Politics

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

Tuesday

Rakib Ehsan

Southgate’s strengths were also his undoing

After yet another dose of Euros final heartbreak for England, Gareth Southgate has resigned as manager. Southgate has been manager of England at a time where the overall quality of international football is not as high as it was in the past On paper, Southgate – who led England to two Euro finals and a World Cup semi-final – has done far better than many of his predecessors. One of his vital contributions was successfully managing to move the English national team away from the paralysing culture of club tribalism that defined the so-called Golden Generation of the 2000s. Southgate also naturally understood how the national football team can be

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Two-child benefit cap row – Starmer’s first big test?

13 min listen

Keir Starmer is coming under pressure to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap, introduced in 2017 by the Conservatives. Plaid Cymru, the Greens, Nigel Farage, the SNP, and now some Labour backbenchers are all calling for its removal. Can Starmer hold the line? Elsewhere: in Wales, First Minister Vaughan Gething has resigned after four months in the job, and in the US, Donald Trump has chosen the junior senator from Ohio J.D. Vance as his nominee for Vice-President. What could these developments mean for Labour? Lucy Dunn speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory finances worsen as donations dry up

In a further blow for outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak figures have revealed that donations to the Conservative party this year were not quite as generous as they have been in the past. It transpires that Sunak’s Tories received less than 10 per cent of the donations Boris Johnson managed to wrangle in 2019. And to add insult to injury, the Times reports that the cash-strapped Conservatives are even considering using conference to hold leadership hustings to save funds. Oo er. In 2019, Boris’s Brexit-focused campaign attracted a whopping £19.3 million – over 10 times more than Sunak achieved this year. The outgoing Tory leader brought in just £1.85 million from

Steerpike Steerpike

‘I’m voting for the felon’: Republican National Convention in pictures

To Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the great and the good of the Republican elite have arrived to crown Donald Trump as their presidential candidate once again. After the 2020 convention was hit by Covid, this year’s political jamboree is a full-blown Trump-fest. Hot topics of conversation include his pick of JD Vance for his VP nominee and the platform on which the party will be standing later this year. Wearing their best concoctions of red, white and blue, thousands of Republican delegates have been striding around the Fiserv Forum to hear speeches, purchase merchandise and catch up with comrades, ahead of November’s presidential rematch between ‘the Donald’ and the man he

Jawad Iqbal

How will Labour deal with a problem like JD Vance?

JD Vance, unveiled last night as Donald Trump’s pick for vice-president, has claimed that Britain is ‘the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon’. Vance made the comments at a National Conservatism Conference in Washington on Thursday. This is what he had to say: ‘I was talking with a friend recently. And we were talking about one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation…And I was talking about, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon and we were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts. And then we sort of finally decided maybe it’s actually the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is JD Vance really good news for Labour?

Donald Trump put an end to speculation on Monday over who would be his pick for vice president, with the announcement that JD Vance is the man for the job. With Trump riding high in the polls, that appointment is quickly being studied in the States and Europe for what it could mean for a second Trump presidency, should the Republican candidate return to the White House. So, what does it mean for the UK – and, specifically, Keir Starmer’s government? The decision offers some positives for Labour. He is one of the Republicans that the new Foreign Secretary has made inroads with while in opposition. As I reported earlier

Lucy Dunn

Vaughan Gething gone after just 118 days

It’s been a turbulent morning in Wales. First, four ministers from the Labour group quit over growing frustration at their scandal-ridden party leader Vaughan Gething. That had the intended effect. Gething has announced he will be stepping down as First Minister – making him the shortest-serving FM the country has seen, serving in the post for a mere 118 days. In a statement released this morning, Gething said that he had hoped the summer break would have provided a ‘period of reflection, rebuilding and renewal’ under his leadership, but after this morning’s intervention from his former ministers he admitted: ‘I recognise now that this is not possible.’ Gething’s time in

Yascha Mounk

What the Trump assassination attempt reveals about America

It has now been about 48 hours since Thomas Matthew Crooks, a socially isolated 20-year-old, attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, lightly injuring the former president, and fatally wounding an attendee at his rally. A lot has already been said: about the danger of an escalatory spiral that will take this country ever closer to the brink, for example, and about the need to abjure all forms of political violence. A lot, for now, remains in the realm of speculation: the effect that this event – and Trump’s defiant reaction to it – may have on the upcoming election and, more pressingly, how someone like Crooks could have come within a literal

Angus Colwell

We’ll miss Gareth Southgate

This piece was originally published in a different form on 12 July. Gareth Southgate, who has just resigned as England manager, deserves better than what he got. He is not perfect, as some football journalists imply (you end up suspecting they’re particularly chummy with the right people). But it’s not too much to say that Southgate achieved something special in his eight years.   In 2018, he took England to the semi-finals of the World Cup, the first time since 1990. He took England to the final of Euro 2021, and then repeated the achievement despite playing far worse. True, we went out in the quarters in 2022, but against a France side that would

Steerpike Steerpike

Welsh Labour leader resigns

Another day, another drama. This time it’s in Wales, where Labour leader Vaughan Gething has this morning resigned from his role as First Minister. In a statement the outgoing FM admits he had hope that over the summer period ‘rebuilding and renewal could take place under my leadership… I realise now that this is not possible.’ Gething’s resignation comes after a turbulent morning under fire after four ministers resigned this morning in a mass mutiny. In the space of a few minutes, the Welsh First Minister today lost his economy secretary, culture secretary, housing secretary and counsel general. Talk about an exodus… The Welsh First Minister’s troubles started when he

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Starmer’s plan to stop the boats might not be what it seems

