Politics

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

Tuesday

29 Oct 2024

Could Israel bring down Iran’s regime?

So, the long-awaited Israeli strike on Iran is finally over, and if we trust the Israeli post-attack analysis, then it went well. Buckling under American pressure not to attack Iranian nuclear or oil facilities, which could have led to massive escalation and a spike in oil prices (both undesired outcomes on the eve of US elections), Israel focused instead on military targets. Its 100-aircraft armada knocked out all of Iran’s S-300 air defence system, reduced Iranian ballistic missile production by 80 per cent, and struck air defence systems in the vicinity of Abadan, an oil production centre. This air attack caused not only physical damage but also sent a clear

Nick Tyrone

Should the Lib Dems be conservative?

Having won 72 seats at the general election, political pundits have been asking what the Lib Dems are going to do with their vastly increased presence in the House of Commons. The answer so far: not much. It’s remarkable how quiet the party has been, both in parliament and in the media. However, the Budget has seen them spread their wings a little – and what they have revealed is interesting. They have attacked Labour from the right: decrying the rise in employers NI; attacking the government’s policy on inheritance tax; criticising VAT on private school fees. So, does this mean that the party is going to position itself to

Oscar Edmondson

The problem with Labour’s ‘sticking plaster politics’

14 min listen

Wes Streeting has been out on the airwaves this morning, giving us a better idea of what will be in the Budget when it comes to the NHS. In an attempt to resuscitate a ‘broken but not beaten’ NHS, he has announced a cash injection reported to be up to £7 billion – including £1.57 billion for new surgical hubs, scanners, and radiotherapy machines. The Health Secretary did stress, however, that this will not be enough to save the NHS from a winter crisis. How far will this money go? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike

Have Labour’s budget leaks breached the ministerial code?

Well, well, well. Budget announcements are meant to be made in the House of Commons chamber – yet despite all Sir Keir Starmer’s talk of ‘grown up politics’, his Labour government has opted to trail a number of announcements in advance of Rachel Reeves’s big speech. As Mr S wrote on Monday, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle made a furious intervention to scold the Chancellor over the leaks, raging that announcements should have been made ‘in the first instance in this house and not to the world’s media’. That’s them told… Now the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott, has used an urgent question to further bash the lefty lot

Kemi Badenoch

My plan to win back power for the Tories

Perhaps the strongest asset of the Conservative party is its members (reader, I married one!) and the best part of this leadership contest has been meeting so many of them. On the campaign trail, I’ve encountered three types of party member. The first want to refight the last election, but with different policies. The second worry about the party’s ability to survive, let alone fight the next election. The third are there for the show – and the selfies. And when it comes to leadership hustings, we Tories lay on pretty regular shows. I sympathise with those in the first group: I’d love to go back in time and have better arguments. But

Kate Andrews

Yet another NHS Budget boost – but where’s the reform?

We won’t have to speculate about the details of the Labour’s first Budget much longer. But one tradition as old as time has been confirmed by the Treasury: the National Health Service is getting more cash. ‘Our NHS is the lifeblood of Britain,’ the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said ahead of unveiling her full Budget tomorrow. ‘That’s why I am putting an end to the neglect and underinvestment it has seen for over a decade now.’ This is set to include £1.57 billion of capital spending to expand surgical hubs and provide more equipment. An additional £1.8 billion worth of funding will also be announced to help Labour make good on its

Steerpike

Badenoch: My superpower would be reading minds

The Tory leadership contest has entered its final week and both finalists are ramping up their media appearances in a last ditch attempt to pick up votes. While she initially opted not to spend too much time on the airwaves, Kemi Badenoch has in recent days accepted more interview invites as concerns about voter turnout grow. The leadership hopeful has now appeared on today’s episode of BBC Newscast – in which she was quizzed on her temperament, ‘principles-first’ approach and, er, superpower. Priorities, priorities… ‘If I could pick one single superhero power, it would be to read peoples’ minds,’ the straight-talking candidate admitted to the Beeb’s Adam Fleming and Chris

