Politics

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

Thursday

25 Jul 2024

The mystery of Melania Trump

While everybody at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was preoccupied with Donald Trump’s triumphal story after the assassination attempt and the prospect of near-certain victory in November, I dwelled on that low-rumble question of the 2024 election: where’s Melania? She had not made one campaign appearance, nor been at her husband’s side for his myriad courtroom dates. A theme of the proceedings was the adoration of Trump family members for their patriarch. From the stage, his sons and their wives extolled him as the greatest family man of all time. But no Melania. Finally, at the last moment on Thursday, when her husband had already left the VIP box,

Katy Balls

‘Stop Kemi’: Inside the Tory leadership contest

On Monday night the Conservatives announced the rules of the party’s leadership contest. The reaction in Labour circles was incredulity that their run of good luck has not yet ended. ‘A three-month contest?’ asked one amazed party figure. Are there any candidates who Keir Starmer’s team fears? ‘I doubt the next Tory prime minister is in this parliamentary party,’ replied a senior Labour politician. The decision to delay picking a new leader until November means Starmer’s government will be, in effect, unopposed as it holds its party conference and then its first Budget. The Tories will be a danger only to each other. Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt will go

Kate Andrews

The curious rise of Kamala Harris

I’m struck just in your presence,’ a news anchor gushed to Kamala Harris in January. The Vice President beamed, nodding for her interviewer to continue. ‘You hear candidates suggesting that a vote for President Biden, because of his age, is a vote for you.’ The reporter paused: ‘And that is hurled as an insult.’ Harris explained that this is the price women pay for professional success – in her case, rising from first female attorney general in California to state senator to Vice President of the United States. ‘I love my job,’ Harris concluded, wrapping up the kind of hard-hitting interview the media tends to throw her way. Insult or

Freddy Gray

Does Donald fear Kamala?

On Monday, Donald J. Trump sent out an urgent campaign memo. ‘Joe Biden just dropped out of the race, and now, his replacement has just been announced,’ it said. ‘It’s me!’ How typically Donald. If Trump were worried about the sudden replacement of Biden with Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket, he’d never show it. He’s already busy pointing towards polls that suggest ‘Lyin’ Kamala’ is the least popular vice president in history. He’s calling her ‘Dumb as a rock’ and emphasising her abysmal performance as Biden’s ‘border tsar’. Trump’s campaign staff, meanwhile, are insisting that they knew all along Harris would at some point be the

Wednesday

24 Jul 2024

Freddy Gray

Will Kamala Harris implode? With Alex Castellanos

36 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by political consultant Alex Castellanos to discuss the candidacy of Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ nominee for President and why, at this moment, she is the biggest threat to Donald Trump – but how long will that last? This was originally recorded for Spectator TV. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Steerpike

Lammy under fire for flight ‘hypocrisy’

Another day under a Labour government and – you guessed it – another U-turn. Now ministers are in the spotlight after it emerged that David Lammy used the government’s private plane to jet off to India today for international trade talks. The same private jet, Mr S would remind readers, that Sir Keir’s lefty lot bashed the Tories for using when they were in government. Rules for thee, but not for me… When ex-prime minister Liz Truss dared to use the Airbus A321 plane to fly to Australia on official business, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner could hardly contain her disdain. Slamming the then-Tory MP, Rayner remarked at the time:

Lloyd Evans

Keir Starmer will never have it so good at PMQs

Are we going to war? The first PMQs since the election was like a military briefing between the Tory chief and the new prime minister. Rishi Sunak, now opposition leader, began with a few standard noises about Ukraine’s need for more weapons. He urged Sir Keir Starmer to ask the Germans to send ‘long-range missiles’ in addition to those already pledged by the Americans and by us. To strike where, exactly? The rest of the session was a doddle for Sir Keir Sunak then mentioned a fancy new jet-fighter and parroted a phrase from the armourer’s brochure. ‘A crucial sovereign jet capability,’ he called it. He added that Saudi Arabia

Elisabeth Braw

The West must prepare for world war three

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is demonstrating in no uncertain terms that world war three is possible. Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, who is also his country’s former top commander, has suggested that other countries can prepare by learning from what is happening in Ukraine. They certainly can. Better yet, by swiftly preparing their societies for a war like the one now raging in Ukraine, western countries can help prevent another world war. Had institutions, companies and citizens not been so agile, Ukraine would be facing not just a brutal Russian invader but a collapsing society too ‘Is humanity ready to calmly accept the next war in terms of the

Max Jeffery

Why is theft so high?

Figures out today show a country with levels of surveyed crime still at historic lows (just a quarter of the 1995 peak) but with two big exceptions. Personal theft rose by 40 per cent compared with the year before, and shoplifting is at its highest level since records began in 2003. What’s going on? ‘These figures show the disgraceful dereliction of the last Tory government on law and order,’ said Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary. Is this fair? Today’s figures show total crime at roughly half the level the Conservatives inherited from Labour in 2010. Incidents of theft from the person peaked at 708,000 in 2009 – and hit a

Lara Brown

There’s nothing ‘offensive’ about Prince Albert’s Memorial

The Prince Albert Memorial is the latest target of activists seeking to denigrate our past. The Memorial has stood in London’s Kensington Gardens for over 150 years as a moving tribute to Queen Victoria’s love for her husband. But now it has been branded ‘offensive’. Apparently, the sculptures at its base draw on ‘racial stereotypes’. Visitors were warned in a post – which has since been taken down – on the Royal Parks’ website that the memorial represents a ‘Victorian view of European supremacy’ which many today consider ‘problematic’. Really? Royal Parks have chosen to hunt for remnants of Empire in order to condemn them Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced

