Politics

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

Thursday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The resurgence of Angela Rayner

On Monday evening, the Strangers’ Bar at Westminster was treated to a rare sight: Angela Rayner looking happy, smiling and holding court. As the newspapers went on the offensive over a new analysis of the Employment Rights Bill, which found it will cost business nearly £5 billion a year, the Deputy Prime Minister went to the Commons watering hole for a wine to celebrate the bill’s second reading. It’s not just Rayner’s new deal for workers (now titled ‘make work pay’, following intense focus-grouping) that is giving her cause for fresh optimism. She is also enjoying a resurgence inside government after a tricky start. As Boris Johnson once said, ‘There

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Labour interfering in the US election?

16 min listen

Keir Starmer can’t even fly to Samoa without another international British embarrassment breaking out. The latest is an angry accusation from Donald Trump’s campaign that Labour is committing the crime of ‘election interference’ in the United States. ‘The British are coming!’ screamed a typically camp Trump-Vance official press release last night. The campaign denounced Britain’s ‘far-left’ governing party for attempting to subvert democracy by sending almost 100 of its activists across the pond to sway American voters. But are the British actually coming? Freddy Gray speaks to James Heale, The Spectator’s political correspondent.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson. 

James Heale James Heale

Trump’s crusade against Labour

16 min listen

Donald Trump has made the extraordinary move to file an official complaint against the British Labour party for their volunteers campaigning for the Democrats. On this episode, James Heale talks to Katy Balls and the Financial Times’s Stephen Bush about what’s behind the Labour tradition of sending volunteers to other democracies, and why a second Trump presidency might be the defining theme of this Labour government. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Angela Rayner’s drama-queen habit at PMQs

‘The battle of the gingers.’ That’s how Angela Rayner described her tussle with Oliver Dowden at deputy prime minister’s questions today. But it was a cosy chat rather than a vicious duel.  Dowden probed Labour’s plan to fleece businesses by raising employers’ National Insurance contributions. Rayner disregarded the issue and drawled out a reply using experimental syntax. ‘I remember the party opposite what they said to business. What was it? “Eff to business,”’ she said. Dowden made little attempt to interrogate her and kept smirking and playing for laughs. ‘This is our last exchange across the despatch box,’ he said, fuelling rumours that he plans to give up his seat

Steerpike Steerpike

Diana biographer: Meghan has ‘worst judgement in world’

They say all publicity is good publicity – unless you’re Meghan and Harry, that is. Despite their valiant efforts (including a search for a PR guru) the dynamic duo never quite manage to stay out of the spotlight for long. Now the Duchess of Sussex has found herself in the firing line after Tina Brown – the former Vanity Fair editor who penned The Diana Chronicles on Princess Diana’s life – took to the Ankler podcast to blast the Montecito monarchs. Slamming Harry and Meghan’s decision to step away from royal duties as a ‘disaster’, Brown went on to lament the ‘bad choices’ made by the couple – adding that

Edward Howell

David Lammy can’t afford to let down South Korea

Labour’s first 100 days in power have been nothing short of a disaster. Whether the beneath contemptible decision to shelve the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, or the disgrace that was the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the stage has already been set for five long years for domestic and foreign policy blunders. David Lammy’s first few months as Foreign Secretary have faired little better. For Lammy, risible speeches to the United Nations have been combined with absurd claims from his boss, calling for the expansion of the institution’s sclerotic Security Council. Quantity does not equal quality. Lammy’s laissez-faire approach has also extended to his apathy towards

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Dowden and Rayner do battle for the last time

Angela Rayner and Oliver Dowden shared a tender moment today at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions as they bade farewell to each other. This will be the last time the pair face each other across the House because the Tories are – finally – about to pick their new leader who will bring in their own deputy. ‘I will miss our exchanges, the battle of the gingers,’ joked Rayner, who got through the questions easily. Dowden used his last session to try to pin Labour down on its planned rises to National Insurance contributions for employers. His opening question was: ‘Mr Speaker, what is the Deputy Prime Minister’s definition of working

