Politics

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

Monday

Jonathan Spyer

Netanyahu won’t hand Hamas an easy victory

The latest information seeping out from the negotiations for an end to the war in Gaza suggest that agreement between the sides remains out of reach. According to a report by Axios today, Hamas yesterday rejected an updated US proposal, claiming that the new formula aligned with attempts by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to raise ‘new conditions and demands with the aim of undermining the mediators’ efforts and prolonging the war’. While one should not rule out the possibility that we are the recipients of a messaging strategy designed to secure further concessions in the negotiations, it does appear that the talks are floundering on substantive gaps between the

Steerpike Steerpike

Majority of Brits believe UK is heading in wrong direction

Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t exactly had the easiest start to his premiership – what with the recent riots, the country’s financial woes and today’s move to activate emergency measures in prisons. And now it appears that the PM’s popularity with the public has taken a hit too. New Ipsos polling reveals the Prime Minister’s net favourability rating has plummeted from his post-election score of +7 to 0. While Starmer is still the most-liked politician in the poll – and has a higher score than the likes of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak two months into their premierships – it transpires that more than half of Brits believe that things in

Danny Shaw

Prison cells are now being rationed

The announcement from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is couched in bureaucratic language, but there is no disguising it. ‘Process activated to manage prisoner movements’, said the headline on the department’s website, making it sound like a few minor procedural rules have been adjusted to help the transfer of inmates. In fact, the ‘process’ is an emergency measure to stop people being sent to prisons which are full.  The system is not working as it should.  The areas worst affected – or as the MoJ puts it those with ‘capacity concerns’ – are men’s jails in the north of England. There, prison cells will, in effect, be rationed. Suspects who were due

James Heale James Heale

Prison overcrowding triggers emergency measures

15 min listen

The fallout from the riots continues as the numbers being processed by the justice system have led to emergency measures being triggered by the government. What does this mean and, given the prison system was at breaking point even before the riots, what happens next?  Also on the podcast, the six Tory leadership contenders have found something they all agree on: opposition to Labour’s proposed change to winter fuel allowance. What does this tell us about future political battles?  James Heale and Isabel Hardman join Cindy Yu to discuss. As Cindy mentions in the episode, the journalist Chris Atkins – who was jailed for five years for tax offences –

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why is the housing market so sluggish?

Is this the first sign of a bounce in the housing market? Property website Rightmove is reporting this morning that enquiries to estate agents so far this month are 19 per cent on August last year. This follows a quarter-point cut in interest rates by the Bank of England (BoE).  Rightmove’s data is forward-looking, in that it represents the first step in the house-buying process: contacting an estate agent for information, or for a viewing. Then again, enquiries are only enquiries – it is a big step from there to securing a mortgage and making an offer, and an even bigger step actually to completing a purchase. The government’s data for completed

Matthew Lynn

Why don’t more millionaires make ‘patriotic gifts’?

The rich are happy to pay more, the broadest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden, and the climate emergency means more money is urgently needed to save the planet. We keep being told that the better off are more than willing to contribute plenty to the government if only they were asked. Groups such as Patriotic Millionaires UK have campaigned for wealth levies, even projecting light shows reading ‘Tax our wealth’ onto the Bank of England to make their point. Meanwhile billionaires such as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and John Caudwell backed Labour at the last election, presumably comfortable with their plans to put up taxes for the better off. In

Steerpike Steerpike

Will John Swinney be forced to resign over Israel meeting?

When it rains for the SNP, it pours. It transpires that the Scottish government’s culture secretary, who met with Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UK, was sent to the rather controversial meeting by none other than First Minister John Swinney himself. Revelations of the encounter have infuriated pro-Palestine party members, with it being understood that hundreds have quit their membership over the matter amidst growing calls for Angus Robertson to resign. Now the latest news that Swinney put his culture secretary up to it has landed the FM in a rather sticky spot… It emerged last week that Angus Robertson had a ‘secret’ encounter with Daniela Grudsky, after the Scottish

James Heale James Heale

Reeves risks a grey backlash over winter fuel grab

A backlash has been steadily growing since Rachel Reeves announced the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance a fortnight ago. Currently, all 11.4 million pensioners receive an extra £200 to help heat their homes every winter, with those over 80 receiving a blanket £300 payment. Under Reeves’ plans, only those receiving pension credit or other means-tested benefits will be eligible for the additional support. It is aimed at saving £1.4 billion for the Treasury’s coffers as part of Labour’s attempts to fill the supposed £21.9 billion ‘black hole’ left by the Sunak government. There is certainly a strong case for asking whether the payments should exist in their current form. The introduction

Alexander Horne

Should extreme misogyny be labelled terrorism?

The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has reportedly ‘ordered a review’ of Britain’s counter-extremism strategy. According to the Daily Telegraph, she was minded to treat ‘extreme misogyny’ as terrorism for the first time. It is suggested that the review would be completed later in the autumn, and that a new counter-extremism strategy would be launched early next year. When discussing this issue, it is tempting to use the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism’ interchangeably. In law, however, they are not identical and should not be conflated. The definition of terrorism is contained in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and captures actions, or threats of action, designed to influence the government,

James Heale James Heale

Prison overcrowding triggers emergency measures

At last, it’s happened. After months of warnings, the government has today activated emergency measures to ease prison overcrowding. Across the north of England defendants waiting for a court appearance will be kept in police cells until prison space is available. The system, known as ‘Operation Early Dawn’, was activated this morning – the second time in fourth months. Under the measures, defendants will only be summoned to a magistrates’ court when a space in prison is available. Prior to this, they will be kept in police holding cells or released on bail while they await trial. Prisons in the North East and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside and

David Shipley

Why do prison staff keep having sex with inmates?

