Politics

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

Thursday

Oscar Edmondson

Keir Starmer: ‘We want to reset relationships with EU’

14 min listen

Keir Starmer is at Blenheim Palace today for the gathering of the European Political Community, the forum created by Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the new Prime Minister met with many world leaders last week in Washington for the Nato summit, this is his first time he has played host since entering 10 Downing Street. And he used his opening address to call for a ‘reset’ of relations with the EU, but what will that look like?  Oscar Edmondson speaks with Katy Balls and Charles Grant, director at the Centre for European Reform.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

Matthew Lynn

Ursula von der Leyen only cares about power

The Green New Deal will be watered down. There will be a drive to roll back rules and regulations. And there will be far tougher control of the borders. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen secured the support of the bloc’s parliament today by promising a radical overhaul of the policies of the last four years. There is just one problem. This is the same leader who implemented all the policies she has just ditched.  Von der Leyen has been exposed as a politician who believes in nothing It is all changing in the EU. The Green New Deal, a Europop version of Bidenomics, is going

William Moore William Moore

Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?

37 min listen

This week: bulletproof Trump. The failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump means that his supporters, more than ever, view him as America’s Chosen One. Joe Biden’s candidacy has been falling apart since his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate last month. Trump is now ahead in the polls in all the battleground states. The whispers in Washington are that the Democrats are already giving up on stopping a second Trump term – and eyeing up the presidential election of 2028 instead. Freddy Gray, deputy editor at The Spectator, and Amber Duke, Washington editor at Spectator World, join the podcast to discuss. (02:45) Next: meeting the mega MAGA fans. The Spectator’s political correspondent James Heale

Steerpike Steerpike

Will the Scottish Tories form a new party?

To Scotland, where the Scottish Conservatives are facing problems of their own. North of the border, a leadership contest is looming after outgoing leader Douglas Ross announced his resignation mid-campaign. Since then there have been animated discussions about who his successor will be. And while contenders for the UK party are already making their mark, their Scottish counterparts look set for a fiery leadership race too. Current justice spokesperson Russell Findlay MSP is seen by many as the obvious choice, and his colleague Rachael Hamilton has warmly endorsed him – but others in the party have expressed support for potential rival candidate Murdo Fraser. The MSP for the region of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Keir Starmer’s EU ‘reset’ pay off?

Keir Starmer is at Blenheim Palace today for the gathering of the European Political Community, the forum created by Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the new Prime Minister met with many world leaders last week in Washington for the Nato summit, this is his first time he has played host since entering 10 Downing Street. As European leaders arrive, the Labour leader has been glad-handing his new counter parts. So far, we have seen a warm embrace for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and the sparks of a bromance with a grinning Macron. The EU will want something in return for any removal of barriers

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Keir Starmer is deluding himself about the EU

‘We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future,’ declared the Prime Minister ahead of today’s meeting of the European Political Union at Blenheim Palace. The meeting, he added, ‘will fire the starting gun on this government’s new approach to Europe’. The subtext to this is: the grown-ups are back in charge, and from now on we are going to have a far more constructive relationship with the EU. Keir Starmer has even promised a renegotiation of Britain’s trading relationship with the EU, which is supposedly going to make life easier for our exporters. Keir Starmer has even promised a renegotiation of Britain’s trading relationship

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: David Lammy refuses to apologise for calling Trump a ‘sociopath’

David Lammy is in the firing line over comments he made in the past about Donald Trump. The Foreign Secretary was quizzed this morning on BBC Breakfast about his past attacks on the presidential candidate – particularly when Lammy called Trump a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’. What a charmer… Instead of showing contrition, the Foreign Secretary opted to go on the defensive – telling presenter Naga Munchetty: ‘You’re going to struggle to find any politician who has not had things to say about Donald Trump in his first term.’ He went on: You would have struggled with our last foreign secretary David Cameron, who described him as a xenophobe and a

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Is the great worker shortage finally coming to an end?

British workers have just experienced their highest pay rises for two years. With inflation remaining at the Bank of England’s target, the average worker has now seen their real term pay increase between March and May this year by just over 2 per cent – a level not seen since 2022. However, in cash terms there are clear signs that the heat has firmly left the labour market with pay growth beginning to slow. This is good news for the new government and rate setters at the Bank of England who will need to decide next month whether it’s time for the first interest rate cuts. Doubts about a cut

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Joe Biden has caught covid at the worst possible time

Talk about timing. Joe Biden has caught covid, the White House has announced. The president, who was touring Las Vegas, ‘is experiencing mild symptoms,’ press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. ‘(Biden) will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.’ Biden has been vaccinated and boosted against covid, Jean-Pierre added.  Will Donald Trump call Joe Biden to wish him well? In the 21 days since the now infamous debate with Donald Trump, Biden has kept a busy schedule. He has tried and largely failed to allay public concerns about his health. This latest news will not

Jacob Heilbrunn

Top Democrat Adam Schiff urges Joe Biden to quit

The blows keep coming. California congressman Adam Schiff, who was an impeachment manager during Donald Trump’s first Senate trial in 2020, is now targeting another president for destruction. Schiff has called upon Joe Biden to exit the presidential race, the twenty-third legislator to do so and definitely the most significant of the lot. Schiff, who is running for the Senate, was a protégé of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. For several weeks, Pelosi, who knows that a continued Biden candidacy would likely lead to the downfall of the Democratic party this November, has been waging a quiet but determined campaign to persuade Biden to surrender. Not surprisingly, the Pelosi camp