Jonathan Spyer

Israel won’t be distracted by ceasefire talks

Two senior US officials are in the Middle East this week, with the joint mission of negotiating an end to the current war between Israel and a number of Iran-backed Islamist militias. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday. US Special Envoy on Lebanon Amos Hochstein was in Beirut on Monday. Are the two faced with a mission impossible, or is there a chance that their efforts may forge a pathway to bring the year-long conflict to an end? At the start of this week, Israeli aircraft carried out a series of attacks on Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon. These included the headquarters of the organisation’s aerial

Steerpike Steerpike

Lord Alli found in breach of parliamentary rules

Lord Alli never manages to stay out of the spotlight for long. Now the millionaire Labour donor has been found to have breached four parliamentary rules over his registration of interests, according to an investigation carried out by the Lords Commissioner Standards, and has been forced to issue a letter of apology. Oh dear… An investigation over ‘alleged non-registration of interests leading to potential breaches of paragraphs 14(a) and 17 of the thirteenth edition of the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords’ was launched at the start of the month. On its conclusion, it transpired that Sir Keir Starmer’s biggest donor failed to register in time

Steerpike Steerpike

Northern Ireland Civil Service’s bizarre language guide

What isn’t deemed offensive these days? The latest version of Northern Ireland’s civil service ‘inclusive language guide’ has been published – and it appears that even some of the most benign language is too risqué for top mandarins. The newly released document, which advises readers that ‘we all have a role to play in championing diversity and inclusion to make our workplace a safe, welcoming space’, has issued warnings about how a ‘phrase that feels harmless to one person’ may leave another ‘potentially unsafe’. Good heavens… Perhaps it’s a good thing the Northern Irish civil service has put together this handy guide – as Mr S would bet almost no

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

French farmers are on the verge of revolting again

A French MP was apprehended by police in Paris last week as he bought 1.35 grams of the designer drug ‘3-MMC’ from a teenager dealer. Andy Kerbrat, who is a member of the far-left La France Insoumise, admitted this on Tuesday and confessed to being addicted. The reaction from most MPs was largely sympathetic. He’s not the first parliamentarian to have admitted his use of narcotics. Last year Emmanuel Pellerin, a member of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, confessed to cocaine use and a senator was arrested by police after he was accused of drugging a female MP as part of a plan to carry out a sexual assault (he has denied any wrongdoing). In the wake of

James Heale James Heale

Has Robert Jenrick run out of momentum?

There are just ten days to go until the end of the great Tory leadership race. It has been a mammoth affair, stretching back to Rishi Sunak’s resignation at the beginning of July, with twists at every turn. There have been four ballots, in which three different candidates came top: a reflection of the unpredictable nature of the contest. Many thought it unlikely that both Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch could make it to the membership round together and yet, here they are: the final two. The Jenrick campaign got off to a strong start, quickly collecting an array of MP endorsements. The former immigration minister comfortably came top of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Keir Starmer’s Trump problem is getting worse

Keir Starmer thought he was going to have to spend the flight to Samoa for the Commonwealth summit talking about repatriations and UK aid. Instead, the Prime Minister is attempting to hose down a diplomatic spat with Donald Trump. Team Trump have gone on the offensive over Labour staff flying to the US to campaign for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. This is a longstanding tradition within the Labour party, but it is being viewed differently now the party is in government. The Trump campaign has formally accused Labour of breaking US electoral law through ‘blatant foreign interference’ in the presidential election. In the letter, Trump’s team warn that when

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Will the Chancellor widen the public-private pension gap?

