Politics

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

Thursday

James Heale James Heale

Why Reform has Wales in its sights

A spectre is haunting Wales. Fresh from Reform’s election victories in Westminster, Nigel Farage is turning his attention westwards, to Cardiff Bay. He wants Reform to replace the Tories there as the main challenge to Labour in May 2026, creating a major platform for his party ahead of the 2029 general election. The man plotting the Tories’ downfall in Wales is someone who knows their leader well. Oliver Lewis, Reform’s chief spokesman, worked with Kemi Badenoch at Coutts. ‘She was very aware of the importance of fulfilling duties she felt were important to her,’ he says, carefully, when we speak. To beat his ‘reasonably competent’ old colleague, Lewis stresses an

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

What Scott Bessent’s appointment means for Trump 2.0

How rare it is to be given a second chance. That’s what the American people have handed Donald Trump. His second shot at the presidency means avoiding past mistakes, which in TrumpWorld means finally harnessing the full power of the state. Even in the last year of his first term, Trump was struggling to fill all the political appointment vacancies he had at his disposal. This was the consequence of never developing a real plan for governing that went beyond chanting ‘Drain the swamp’. Elon Musk talked down Bessent as the ‘business-as-usual choice’, but that’s what markets are looking for This time round, things are going to be different. Trump

Katy Balls Katy Balls

‘I was much more disposable than I believed’: an interview with Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson is enjoying himself back at The Spectator. ‘My place of former employment,’ the former editor booms as he sits down, stands up, and starts re-ordering items around the wood-panelled office. ‘I like this book-lined air that you’ve given me – very, very grand.’ ‘I found the pandemic a nightmare because I was genuinely uncertain as to the efficacy of what we were doing’ He’s spent the past month flogging his memoir, Unleashed. He hopes to hit 100,000 UK sales well before Christmas. Such is his enthusiasm for his cause that he was kicked off the Channel 4 US election night show for ‘banging on about his book’. ‘I’ve

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

I hope you didn’t sign that petition

Did you sign it, then? And if so, what were your expectations? That Sir Keir Starmer would look at the figures and say – perhaps with a tinge of remorse – ‘Yup, that’s it, I’m bang to rights, we’ll have an election?’. Or were you simply hoping to annoy him? If so, I assume you are disappointed, because Sir Keir doesn’t look very annoyed to me. It turns out we are no better than those liberal lefties who can’t believe that other people have different views The petition to demand a general election on the grounds that the people who didn’t vote Labour on 4 July are upset at the result

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The sickness benefit trap

Now that I’m no longer editor of this magazine, I can admit that I spent the election night of 1997 cheering on Tony Blair. Reader, it gets worse. I didn’t particularly want a Labour government but I badly wanted the devolution they had promised. A parliament in Edinburgh would, I thought, consider why the East End of Glasgow – home to many of my extended family – had some of the worst deprivation in Europe. Drugs deaths, unemployment, crime, all ignored by Westminster, would surely be remedied by the new politicians in Holyrood. There are lots of organisations to help people sign on, but those who want to get back to

Wednesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Can Ukraine’s army survive its deserter crisis?

Not since the summer of the 2022 invasion have Russian troops been making more progress in Ukraine. Last month alone, they took almost 200 square miles in the Donetsk region. Just 15 miles now separate the Russian forces from entering the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. If Russia succeeds, a sixth region will be swallowed by hostilities.  What’s changed? Russia’s ranks are swelling with highly paid contractors and fresh North Korean reinforcements, while Ukraine’s forces are thinning fast. Desertions are adding to crippling manpower shortages. Officially, some 90,000 Ukrainian soldiers have deserted (almost half of them this year), but the unofficial number is much higher. Desertion is becoming a crisis. Unless it’s addressed, no ‘victory

Michael Gove

Kemi’s first policy proclamation

12 min listen

Kemi Badenoch has signalled that she could change her position on the ECHR. At a conference today, she said “we will review every policy, treaty and part of our legal framework – including the ECHR and the Human Rights Act.” What could this mean for the Conservatives going forward? Katy Balls discusses with Michael Gove and James Heale. 

James Price

Why is a Labour MP calling for a blasphemy law?

Today at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour MP Tahir Ali asked: ‘Will the Prime Minister commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions?’ Does Mr Ali think this is the most important issue currently facing the UK? Or, even more disturbingly, is this something that his constituents are calling for? The fact that we have an MP from the governing party calling for blasphemy laws to be reinstated is part of a terrifying development in politics. It comes alongside a rise in sectarian voting, which has seen minority groups pitted against each other and a splintering of modern society.

James Heale James Heale

Badenoch admits Tory migration failures

Of all the issues which did it for the Conservatives in July 2024, no issue deterred life-long Tories more than the failure to control migration. So it was appropriate then that this subject formed the basis of Kemi Badenoch’s first major policy speech since her election as leader. Ahead of tomorrow’s release of migration statistics, she chose to deliver a mea culpa on behalf of her party, admitting at a hastily-assembled press conference that the Conservatives had previously got this issue wrong. The last administration ‘promised to bring numbers down,’ she said. ‘We did not deliver that promise’: As the new party leader I want to acknowledge that we made

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Should assisted dying be legalised?

