Politics

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

Thursday

18 Jul 2024

Why Trump forgave J.D. Vance

It shows a remarkable level of confidence from Donald Trump that he’s chosen for his running-mate the man who once called him ‘America’s Hitler’. J.D. Vance, the 39-year-old junior senator from Ohio, made the private comment in 2016, as he rose to fame off the back of his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy. The book recounts what it was like to grow up in a deprived rust-belt town, where his family and neighbours had ‘no college degree’ and ‘poverty’s the family tradition’. Vance escaped by joining the US Marine Corps, which included a tour in Iraq. Once home, his degrees from Ohio State University and Yale took him to California, where he

Wednesday

17 Jul 2024

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak looks much happier in opposition

When Rishi Sunak was prime minister, he often appeared merely to be commentating on events, rather than in charge of them. Perhaps that is why he looks so comfortable as leader of the opposition now. He has been giving very good speeches since losing the election, and both he and his party look rather relieved to be out of government. They are currently in the opposition honeymoon period, before the reality of no-one being interested in what you have to say really hits. Sunak’s response to the King’s Speech today was generous and thoughtful. It included some amusing jokes, including his advice to the rising stars on the opposite benches:

Oscar Edmondson

What was missing from the King’s Speech?

16 min listen

Labour has set out its ambitious missions in the King’s Speech to open a new parliament today. On the podcast, Oscar Edmondson speaks to Katy Balls and former Labour advisor John McTernan about what was expected – and what was missing – from the legislative agenda. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Isabel Hardman

Starmer announces child poverty taskforce to stave off revolt

Keir Starmer has tried to stave off a revolt on the two-child benefit cap by announcing a child poverty taskforce. The Prime Minister told the Commons that the taskforce would ‘devise a strategy to drive the numbers down’, and that it would not just focus on one policy area. He was responding to an intervention on his King’s Speech address to the Commons from one of his own backbenchers, Sarah Owen, who asked him for assurances that he ‘personally takes this issue very seriously’. It was the first intervention on Starmer’s speech, and underlined the strength of feeling on the Labour benches, let alone across the House of Commons, about

Steerpike

Truss attacks civil service over King’s Speech document

Today’s King’s Speech was filled to the brim with bills – the most jam-packed since 2005. While Sir Keir can’t be accused of submitting a lightweight list of announcements, some of his political opponents have been quick to criticise. One of these is former prime minister Liz Truss, who is particularly displeased about how much her own name came up in Labour’s legislative agenda. Within half an hour of the announcement, Truss took to Twitter with a scathing post about Starmer’s plans. Slamming the Prime Minister for having ‘no idea about the change Britain needs’, the former Conservative leader blasted today’s speech for expanding ‘the power of the unelected state’

Lucy Dunn

Every bill announced in Labour’s King’s Speech

King Charles has now finished taking part in the state opening of parliament for the first time as monarch. The purpose of today’s King’s Speech was to set out the government’s legislative agenda for the upcoming parliamentary session, the first since the general election. Sir Keir Starmer has put forward a big government programme that promises to ‘always put the country first’. It will be based upon ‘security, fairness and opportunity for all’, with a heavy emphasis on economic stability and the need for decisions to be ‘consistent with its fiscal rules’. In a lengthy statement by the King, the new Labour government announced the highest number of bills since

Kate Andrews

The Tories must share the blame for Labour’s illiberal smoking ban

When Rishi Sunak called a summer election, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill didn’t make the pile of ‘wash up’ legislation to be rushed through Parliament. His plans for a generational smoking ban, and a crackdown on vapes, were paused. But this was never going to be more than a brief delay. Labour has used the King’s Speech today to confirm that it will see Sunak’s smoking ban through. Or rather, the party might argue that it’s reclaiming the idea. It was Labour, after all, that floated the policy before the Tories adopted it at their party conference last year. One day, a 63-year-old will be able to purchase a tobacco

Gavin Haynes

JD Vance has some weird influences

JD Vance, at 39, would be the first millennial vice president. But not only is he a new generation, he might also be the first American vice president to take his intellectual armoury from the extremely online world of the New Right. Vance says he is ‘plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures’. He draws from a whole new political lexicon, one that would seem baffling to his more starched colleagues in the Congress. Even someone like Alexandra Ocasio Cortez – 34 years old – is taking her cues from a more orthodox political tradition. The New Right is a tag that has been worn by many radically different

