Politics

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

Tuesday

3 Sep 2024

Robert Jenrick is wrong about the culture wars

To some people, the culture wars don’t matter. They are an irrelevance, an indulgence. A distraction from the material, bread-and-butter concerns of ordinary people, like paying the bills or finding an affordable place to live. This sentiment was echoed by Robert Jenrick, the Conservative leadership contender. As reported in the Times yesterday, Jenrick told a meeting of young activists that he didn’t want his party to ‘go down a rabbit hole of culture wars’, and that the public were more concerned about the cost of living and public services than gender issues. The culture war is not an idle luxury. It is timely and necessary While it’s true that politicians should focus

Steerpike

Lib Dem MP’s bizarre motion on the Wiggles

One might expect politics to showcase quality over quantity but this isn’t always necessarily the case. Take the curious example of Liberal Democrat politician Max Wilkinson, who was one of the party’s 72 MPs voted into parliament in July’s national poll. In a notable move, the new MP for Cheltenham ousted Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk in the general election – removing the former justice secretary from his seat by 7,200 votes. But is Wilkinson living up to his constituents’ expectations? Possibly – if they happen to find themselves particularly concerned with, um, the Wiggles. In a rather bizarre move, it transpires that the new MP has tabled an early day

Alexander Larman

Prince Harry isn’t coming back any time soon

The Duke of Wellington famously suggested that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. To this day, something happens in the hallowed cloisters of the nation’s most famous public school that brings out qualities in its pupils that no other educational establishment can muster. I refer, of course, to those redoubtable souls who continue to maintain friendships with Prince Harry, after everything that has happened over the past few years. Quasi-abdication, Oprah, Netflix, Spare – none of it matters in their eyes. The Duke of Sussex is, to them, a cracking example of a Top Bloke, and long may he be defended. Harry’s return would

Matthew Lynn

Von der Leyen’s quest for gender parity is a pointless distraction

The EU’s three largest economies are stuck in a deep structural slump. The budget is a mess, with money running out. And the bloc is rapidly losing competitiveness. Meanwhile, populist parties committed to overthrowing the organisation are coming closer to power all the time. You might think that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had enough serious problems to deal with it. Yet somehow she is finding time for something else: aiming for gender parity. There’s just one problem: jobs for the girls won’t rescue the EU. It is hard to see how carving out lucrative jobs for a handful of women is going to fix

Steerpike

Boris blasts Lammy for ‘abandoning’ Israel

It’s certainly not been a quiet return to parliament. On Monday afternoon, Labour’s David Lammy announced that Britain would be suspending 30 of 350 arms export licenses to Israel – after concluding there was a ‘clear risk’ of a number of weapons being used to violate international humanitarian law. But while the Foreign Secretary has insisted that ‘this is not an arms embargo’, it seems not everyone is entirely convinced by the move… One former prime minister has this morning taken to Twitter to blast Lammy’s decision. Boris Johnson popped up on social media to rage that: ‘Hamas is still holding many innocent Jewish hostages while Israel tries to prevent

Jake Wallis Simons

Britain’s arms crackdown on Israel has come at a dreadful time

The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis is a moderate man and chooses his words carefully. So his statement about David Lammy’s suspension of 30 export licences to Israel was striking in its tone, if not surprising in its content. The Foreign Secretary’s timing did feel a bit rum ‘It beggars belief that the British government, a close strategic ally of Israel, has announced a partial suspension of arms licences, at a time when Israel is fighting a war for its very survival on seven fronts forced upon it on the 7th October, and at the very moment when six hostages murdered in cold blood by cruel terrorists were being buried by

Alexander Horne

What is the point of David Lammy’s partial arms embargo on Israel?

The government has suspended 30 (out of around 350) arms export licences to Israel. The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, acknowledged that the ban will affect the sale of ‘important components that go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items that facilitate ground targeting.’ The UK restrictions do not seem a productive way of convincing Netanyahu and his more hawkish allies to end the war Lammy’s decision to suspend these arms exports licences under the Export Control Act 2002 did not come out of the blue and is not a huge surprise. During parliament’s summer recess, there were reports that Lammy might stop the sale of ‘offensive’ arms to Israel.

Katy Balls

Why Neil O’Brien’s support for Robert Jenrick matters

What is the most significant development in the Tory leadership contest in the past week? The race is heating up ahead of Wednesday’s first knock-out round, with numerous launches in recent days. Yet it’s a development on Sunday that could be the most significant. The Sunday Telegraph reported that Neil O’Brien is endorsing Robert Jenrick. The ex-minister supported Jenrick’s main rival Kemi Badenoch two years ago. But the Tory MP also has a history of being a canary in the coal mine for the Tory party – offering an early indicator of potential danger and failure for various leaders. O’Brien has often been just ahead of Tory mainstream thinking In

Eliot Wilson

The truth about Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘Independent Alliance’

Jeremy Corbyn has teamed up with four other MPs elected as independents at the general election to form an ‘Independent Alliance’. This, the former Labour leader was quick to point out, makes the new group the joint-fifth largest in the Commons, sharing that accolade with Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party. But in the battle for attention in parliament, Corbyn and his colleagues are going to be disappointed. What is the point of the Independent Alliance? Labour’s majority of nearly 180 means that Corbyn’s alliance won’t give Keir Starmer sleepless nights, even if the group has already reached out to the seven Labour MPs who were suspended from the parliamentary

Debbie Hayton

Why are a record number of Brits applying to change their gender?

