Politics

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

Monday

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Conservative party Twitter/ X account is deleted

Has Rishi Sunak officially killed off the Tory party? As members of his battered party dusted themselves off to return to parliament this morning, they arrived to discover that the official Conservative Twitter/X account had been deleted. Viewers to the page were met with a message telling them that ‘This account doesn’t exist’ – an ironic turn of events, coming just three days after the party lost two-thirds of its MPs. Talk about timing… After Mr S made some enquiries, it turns out that the truth is slightly less exciting. A party spokesman say that the account was deleted by Twitter/X, not them. It came as a result of an

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Will Reeves be brave enough to take on the eco blockers?

On the eve of the election the then shadow minister without portfolio Nick Thomas-Symonds appeared to be getting Labour’s excuses in early. If an incoming Labour government started to look at the books and realised that things were even worse than they had thought, he said, then the new government’s fiscal policy might have to diverge from the Labour manifesto. He was immediately slapped down by Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies who pointed out that the government’s books are not hidden away in a Whitehall cellar – they already are open to whoever wishes to inspect them. What does Reeves’ have in mind to prevent developments being

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Starmer is prioritising experience in picking his ministerial team

Keir Starmer has finally filled the women and equalities brief in his government with Bridget Phillipson and Anneliese Dodds. Phillipson is the minister for women and equalities, along with her role as Secretary of State for Education. Dodds is minister of state for women and equalities, and has also been appointed a minister of state in the Foreign Office. Starmer is trying to underline that this is a government with bags of experience even after 14 years of Labour in opposition This is an interesting move given how thorny this policy area has become in the past few years. Dodds is well-known within the Labour party for being much more

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Thornberry fumes at Starmer snub

Uh oh. Not everyone in Sir Keir’s Labour party is in celebration mode right now. The Prime Minister has finished dishing out government roles and one MP in particular has voiced her unhappiness about not receiving a position. Passed over for a government post, Emily Thornberry has taken to Twitter to opine on her snub from Starmer. The new PM has instead opted to make Richard Hermer KC – a lawyer who represented Gerry Adams – his attorney general over Thornberry, despite her comfortable win in Islington South last week and her years of experience in the shadow cabinet. In a less than humble statement, the Labour MP and former shadow

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

How Labour’s jail strategy could come unstuck

Let’s talk cobblers. The Prime Minister has responded to the jail space crisis by ennobling the nation’s shoe mender-in-chief James Timpson and making him minister for prisons, probation and parole. This is a bold move but not one without risk. It would only take one high-profile crime committed by a prisoner on early release to plunge the strategy into crisis Timpson has made his fortune out of the ubiquitous key cutting and watch repair outlets that sprout from many big supermarkets. He’s less well known for a passionate interest in penal affairs. He became the first household name retailer to employ carefully screened prison leavers in his shops and they have returned his trust by

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why MPs are braced for an ‘extremely turbulent few years’

Four days on from Keir Starmer’s landslide victory, Westminster is still soaking up the results of the general election. With the Labour leader safely ensconced in 10 Downing Street with a working majority of 181, the Tories are licking their wounds following their worst-ever defeat. The Conservatives’ greatest comfort is that they have managed to remain the official opposition – but research from Focaldata on the pattern of voting sets out the challenge ahead: namely, that the Tories lost ‘a huge amount of their middle-aged voters’. The survey of more than 52,000 respondents finds that Tory voters under 40 tended to switch to Labour whereas those over 40 plumped for

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The Democrats’ greatest fear about Joe Biden

Stick or twist? The gambler’s choice is the Democrats’ awful dilemma as the US presidential election draws ever closer. Do they stick with Joe Biden, their painfully decrepit Commander-in-Chief, who is losing in the polls? Or twist and gamble on replacing him, which could tear the party apart and make Donald Trump’s victory even more likely? The President may already be on borrowed time The news over the weekend showed that the Democrats are already at war with themselves. Biden’s ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos did little to reassure the President’s anxious supporters and Sunday brought more news of House Democrats, and other senior Democratic figures, calling for him to make way. A newly hatched plan for

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Le Pen is still the biggest winner in France’s elections

Ignore most snap verdicts from last night – the big winner in the French parliamentary election was still Marine Le Pen, whose third-place finish was perfectly placed. True, egged on by polls showing it on the verge of an absolute majority, the Rassemblement National (National Rally) over-promised and underdelivered. But, in the topsy-turvy world of French politics in 2024, to lose was to win. Dirty work is about to be done at the Elysée Le Pen fought a competent campaign and her voters aren’t blaming her for failing to take the top of the podium. She’s demonstrated again that she’s highly resilient. Not achieving a majority has done her a

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Rachel Reeves goes for growth on house-building

No one can accuse the new government of moving slowly. Over the weekend Labour gave strong indication that both NHS reform and prison reform are going to be at the top of their agenda. But the staple offer of the new government remains what was promised throughout the election campaign: a sustained campaign to bring meaningful economic growth back to the UK. This morning, Chancellor Rachel Reeves starts to lay out those plans. Speaking to business leaders at the Treasury this morning, Reeves will reiterate that boosting GDP is a ‘national mission’ and the ‘only route’ that will improve ‘the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working

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Sturgeon must apologise for SNP defeat, says Cherry

As Sir Keir Starmer enters his first week as Prime Minister, north of the border the Nats are facing a moment of reckoning. After the SNP’s bruising defeat on Friday, where the party ended up with just nine seats, a number of politicians have spoken out about what they think went wrong. And it’s not good news for Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon… Ex-MP for Edinburgh South West, Joanna Cherry has hit out at her former boss after last week’s rather dire result. Sturgeon owes the party an ‘apology’, Cherry agreed, telling Sky News that ‘I think she does. Nicola Sturgeon was a very strong leader who brooked no debate and