It comes as a relief to learn that Keir Starmer doesn’t really believe setting up a new security organisation to ‘smash the gangs’ will stop illegal immigration in small boats. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper goes around parroting the phrase as if saying it and doing it were the very same thing. It also got Labour through the election – mainly thanks to the Tories never having made their Rwanda plan operational. Yet now it has emerged that increasing the quantity of gold braid and epaulettes via the creation of a new ‘Border Security Command’ is not the only game in town for the Prime Minister. That plan involves doing the

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Le Pen must be glad she isn’t presiding over France’s turmoil

It is bedlam in France. Nine days after the parliamentary elections that plunged the country into chaos, the political class continue to argue among themselves. The left-wing coalition, which won the most seats in the election, can’t agree on who should be prime minister. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, Renaissance, have announced that they won’t work with any MP from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally or Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise. A soldier on patrol at the Gare de l’Est in Paris was wounded by a knifeman, just days before the start of the Paris Olympics The leader of Renaissance in the National Assembly is Macron’s Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal,

Lara Brown

Wes Streeting’s puberty blocker ban makes sense

Actions speak louder than words. In one of the first tests of his tenure, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting has put clinical evidence and child welfare above ideology and intimidation in pledging to persist with a ban on the use of puberty blockers for children. Streeting confirmed that he intends to retain a ban on the prescription of puberty blockers to under 18s across both NHS organisations and at private clinics. JK Rowling has described the move as ‘humane’ and ‘considered’. She’s right. There are no shortage of challenges facing the new Health Secretary ‘Puberty blockers’ (known more accurately as gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) can halt the production of sex hormones. Some of the known,

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Trump’s VP says UK will be first Islamist nuclear power

Donald Trump has chosen JD Vance as his US vice-presidential running mate – but the author of Hillbilly Elegy has some, erm, interesting views on the UK. At a conference last week, Vance said that the UK could become ‘the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon’ after Labour’s landslide election victory. He told an audience at the National Conservatism event: ‘I have to beat up on the UK – just one additional thing. I was talking with a friend recently. And we were talking about, you know, one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation, though, of course, the Biden administration doesn’t

Monday

Ben Domenech

JD Vance is a loyal Maga man

The most surprising aspect of Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate is how unsurprising it is, following months of debate as to the best choice for the GOP.  The number of candidates considered seriously by Trump was a much shorter list than the wide swathe initially announced as being asked for background materials, and Vance was always at or near the top. He has an exterior of political celebrity that Trump found appealing, a compelling life story retold across platforms – the combination of a blue-chip pedigree and military experience and a sense of humour that bound him closely with Donald Trump Jr.  Victory,

Jacob Heilbrunn

What does JD Vance want?

With his selection of JD Vance as his running mate, Donald Trump has signaled that he doesn’t simply want to defeat Joe Biden. He also wants to crush the last vestiges of the Republican establishment. No other politician can help him carry out a Maga revolution in Washington more ruthlessly and effectively than Vance. Forget the pundits who predicted that Trump would take a more emollient approach. Forget the talk about trying to be a unifier. Forget the speculation about the assassination attempt changing him. Instead of doing what many conservatives have done in the past — waver, flinch, compromise — Trump is going all-in. There will be no Treaty

James Heale James Heale

Trump picks JD Vance as running mate

After all the speculation, it’s now official: JD Vance will be Donald Trump’s running mate in November. The subject has been the obsession of delegates here in Milwaukee on day one of the Republican National Convention. In typical Apprentice style, Trump has allowed speculation to build for weeks, as the media picked over various candidates, before picking his favourite as it reached a climax.  As one of two Senators from Ohio, Vance will be entrusted to carry the swing state’s crucial 17 electoral college votes in four months’ time. He will have been picked for his potential appeal to working-class voters in the critical battleground states of the wider Midwest. If Trump

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What change will Labour’s Justice Secretary bring?

There has been much attention over the past week over how new MPs have chosen to be sworn in. This new parliament is the most openly non-religious in history. Around 40 per cent of MPs, including the Prime Minister, chose to take the secular affirmation rather than a religious oath. Half the new Labour cabinet followed Sir Keir Starmer in doing so. But this afternoon one of his cabinet has made history doing the opposite. Shabana Mahmood has been sworn in as Justice Secretary. She is the second woman to take the role (Liz Truss was the first), and she is the first Muslim – taking her oath on the

Jawad Iqbal

Yes, David Lammy’s old tweets are a problem

David Lammy was always a somewhat implausible choice as foreign secretary. His historical reputation for mouthing off on social media on a range of topics – not least Donald Trump’s fitness for office – seemed a blatant hostage to fortune.  His ill-judged tweeting has come back to haunt him this weekend. A 2019 tweet from Lammy is what’s caused new embarrassment. Trump said there had been no president who had been ‘treated so badly’ as he had. In response, Lammy said: ‘4 US Presidents  have been assassinated snowflake.’ That’s not the kind of language to be expected of someone who will end up as foreign secretary. In 2018, Lammy called then-President

Steerpike Steerpike

The National U-turns over Anglo-bashing splash

Oh dear. The National is renowned for neither grace nor charm and Saturday’s front page was no exception. Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper sparked outrage this weekend after it splashed a rather, er, creative cartoon across its cover a day ahead of the Euros final. When the Jocks failed to progress through the tournament – instead claiming the record for the most consecutive eliminations from the group stage – the august journal that is the National turned its attention to anglo-baiting instead. Quelle surprise… The day before England played Spain in the finals, the Nat-obsessed journal decided to depict a rather large red-faced, bare-chested, tattooed England fan as a football being