The number of people applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) has reached a new record. Government figures revealed that there were 1,397 applications in 2023-24 and, of those, 1,088 were granted. Labour has vowed to simplify the process of changing gender, meaning that the numbers could rise further. Almost 200 applicants for a Gender Recognition Certificate were under 25 Is this something to celebrate? Or should we be worried? These are already big numbers for a life-changing process that was originally envisaged to serve a vanishingly small group of people. The stats from 2023-24 aren’t a one-off: since the pandemic, the numbers have been growing year-on-year. To put it

Robin Ashenden

A tribute to the glorious heyday of smoking

When the revolting news broke that Keir Starmer – whingeing lovechild of Oliver Cromwell and Captain Mainwaring – could be about to ban smoking in parks, public restaurants and beer gardens, I couldn’t help but think elegiacally of my own lifelong love/hate-affair with the pernicious weed, and to nicotine glories past. I was 13 when I started smoking in earnest and had been impatient to develop the habit long before that. Back then everyone smoked, and they did it everywhere too – on buses, in trains, on the underground and at the cinema. We were a tobacco culture: chat show guests would puff away languidly, the former prime minister Harold Wilson had

Monday

2 Sep 2024

Isabel Hardman

David Lammy partially suspends arms sales to Israel

David Lammy has just announced that Britain is suspending 30 arms export licenses to Israel. The Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons that after a review of international humanitarian law, he was left with no choice but to conclude that there was a risk of a number of weapons being used to commit or facilitate the violation of the law. He said: It is with regret that I inform the House today that the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate

Isabel Hardman

Rayner and Badenoch row on first day back

It was the Commons at its best: the whole House, united in agreement on one key matter. MP after MP took a stand against the critics to support a colleague. All of them wanted to praise Angela Rayner’s dancing while on holiday. They were back in the Commons after recess for Housing, Communities and Local Government questions, and despite the cross-party unity on the Secretary of State’s boogieing, the session was pretty spicy. For one thing, Kemi Badenoch was on the opposite benches, and used the session as a second leadership launch. She deployed her characteristic charming turn of phrase when asking Rayner questions, including telling the minister that she

Steerpike

Starmer faces more backlash over winter fuel payment cuts

It’s the first day back in parliament after recess and already Labour splits are starting to emerge. Now it transpires that the party’s MP for Poole, Neil Duncan-Jordan, has tabled an early day motion to delay the changes to the winter fuel allowance – which his government controversially plans to means test. In order to plug the £22bn blackhole in the UK’s finances, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that ‘incredibly tough choices’ will have to be made – yet the prospect of 10 million pensioners missing out on the winter payment has ruffled feathers, given Sir Keir’s lefty lot curiously managed to find enough cash to fund public sector pay

Philip Patrick

Why are Britain’s diplomats virtue-signalling to South Korea?

An important international conference will take place this week in South Korea, focused on the peninsula’s security concerns. The UK will not be participating. The reason? A lack of female ‘representation’, apparently. It seems that all the 18 of the initially invited speakers to the Global Korea Forum were men, though since the UK pullout three more speakers have been included, one of whom is female. A spokesperson from the British Embassy told the Korea Times that ‘the ambassador (Colin Crooks) is unable to take part in the Global Korea Forum next week. The British Embassy is committed to gender equality. We believe that events are enriched by the diversity

Oscar Edmondson

Is Keir right to scrap one-word Ofsted verdicts?

13 min listen

It’s back to school day for kids up and down the country, and also back to school for our politicians who have returned from summer recess. To celebrate, Keir Starmer has announced that one-word Ofsted classifications will be scrapped with immediate effect. Is this the right move? Also on the podcast, we have had the official launches of several Tory leadership campaigns in the last few days. What’s the latest? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike

What does Starmer hang on his wall?

Political artwork has rather dominated the headlines of late. After Sir Keir’s peculiar opposition to the ‘unsettling’ painting of his predecessor Margaret Thatcher, Mr S has been interested in learning more about what artwork is deemed acceptable to the Labour lot. Via a Freedom of Information request, Steerpike can now reveal which Parliamentary Art Collection works adorn the walls of Britain’s top politicians. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Starmer is surrounded by the portraits of his prime ministerial predecessors – including Winston Churchill, Pitt the Younger, Robert Peel and Benjamin Disraeli. Curiously, no former female PMs make the cut – with the Iron Lady already having been moved from the No. 10 study to Downing Street’s first-floor

Katy Balls

Kemi Badenoch’s leadership pitch? Tough love

It’s a busy day for the Tory leadership race in Westminster as the six candidates attempt to build momentum and MP support ahead of the first knockout round on Wednesday. Both Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly have this morning hosted their official launches, with contrasting pitches. While Cleverly set out policies he would support as leader, such as on taxation, Badenoch made a point of saying she would not get into policy details but instead focus on her vision. She said: ‘We can’t just keep having the same policy arguments from the last parliament. We lost. We are not in power’. Badenoch was asked about reports that some of her

Lisa Haseldine

The AfD is winning over Germany’s youth

‘We are the party of the youth!’ When the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party launched its state election campaign over the summer in the former east Germany, its lead candidate for Brandenburg Christoph Berndt confidently declared that the party would do well thanks to the legions of young voters it had seduced. Today, as the dust settles on the results of Thuringia and Saxony’s state elections, it appears that Berndt’s predictions have come to pass. According to data published by the pollsters Infratest Dimap, 38 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 voted for the AfD in Thuringia on Sunday. In neighbouring Saxony, 31 per cent did the

Andrew Tettenborn

Scrapping one-word Ofsted verdicts is a mistake

The decision to scrap one or two-word Ofsted inspection grades for England’s schools is good news for teachers – but bad news for just about everyone else, not least parents and pupils. Many school staff have never liked the labelling of schools as ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires Improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’. They say that it doesn’t give the full story and heaps pressure on staff during inspections. In one case last year, a head teacher took her own life after her school received an unflattering report. What happened to Ruth Perry was a terrible tragedy. But while some reform was no doubt necessary, getting rid of straightforward Ofsted summaries is not the