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Macron has left France in chaos

Over a photo of a pensive Emmanuel Macron, the headline on the front of one French tabloid this morning asks: ‘And now, we do what?’ Good question. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal will tender his resignation to the president this morning, although it is by no means certain it will be accepted. Macron could ask him to stay in his post while a government is formed and the Olympics run their course. That may take time given that no party emerged from Sunday’s second round of voting as dominant. In terms of seats won, no single party enjoyed a better night than the National Rally The left-wing coalition of Socialists, Communists,

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Let’s give Keir a chance

I don’t know about you, but I had an odd sort of election. The bits that I thought were going to thrill and excite me did not; and the bits that I thought couldn’t thrill and excite anybody made me feel quite emotional. That is, I gave up on the live coverage at about half two in the morning. Not even the prospect of watching Liz Truss get her cards seemed as appealing as a few hours’ kip. The 1997-style jubilation I might have expected to feel, as a representative of those keen to give Labour a shot at governing, just wasn’t there.  But the following day, as announcements of

Sunday

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Does Emily Maitlis still think Macron’s gamble paid off?

Zut alors! It’s all kicking off in France where the nation this weekend went to the polls for the second round of voting to the National Assembly. Elections are a tricky business at the best of times, let alone in modern France – a nation of 246 varieties of cheese, as De Gaulle despaired. But, not to worry: cometh the hour, cometh the podcasters. On Sunday the exit poll dropped, showing that Marine Le Pen’s party were predicted to come third behind the New Popular Front (NFP), a left-wing alliance, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrists in second place. Among those quick out of the gates with their searing hot takes was

John Keiger John Keiger

Is France heading towards its Sixth Republic?

Against a backdrop of considerable tension – barricaded city centre shop-fronts and 30,000 police on standby – a radically divided France has voted in the second round of the legislative elections. To general amazement, the largest party in the National Assembly is the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) – but none of the major political groupings is able to form a majority government.  So what happens in France now? Who will actually govern? France will probably be ungovernable for some time to come First in line to form a government must be the New Popular Front. But unlike Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) or Macron’s Ensemble, no putative prime minister has

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France stunned as Mélenchon’s Popular Front comes first in election

In a sensational result that not even Jean-Luc Mélenchon himself could have imagined, his New Popular Front looks set to come first in the French elections. Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble party is forecast to be second forcing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), which led the first round, into third place. Mass tactical voting to stop the RN seems to have worked far better than anyone expected. Rather than simply deprive the RN of an overall majority, we have a hung parliament with no clear sense of what happens next. Macron must now negotiate with parties to try to form a coalition government. ‘The will of the people must be strictly

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Braverman refuses to rule out Reform defection

The general election may be done, but that doesn’t mean party drama has come to an end. Suella Braverman is back in the limelight today after an appearance on GB News in which she, er, refused to shut down rumours that she could defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. How curious… The newly elected MP for Fareham and Waterlooville lamented her party’s fall from grace, telling Camilla Tominey that ‘we didn’t deliver on our promises and we were not a Conservative party’. She went on:  Whoever’s leading the party, whoever’s in the party, needs to acknowledge this simple truth: we are facing an existential threat from Reform. And we need

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: the Tory election defeat inquest begins

Jonathan Reynolds on Reform: ‘Now…they will get the scrutiny they deserve’ On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips pointed out that Labour had the smallest vote share of any election-winning party – and asked the business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds if it was sustainable that votes for smaller parties like Reform and the Greens did not translate into seats. Reynolds argued that Labour’s successful campaign under this electoral system gave them a legitimate mandate to govern, and claimed that smaller parties were given ‘far less scrutiny’ because they’re not seen as ‘parties of government’. Reynolds also implied that many people who voted for Reform don’t really know their policies.

Susanne Mundschenk Susanne Mundschenk

The end of Macronism

The second round of French elections this weekend will not mark the end of Macron as president, nor will it be the end of his MPs in the National Assembly. But the radical centrist movement that carried him to power – on a neither left-nor-right mantra – is no more. What happens now? Macron’s potential successors are deeply divided. Edouard Philippe, former prime minister, Bruno Le Maire, a finance minister and Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, all want to rebuild from the centre-right. Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, wants to anchor it on the centre-left. All of them seem to have turned the page on Macron already. All of these

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Can Wes Streeting and Alan Milburn fix the ‘broken’ NHS?

For years, Wes Streeting has spoken about the need for NHS reform but it was never clear if he had an agenda, or this was just verbal positioning. The NHS has more staff (1.4 million) than many countries have people. Plans to reform it need to be laid out carefully, taking years to design and to implement. Getting results by Year Five of a Starmer government would mean serious action at the very start. So far, with Streeting, that is precisely what we have got. We are barely 48 hours into a Labour government, but on health the omens are as better than they have been for quite some time

Coffee House

The complete guide to Labour’s cabinet

Keir Starmer has appointed his cabinet, but who are the men and women who will be running Britain? The Spectator‘s writers, including Katy Balls, Kate Andrews and James Heale give the run down on Labour’s top team: Chancellor: Rachel Reeves Kate Andrews: It is not strictly true to say that the government is out of money. Rachel Reeves is entering a Treasury that is taxing and spending at record levels. But the new Chancellor still has some very difficult choices to make, as it becomes increasingly clear that spending commitments have far-exceeded what the country can currently afford. Reeves is expected to play hardball with her colleagues who want to turn on the