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is doing his best to alienate France’s Jews

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Morocco on Monday for a three day State visit, during which time he will discuss trade and security. Among his entourage is Yassine Belattar, a light entertainer with a controversial past. In September last year, the 42-year-old Franco-Moroccan was found guilty by a Paris court of making death threats against the screenwriter and director Kader Aoun. Belattar was given a four-month suspended sentence and he was also ordered to pay damages to an actor. The charges arose from the takeover of a Paris theatre in 2018. Macron is a poor judge of character. Perhaps he is too arrogant to care It was also in 2018 that

Steerpike

Full list: Brits who don’t count as working people

It’s the great game obsessing all Westminster: who exactly constitutes a ‘working person’? During the election, Labour regularly said that the tax burden on ‘working people’ was too high. In the manifesto, the party again pledged to protect ‘working people’ from paying more. Now, ahead of a tax-raising Budget, various groups are discovering that while they might think they get up every day and do something resembling hard work, they are, in fact, not actually a working person after all. On Monday morning, Starmer referenced the term 26 times in a speech before telling journalists: ‘The working people of this country know exactly who they are.’ Sounds like self-ID isn’t

Michael Evans

Is Hamas ready for a ceasefire deal?

The president of Egypt has come up with the most modest of proposals to try and end the war in Gaza. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has proposed a 48-hour ceasefire to facilitate the release of just four Israeli hostages in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel. El-Sisi’s objective is for the two-day truce to then lead to a longer-term ceasefire. He has suggested a ten-day negotiating period following the release of the four hostages. His proposal has coincided with the arrival in Doha, of the heads of the CIA and Mossad for renewed talks for a ceasefire-and-hostage-release framework. Washington still wants a deal that will

John O’Connell

Please, Rachel Reeves, define ‘austerity’

What is a working person? This is the question Keir Starmer and other members of his Cabinet struggled to answer over the past week or so. Labour’s flip-flopping is in many ways emblematic of the clash between political rhetoric and fiscal reality. And there is another term that is probably much harder to define, one that has dominated the conversation about the public finances over the last 14 years. That word is austerity. It has been a convenient catch-all for critics of the coalition’s attempt at fiscal retrenchment, and arguably subsequent Conservative fiscal policy. But with Labour about to announce its first Budget in 14 years under somewhat gloomy circumstances,

Steerpike

Listen: Streeting accuses private schools of ‘pleading poverty’

There are now less than 24 hours until Budget day, and this morning Wes Streeting was sent onto the airwaves ahead of the Chancellor’s statement. The Health Secretary was in a fighting mood, however – particularly on the issue of VAT hikes on private schools. Quizzed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari about the tax plan, Streeting was quick to take a pop at privately-funded institutions. Dismissing concerns about the move from independent educators – including those catering for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND schools) – the Health Secretary accused institutions of ‘pleading poverty’. Crikey. Going on, Streeting fumed: I would say to independent schools, you have hiked up

Steerpike

Sir Keir suffers worst approval rating plunge of any new PM

While the Labour lot try and prepare the nation for Wednesday’s Budget announcement, the Prime Minister has had yet more bad news. According to one poll, Sir Keir Starmer has had the biggest drop in approval ratings after winning an election than, um, any new PM in modern times. Talk about a short honeymoon… Starmer saw a post-election high of +11 in July, according to More in Common, after his party’s landslide victory. But his positive reviews weren’t to last long — and since then, less than four months into the top job, the survey of 1,012 adults shows his rating has plummeted by 49 points to -38. In fact,