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

It’s obvious who to blame for the mess France is in

Marine Le Pen appeared on television on Wednesday morning in her first major interview since last Sunday’s election. The leader of the National Rally cast a critical eye over the chaos of the last week and described the cross-party squabbling as ‘parliamentary cretinism’. Even some within the New Popular Front, which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, have expressed their despair. France has been afflicted by cretinous leadership for most of this century ‘I’m angry, I’m disgusted, I’m tired, I’m fed up,’ said Marine Tondelier, the head of the Greens. ‘I’m sorry about the performance we’re putting on for the French people.’ Sandrine Rousseau, another Green MP, apologised

James Heale James Heale

Meet the MAGA megafans

Milwaukee, Wisconsin If you want to see how Donald Trump has changed his party, look at what attendees wore to this week’s convention in Milwaukee. Gone are the days when Republicans plumped for preppy blazers and demure khakis; now the fashion is for ostentatious displays of red, white and blue. Even the red ‘MAGA’ baseball caps of 2016 have been eclipsed, replaced by this year’s must-have accessory of the cowboy hat – a classic symbol of rugged individualism. It’s a sartorial revolution, as well as a political one. ‘Everyone loves having their photo taken,’ says one press photographer. ‘It’s like Halloween’ Brash, flash and full of flair, Trump’s supporters wear

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The new divide in Labour

Labour MPs ought to have been jubilant when they gathered for their weekly all-party parliamentary meeting on Monday. Most were still riding high after their party won a landslide majority. Yet there was a frisson of unease as some of the new flock took the opportunity to raise a grievance: the two-child benefit cap. ‘It’s the first week and they’re already complaining,’ sighed one MP this week. The unhappiness has been brewing since last summer when Keir Starmer and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said they were in no rush to lift the ‘nasty’ two-child benefit cap, introduced by Theresa May’s government in 2017. The policy, which restricts welfare payments to

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?

‘You’re gonna be so blessed,’ said Pastor James Roemke, doing a pretty good Donald Trump impersonation in the warm-up to his Benediction of the Republican National Convention on Monday. ‘You’re gonna be tired of being blessed, I guarantee it, believe me.’ Sitting in the stands with a bandage on his ear, Trump enjoyed the joke – a riff on his famous line from 2016 about ‘winning’. He smiled almost beatifically for the cameras. In the wake of the shooting, Trump has begun to sound, believe it or not, graceful and magnanimous It was poignant, too, because in his case it seemed so true: God, or some supernatural force beyond our understanding,

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Why Trump forgave J.D. Vance

It shows a remarkable level of confidence from Donald Trump that he’s chosen for his running-mate the man who once called him ‘America’s Hitler’. J.D. Vance, the 39-year-old junior senator from Ohio, made the private comment in 2016, as he rose to fame off the back of his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy. The book recounts what it was like to grow up in a deprived rust-belt town, where his family and neighbours had ‘no college degree’ and ‘poverty’s the family tradition’. Vance escaped by joining the US Marine Corps, which included a tour in Iraq. Once home, his degrees from Ohio State University and Yale took him to California, where he

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak looks much happier in opposition

When Rishi Sunak was prime minister, he often appeared merely to be commentating on events, rather than in charge of them. Perhaps that is why he looks so comfortable as leader of the opposition now. He has been giving very good speeches since losing the election, and both he and his party look rather relieved to be out of government. They are currently in the opposition honeymoon period, before the reality of no-one being interested in what you have to say really hits. Sunak’s response to the King’s Speech today was generous and thoughtful. It included some amusing jokes, including his advice to the rising stars on the opposite benches:

Oscar Edmondson

What was missing from the King’s Speech?

16 min listen

Labour has set out its ambitious missions in the King’s Speech to open a new parliament today. On the podcast, Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and former Labour advisor John McTernan about what was expected – and what was missing – from the legislative agenda. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer announces child poverty taskforce to stave off revolt

Keir Starmer has tried to stave off a revolt on the two-child benefit cap by announcing a child poverty taskforce. The Prime Minister told the Commons that the taskforce would ‘devise a strategy to drive the numbers down’, and that it would not just focus on one policy area. He was responding to an intervention on his King’s Speech address to the Commons from one of his own backbenchers, Sarah Owen, who asked him for assurances that he ‘personally takes this issue very seriously’. It was the first intervention on Starmer’s speech, and underlined the strength of feeling on the Labour benches, let alone across the House of Commons, about

Steerpike Steerpike

Truss attacks civil service over King’s Speech document

Today’s King’s Speech was filled to the brim with bills – the most jam-packed since 2005. While Sir Keir can’t be accused of submitting a lightweight list of announcements, some of his political opponents have been quick to criticise. One of these is former prime minister Liz Truss, who is particularly displeased about how much her own name came up in Labour’s legislative agenda. Within half an hour of the announcement, Truss took to Twitter with a scathing post about Starmer’s plans. Slamming the Prime Minister for having ‘no idea about the change Britain needs’, the former Conservative leader blasted today’s speech for expanding ‘the power of the unelected state’

Lucy Dunn

Every bill announced in Labour’s King’s Speech

King Charles has now finished taking part in the state opening of parliament for the first time as monarch. The purpose of today’s King’s Speech was to set out the government’s legislative agenda for the upcoming parliamentary session, the first since the general election. Sir Keir Starmer has put forward a big government programme that promises to ‘always put the country first’. It will be based upon ‘security, fairness and opportunity for all’, with a heavy emphasis on economic stability and the need for decisions to be ‘consistent with its fiscal rules’. In a lengthy statement by the King, the new Labour government announced the highest number of bills since