As I read last week’s Steerpike exclusive on the thorny topic of ‘inappropriate relationships’ between prison officers and prisoners, my mind turned to Wandsworth in 2020, and a particular young woman officer whose behaviour was often far from appropriate. She would start conversations of a sexual nature with prisoners, asking what kind of pornography they enjoyed, and whether she was our type. She’d often touch our arms or chests, or brush against us when passing on the narrow landings. I’m not aware that she ever went further than that, but I always felt her interest in criminals went far beyond the professional. None of us ever made a complaint. In

Steven Fielding

Where is Keir Starmer’s joy?

‘Thank you for bringing back the joy’. So effused Tim Walz to Kamala Harris whose new-found position as Democratic nominee for the US presidency has turned the race for the White House upside down. You might expect Walz, Harris’s pick for vice president, to say nice things to his boss. But in terms of crowd numbers, their enthusiasm and the polls, Harris – the dancing, laughing, Happy Warrior – really has made a striking impact on the American public, much to Donald Trump’s consternation. Starmer finds it hard to communicate anything more uplifting than stolid competence The contrast to when Joe Biden was the Democrats’ presumptive candidate is remarkable. Of

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Now Sue Gray’s son is in the firing line

It seems that bad headlines run in Sue Gray’s family. After a week of newspaper reports suggesting that Keir Starmer’s chief of staff is to blame for the government’s ails, now it is the turn of her son to face the wrath of Fleet Street. Liam Conlon, who was elected last month as the MP for Beckenham and Penge, has quickly been earmarked as one to watch. Within days of his election, he was appointed as a parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Transport. Talk about a rapid rise: perhaps he knows someone at the top? Unfortunately for Conlon, his new appointment has landed him in a spot of

Julius Strauss

Near the Russian border, Ukrainians are delighted about the Kursk attack

The road from the Ukrainian city of Sumy to the Russian border gave just a foretaste of the fighting 20 miles ahead. We passed tanks on transporters, armoured vehicles, and occasionally an olive-green ambulance with flashing lights speeding the Ukrainian wounded away from the battlefield. In dusty half-deserted villages, stray dogs roamed and a few locals still moved around on Soviet-era bicycles. But mostly we saw 4x4s emblazoned with the white triangle that is the mark of troops taking part in Ukraine’s attack on the Russian region of Kursk. There was almost unanimous support for the first attack on mainland Russia since the second world war It is a little

Saturday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

What are Sue Gray’s plans for the civil service?

21 min listen

Labour is planning to reform the civil service into five ‘missions’ that will lead the agenda, moving away from the purely departmental way of arranging priorities at the moment. Cindy Yu talks to James Heale and Jill Rutter from the Institute for Government and UK In a Changing Europe (and a former civil servant) about what these plans really mean. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Richard Madeley, Cindy Yu, Lara Prendergast, Pen Vogler and James Delingpole

30 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Richard Madeley reads his diary for the week (1:01); Cindy Yu explores the growing trend for all things nostalgic in China (6:00); Lara Prendergast declares that bankers are hot again (11:26); Pen Vogler reviews Sally Coulthard’s book The Apple (17:18); and, James Delingpole argues that Joe Rogan is ‘as edgy as Banksy’ (23:24).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

Ian Williams Ian Williams

The controversial truth about China’s new gas field

The news was seemingly big but the announcement curiously low key. Earlier this month, China declared that it had discovered what it described as the world’s first large-scale gas field in ultra deep waters and not far beneath the seabed. Lingshui 36-1 contained 100 billion cubic metres of gas, said the China national offshore oil corporation (CNOOC), and the data and plans to extract it had been approved by the ‘relevant government authorities’. It did not give a timescale or the precise location of the field – which it merely described as ‘southeast of Hainan’, China’s southernmost island province. It is easy to see why maritime borders matter to Vietnam The

Friday

Owen Matthews

Do we now have proof Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream pipelines?

When three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany were destroyed by unknown saboteurs in September 2022, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak described the bombing as ‘a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards the EU.’ The attack – which knocked out the route through which Germany had previously received 30 per cent of its gas supplies – was designed to ‘destabilise the economic situation in Europe and cause panic before winter,’ Podolyak wrote on Twitter. But there was one crucial detail that Podolyak failed to mention: compelling evidence is emerging that it was not Russia, but Ukraine that organised the ‘terrorist’

Steerpike Steerpike

Prison officer probes soar amid bonking craze

Prison is supposedly a place for wrongdoers to repent and reform – but it seems that even the staff inside are no angels themselves. After a female Wandsworth prison guard was suspended in July for a viral video of her, er, engaging with an inmate, Mr S did some digging into how widespread this phenomenon this really is. And Steerpike can reveal that dozens of prison officers have faced disciplinary action for ‘inappropriate relations’ with inmates or ex-offenders – with 65 probed since 2018 alone. Talk about the screws, eh? This figure was provided by the Ministry of Justice in respond to a Freedom of Information request by The Spectator and includes prison