenoch (23): Knocked out… James Cleverly

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

A German managing the England team? It’s depressing

Hand back the Falklands. Why not? FedEx over the Elgin Marbles. What’s the point of any of it anymore? They have put a German in charge of the England football team. It’s over.  Can there be a more depressing, or more obvious, sign of national decline than this utterly abject capitulation at the sport we love most – the game we invented, for God’s sake – to our greatest rivals? From Munich to Frankfurt to Hamburg they today must be howling at the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as England manager from the start of next year. The humiliation is searing.  Ignore if you want to the fact that appointing a foreign

Steerpike Steerpike

Jenrick takes aim at Khan over house-building

The Tory leadership contest is gathering pace with voting due to open up to the membership in less than 24 hours. Kemi Badenoch was quick to secure a top slot in Wednesday’s Telegraph, while rival Robert Jenrick gathered supporters together in the heart of Westminster for yet another campaign event today. The ex-housing secretary went heavy on – you guessed it – housing, and was certainly pulling no punches about his political opponents… ‘We are 1.3 million homes short of the number that we need,’ Jenrick declared from London’s Old Queen Street today. He went on, blasting mayor Sadiq Khan – and his lefty Labour government – over the city’s