Steerpike

James Cleverly rules out Reform merger

James Cleverly, the first official Tory leadership contender, has today ruled out a merger with Reform if he becomes Tory leader in November. After announcing his candidacy in an op-ed for the Daily Telegraph, the shadow home secretary was quick to get across the airwaves today. Cleverly secured a prime slot on the Beeb’s Today programme, and it wasn’t long before the former cabinet minister was interrogated on the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. ‘What do you do about Reform as a party, not just Nigel Farage, but Reform? You’re quite split, aren’t you?’ Justin Webb quizzed the former home secretary. Cleverly was having none of it. ‘The

Isabel Hardman

Sunak gives Starmer an easy ride at first PMQs

Another week, another Prime Minister’s Questions featuring Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak arguing across the Commons. Except, of course, the men had swapped sides, with Starmer taking his first session as prime minister, and they were – possibly for the first time ever – quite nice to each other. All the old grudge match lines had gone. There were plenty of references to how civil they were being to each other, plenty of ‘I’m glad to hear the prime minister’ and ‘I will reach out across this House’. Sunak focused all his questions on Ukraine and international affairs, which made it much easier for the two men to be pleasant.

Ian Williams

Why Xi is anxious about Biden stepping down

The Chinese Communist party is rarely shy about highlighting America’s chaotic politics. State media and the CCP’s growing army of bots enthusiastically prowl around western social media, inserting themselves in the most difficult of debates, seeking to sow distrust. So why the relative caution about Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race? In the run-up to Biden’s decision, Chinese media was full of reports on the near-assassination of Donald Trump and on Biden’s mounting political troubles, but less happy about calls for the President to withdraw. According to the China Digital Times, which monitors Chinese media, censors stepped in and removed a widely shared essay titled ‘Switch Candidates. Biden Cannot Beat

Oscar Edmondson

Starmer’s plan to deal with Labour’s hard left

14 min listen

Three weeks in for the new government and we have had our first Labour rebellion. In a vote last night on an SNP amendments to axe the two child benefit cap, seven Labour MPs revolted and have subsequently lost the Labour whip. Parliament’s new awkward squad includes some familiar faces of the Labour left, such as John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana. The cast list is such that it’s unlikely Keir Starmer’s inner circle will lose much sleep about these MPs being without the whip for six months. The bigger question is, will they actually get it back? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike

Liz Truss: Kamala Harris is not up to the job

She’s back! It was less than three weeks ago that Liz Truss lost her seat after suffering the biggest ever swing from Tory to Labour in a general election. But in true Truss style, she’s picked herself up and soldiered on, visiting the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin last week and doing the rounds with U.S broadcasters. In an interview with Fox which has now gone viral she was asked to comment on Kamala Harri’s merits – or lack thereof. ‘I think there have been some brilliant American women in politics but I don’t think Kamala Harris is one of them,’ Truss began, noting how failing to control immigration and

Isabel Hardman

Has Keir Starmer just empowered the Labour rebels?

Keir Starmer has laid down a marker by suspending seven Labour MPs from the whip. The question is: What sort of marker? Will it benefit the Prime Minister in the long run? It is not normal to suspend the whip from an MP for rebelling on a non-confidence matter. The two-child benefit cap is also being retained out of fiscal necessity rather than because it is a key part of Starmer’s vision for the country. So it is an unusual matter to take such a hard line on. The ones who were suspended were what most people would regard as the usual suspects It used to be the case that

Steerpike

Nandy changes her tune on the culture wars

Labour won the election on a campaign of change and its politicians certainly have a knack for, um, changing their minds. Sir Keir has made some fascinating U-turns over the years, and it now appears that Lisa Nandy has a taken a leaf out of his book – rather publicly changing her tune on the culture wars. ‘The era of culture wars is over,’ Nandy proclaimed in her first speech as Culture Secretary earlier this month. ‘For too long, for too many people, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves as a nation has not reflected them, their communities or their lives. This is how polarisation, division and isolation thrives.’

Katy Balls

Starmer’s plan to deal with Labour’s hard left

There was a ripple of shock across the House of Commons on Tuesday night after Keir Starmer withdrew the whip from seven Labour MPs for backing an amendment on lifting the two-child benefit cap. Parliament’s new awkward squad includes some familiar faces of the Labour left, such as John McDonnell and Zarah Sultana. The cast list is such that it’s unlikely Keir Starmer’s inner circle will lose much sleep about these MPs being without the whip for six months. The bigger question is whether they will actually get it back. The first rebellion of the Labour government was always seen as a key test But while it’s the hard left

Sam Meadows

A football chant is causing problems for Javier Milei

When the final whistle blew and Argentina’s players celebrated another Copa America triumph – the icing on the cake of a three-year spell of dominance in international football – few would have predicted that it would cause a rift to appear in government. But, just days and a racism scandal later, that is what appears to have happened. Javier Milei is no stranger to diplomatic incidents. The libertarian ‘anarcho-capitalist’ has called Pope Francis an imbecile and Brazil’s president Lula a communist – but his vice president’s defence of (some) of the Argentina’s players’ use of a racist and homophobic football chant has proven to be beyond the pale. Villarruel was also

Jonathan Spyer

Here’s how Israel can win

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was photographed on his flight to the US earlier this week next to a hat bearing the slogan ‘total victory.’ Those two words somewhat obscure reality: Israel is yet to fully outline what would constitute victory in the currently three-front war (against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Ansar Allah (Houthis) in Yemen). Netanyahu is hardly alone among politicians and statesmen in his preferring vagueness over specificity. Vagueness provides flexibility, and enables a variety of possible end states to be presented as an achievement. You do not have to subscribe to the view held by Netanyahu’s opponents, that the Prime Minister cares only