50 min listen

MPs are set to vote on the legalisation of assisted dying this week, the first such vote in almost a decade. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and follows a campaign by broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen and others.  The biggest change since the last vote in 2015 is the make-up of parliament, with many more Labour MPs, as well as newer MPs whose stances are unknown. Consequently, it is far from certain that the bill – which would mark one of the biggest changes to social legislation for a generation – will pass. What are the arguments for and against? And

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Kemi Badenoch must get better at PMQs

Third time lucky for Kemi Badenoch. The Tory leader’s first two attempts to crush Keir Starmer at PMQs failed. Today she began by attacking the chancellor whose career is in quicksand and who admitted to the CBI that her smash-and-grab budget was so destructive that it mustn’t be repeated. ‘I’m not coming back for more borrowing or more taxes,’ said Rachel Reeves on Monday. Kemi asked Starmer to repeat that pledge in the house. Not a bad question. Starmer said he couldn’t write ‘five years of future budgets’ at the despatch box. Not a bad answer. Kemi’s team should have seen it coming. She boasted that Starmer had made an

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Do the Democrats hate Kamala Harris?

26 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Ben Domenech, editor-at-large of Spectator World to discuss a strange video of Kamala Harris released by the official Democratic party account, Trump’s counter-signalling appointments and the realignment of the Republican party.

Steerpike Steerpike

Flashback: Rachel Reeves’ battle for winter fuel allowance

It’s fuel poverty awareness day today. So what better time to reflect on Labour decision to pull payments for pensioners, just weeks after taking office? Ahead of the release of pension credit statistics tomorrow, Mr S has been doing some digging into the Chancellor’s past. And it seems that ‘Rachel Thieves’ – as her critics like to jibe – has not always been such an enemy of universal hand-outs for the elderly…. A recently-unearthed leaflet from the University of Bristol archives reveals that Rachel Reeves made winter fuel payments central to her very first election campaign. Reeves stood for Bromley and Chislehurst in 2005 and made ‘More Help for Pensioners’

James Heale James Heale

William Hague is the new Chancellor of Oxford

Congratulations to William Hague, who has today triumphed in the race to succeed Chris Patten and become the 168th Chancellor of Oxford. Hague, who topped the ballot at every stage, won the final run-off against Elish Angiolini by a margin of 1,600 votes. Former cabinet ministers Peter Mandelson and Dominic Grieve were both eliminated in the earlier rounds of voting. Jan Royall, the outgoing principal of Somerville College, finished third. The result represents a belated victory for the ex-Tory leader over New Labour, 23 years after his landslide defeat at the hands of Tony Blair. Some commentators viewed the race as a straight party political fight between Mandelson and Hague. Yet

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Kemi Badenoch calls on Keir Starmer to resign at PMQs

Unconventional as ever, Kemi Badenoch used her third ever Prime Minister’s Questions as Conservative leader to call on Keir Starmer to resign. The Tory leader was half speaking in jest, telling the Prime Minister that ‘if he wants to know what Conservatives would do, he should resign and find out’. It was her latest riposte to Starmer claiming that Badenoch’s party didn’t have a ‘clue’ what to do and kept jumping on bandwagons. That was precisely the charge being levelled at Starmer just a few months ago, while he was busy accusing the then prime minister Rishi Sunak of not answering any of his questions. Once again today, Starmer didn’t

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Labour MP calls for blasphemy law

Oh dear. Tahir Ali is at it again. It was only ten months ago that he had to apologise after claiming at PMQs that Rishi Sunak had ‘the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands’. But the controversies of the past don’t seem to have blunted the Honourable Member for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley. For the Labour MP has today asked whether, er, he might consider the reintroduction of blasphemy laws. So much for a politics that treads more gently on people’s lives… Ali asked Starmer ‘Will the Prime Minister commit to introducing measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Who should Labour target to ‘get Britain working’?

Labour talks of having the ‘bold ambition of an 80 per cent employment rate’. But who should they target to get there? The government published its white paper this week on ‘getting Britain working’ and tackling the growing health and disability benefits bill, which is forecast to hit £120 billion.  Figures slipped out by the Office for National Statistics today give more insight on which groups could perhaps be better targeted. These figures split out employment rates by parental status, and show that already more than 80 per cent of married (or cohabiting) mothers and 93 per cent of married (or cohabiting) fathers with dependent children are working. This doesn’t leave a

Ian Leslie

The advert that radicalised me

This is one of a series of posters that adorn the walls of Westminster Underground station, through which many MPs and aides travel to work. On Friday, MPs will be voting on whether or not to legalise assisted dying. The posters, funded by a campaign group called Dignity In Dying, present a series of individuals happily contemplating the prospect of ending their own lives. The vibe is feel-good, joyful and glossy, somewhere between a cosmetics brand and Kamala Harris ‘24. I think they are the creepiest ads I’ve ever seen. When this bill was introduced a couple of months ago, I didn’t have much of an opinion on the issue. I’d read that

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Michel Barnier has brought France to the verge of collapse

A new Anglo-Saxon barbarism has entered the French political language: ‘government shutdown.’ There is excited talk of civil servants not being paid. Tax uncollected. The collapse of medical reimbursements. Supposedly this will bring France to its senses and voters will quietly accept increased taxes and cuts to public services.  The French government teeters on the verge of collapse. Prime Minister Michel Barnier, 73, acclaimed genius of the Brexit negotiations, had one job: to deliver a budget. He failed. His text isn’t acceptable to the National Assembly. He is now desperately threatening to force it through, under an emergency decree. But if he does he will be brought down in a

Neil Clark

There’s a simple explanation for Calin Georgescu’s ‘shock’ triumph in Romania

On a bus journey in Transylvania last summer, I got talking to a young Romanian man who works in Yorkshire and who had been back home visiting his relatives. He told me how hard it had become for Romanians, particularly elderly people like his grandmother, to make ends meet with inflation so high. He blamed the war in Ukraine for the massive spike in energy prices and said that the conflict ‘needs to end soon’. With times so hard, he told me that some people were becoming resentful of handouts to Ukrainian refugees. I thought of my bus conversation when I saw the BBC report that a ‘Far-right, pro-Russian candidate’ had taken