Robin Culshaw

Trump promises safety to Middle America

I have spent the past week travelling across ‘swing country’. Namely Pennsylvania and Ohio – two of the crucial states which will decide the coming US election. The former is important for the presidential race, the latter for control of the Senate. I spent time following a pollster, joining interviews and focus groups. The first stop was an affluent Pennsylvania suburb near Allentown. In 2020, the county (Lehigh) broke for the Democrats in a closely contested race – the party won just 53 per cent – and it is often seen as a bellwether for the national mood. In the suburb I met Rebecca and her family. Their sprawling bungalow-style

Michael Simmons

Britain’s population problem cannot be ignored

Never before have English and Welsh mothers produced so few babies. New data, released by the ONS yesterday, shows the number of babies expected to be born per woman last year fell to 1.44 – down from 1.49 the year before and the lowest recorded level since these things began to be officially tracked in 1938. For a population to ‘naturally’ sustain itself (e.g. without immigration) an average fertility rate of 2.1 is needed. Looking at the raw numbers, fewer babies were born than at any time since the late 1970s. Last year just 591,072 births were registered in England and Wales and the fertility rate has been falling consistently for the

Patrick West

Labour will regret its war on bus passengers

Aside from debates as to what actually constitutes a ‘working person’, the Labour government does ostensibly seem clear as to whom it wants to shield in the forthcoming Budget: the less well-off and those who continue to struggle financially. It is therefore perverse that it should remove a benefit that has been a blessing to precisely that demographic: the £2 cap on bus fares. The government looks set to be making another long-term error This measure, an initiative of the last Tory government, was introduced last January and implemented in England outside areas that already have devolved powers over transport. It’s been an invaluable aid for those who use the

Andrew Tettenborn

Street lights are costing Britain too much

The East Riding of Yorkshire is flat, prosperously agricultural and slightly off the beaten track. Deeply conservative, it isn’t the place you would normally look for originality. Over the weekend, however, its county council announced an inspired experiment. It wants to see what happens if it gets rid of large numbers of its street lights. Not the lighting in town centres, you understand, but the endless lines of light-stalks you see on the main roads that wind their way between the cornfields. As a trial over the next three years, it plans to switch off hundreds of the lamp-stalks that march grimly alongside the road that connects York and the Humber Bridge.

Monday

28 Oct 2024

Isabel Hardman

Why is Lindsay Hoyle telling off Rachel Reeves?

Is the Speaker being a bit precious with his complaint about pre-Budget announcements? Lindsay Hoyle made a statement in the Commons this afternoon in which he issued a stinging rebuke to Rachel Reeves and other ministers for going ‘around the world telling everybody’ about significant Budget policies, rather than making the announcements to MPs first. He was very clear that he meant the Chancellor in particular, saying: While this can hardly be described as a leak – the Chancellor herself gave interviews on the record, and on camera – the premature disclosure of the contents of the Budget has always been regarded as a supreme discourtesy to the House; indeed,

Matthew Lynn

Volkswagen’s woes are no surprise

Where did it all go wrong for Volkswagen? The German carmaker is said to be planning to shut several factories and lay off thousands of staff. Workers who do keep their jobs could see their pay cut by as much as ten per cent, according to VW’s top employee representative, Daniela Cavallo. If the revelations are correct, the three factories will be the first to be shuttered in the company’s 87-year history. It is hard to overestimate the scale of the shock that the claims about VW, a company that has always been emblematic of the country’s post-war economic miracle, has delivered to the German economy today. Yet Germany –

Steerpike

Watch: Speaker torches Reeves on Budget leaks

Sir Keir Starmer is known to detest leaks – but what about when it is the Prime Minister leaking himself? Watching Starmer’s big speech this morning, Mr S was perplexed to see the Labour premier confirming reports that his Chancellor intends to hike the national bus fare cap on Wednesday from £2 to £3. Shurely shome mistake? Budget announcements are of course meant to be made in the House of Commons chamber, with Hugh Dalton famously resigning as Chancellor in 1947 after details were published in an evening newspaper before his speech. Indeed, it was just, er, three years ago that the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, tore into Boris Johnson’s government