Could Rachel Reeves really be so brazen as to lumber private sector employers with having to pay national insurance contributions (NICs) on their employees’ pension contributions – but to spare public sector employers the same burden? That is what is being reported this morning. It has been suggested that, in next week’s Budget, the Chancellor will announce the end of an exemption for private sector employers, which currently ensures employers don’t pay NICs on pension contributions. At the same time, Reeves is proposing to instantly compensate public sector bodies so they are effectively spared from have to bear the burden. This would be crass for two reasons. Firstly it would

Ed West and Niall Ferguson

Kemi vs Robert: who would be the best Tory leader?

Ed West on Robert Jenrick It’s a testimony to the sheer unpopularity of Keir Starmer’s government that only three months after voters gave the Conservatives their biggest electoral kicking in two centuries, Labour has already lost its polling lead. Indeed, it has achieved this so quickly that its opponents still don’t even have a leader. But as much as Labour has failed to impress, its dire poll numbers reflect a wider trend across the western world, where political leaders are now roundly hated almost everywhere. This suggests something more profound is going on. If politicians are disliked, it’s in part because western countries are so badly governed, although Britain seems

Eliot Wilson

What’s the point of the ‘gay ban’ veteran compensation?

Veterans who were dismissed from the armed forces because of their sexuality have criticised the government for the inadequacy of its compensation scheme. With a fund capped at £50 million and potentially as many as 4,000 eligible to seek redress, the average payment would be only £12,500. Military charities have dismissed this as ‘inadequate and unacceptably low’, lacking ‘the sense of justice these veterans deserve’. This is not an issue from the distant past. When I was young, it was taken as read that openly gay people did not serve in the military. That was not to say we thought the armed forces were 100 per cent heterosexual – the

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour-linked censorship group plans to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’

Donald Trump’s campaign has submitted an official complaint accusing Labour of breaking US electoral law over the secondment of volunteers, just days after Nigel Farage accused Labour of ‘election interference’ after party advisers headed stateside to canvass for Kamala Harris. Now leaked documents thought to have originated from a Labour-linked group suggest the lefty lot may also be looking to attack Elon Musk’s Twitter as part of their pro-Kamala efforts. Good heavens… Leaked documents thought to be drawn up by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate – founded by Sir Keir Starmer’s now-chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – have been posted on Paul Thacker and Matt Taibbi’s Disinformation Chronicle substack. The files reportedly

Toby Young Toby Young

Why is Labour axing the Tories’ most successful education policy?

By any measure, the free schools programme has been a resounding success. If you judge schools by how much progress their pupils make between the ages of 11 and 16, free schools occupy the top five positions in the most recent league table and eight of the top ten. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider free schools comprise less than 3 per cent of schools in England and Wales. A free school – King’s maths school – was the top performing sixth form in the country for the ninth year in a row in 2024 and in 2022 was designated ‘best sixth form college of the decade’ by the Sunday Times. Why is Phillipson targeting the most

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The British are coming! Labour’s comedy of errors in the US election

Our hapless Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, can’t even fly to Samoa without another international British embarrassment breaking out. The latest is an angry accusation from Donald Trump’s campaign that Labour is committing the crime of ‘election interference’ in the United States.  ‘The British are coming!’ screamed a typically camp Trump-Vance official press release last night. The campaign denounced Britain’s ‘far-left’ governing party for attempting to subvert democracy by sending almost 100 of its activists across the pond to sway American voters.  ‘The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message – because they know they can’t win the American people,’ said Trump’s campaign manager Susie Wiles. ‘The Harris

Jawad Iqbal

The mystery of the missing Sue Gray 

What has become of Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former Downing Street chief of staff, who was rather unceremoniously removed from her official duties earlier this month? At the time of her defenestration, there was much soothing talk about how she was moving to an important new role as Keir Starmer’s envoy on a new council of nations and regions. This body, according to official briefings, is intended to reset relationships and boost growth in every part of the UK. The new job was supposed to start immediately as part of a seamless transition that saw her replaced as chief of staff by Morgan McSweeney, who oversaw Labour’s victorious election