Matthew Lynn

Labour will regret making the OBR all powerful

It might seem like smart politics. And it will reassure the markets. The legislation in the King’s Speech today to ensure all Budgets are assessed by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) no doubt seems like a good idea right now. And yet, there is a catch. The incoming Labour government has now completed the job started by Gordon Brown as chancellor back in 1997, and completely outsourced economic policy to ‘independent experts’. At some point, it is going to regret that decision. It is not hard to understand why the powers of the OBR have been increased in the King’s Speech unveiled today. It will allow Labour to keep

Stephen Daisley

Europe should prepare for president Vance

Foreign policy will have been low on Donald Trump’s list of considerations when deciding to anoint JD Vance as his running mate. The Ohio senator, a former detractor turned loyalist of the Republican nominee, is now close with Team Trump, and Team Trump rewards loyalty above all else. Vance is also a populist and speaks to the very voters (white, non-graduate, rust belt) Trump must attract if he is to return to the Oval Office. Vance’s relationship with Trumpism has been a complicated one but his selection can be seen as a legacy pick that consolidates the Maga agenda’s hold on the Republican party for several more election cycles. The

Alexander Horne

Labour’s plan for the Lords looks unwise

Labour’s plans for Lords reform, announced during the King’s Speech this morning, do not come as a great surprise. It promised measures to ‘modernise the constitution’ and ‘remove the right of hereditary peers’ to sit and vote in the Lords via a House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. These plans were heralded in the Labour party manifesto, which pledged ‘immediate reform of the House of Lords’. They are, nonetheless, both unambitious and in some respects unwise. These changes will not bring Labour much credit The reforms proposed in the manifesto included the removal of the remaining 92 hereditary peers; the introduction of a compulsory retirement age; a revised participation requirement

Alexander Larman

What did Charles make of his King’s Speech?

The protesters were out, as usual, but nobody was paying them a lot of attention. For all the angry bellowing and sign-waving of ‘Not my King!’ and ‘Down with the Crown’, most observers were not focusing on a small, disaffected rabble outside parliament, but instead on the constitutional and historical significance of the occasion. The first monarch’s speech setting out the agenda of a Labour government for nearly 15 years; the first King’s Speech in eight decades; the first time that a king had delivered a speech for a new – and, allegedly, transformative – Labour administration since 1945. It was an occasion rich in ceremonial and political symbolism alike,

Steerpike

Green leader opposes green pylon plan

Good heavens. Now it seems that Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay has forgotten his own party’s raison d’être. Today the MP for Waveney Valley has confirmed he will oppose new electricity pylons in his East Anglian constituency – pylons that would be used to transport, er, green energy from offshore wind farms to the grid. How interesting… Ramsay first hinted that he was planning to oppose the 100-mile corridor of pylons at the start of the month in a conversation with the Beeb – and today his justification for his decision is that the route is unpopular locally and he’s a ‘constituency MP’ first. It’s certainly not the first time that the

Isabel Hardman

Everything you need to know about the King’s Speech

The big theme of today’s King’s Speech is ‘mission-led’ government, with economic growth, house building, workers’ rights and devolution the key elements. King Charles told the House of Lords that ‘taken together these policies will enhance Britain’s position as a leading industrial nation and enable the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can promote growth and wealth creation’. There are six bills designed to deliver these plans. One of the things about a King’s Speech is that what follows in the parliamentary session often bears little resemblance to what the monarch has said The Budget Responsibility Bill will force every fiscal event to be subject to an independent

Susanne Mundschenk

France is in limbo as its politicians continue to battle it out

France’s Gabriel Attal has resigned as prime minister. President Emmanuel Macron even made a ceremony out of it. And yet, here we are: still with Attal as prime minister in a caretaker role. They say this is likely to continue until September, or perhaps even longer. No government proposal has emerged since the elections. The left-wing alliance cannot agree over whom to nominate as prime minister and when. Forget the feverish haste after the elections. The left is now taking its time. Did they miss the moment, and will it be too late for them? The left-wing alliance cannot agree over whom to nominate as prime minister During the ten

Katy Balls

The race to replace Rishi as Tory leader is about to begin

Who will lead the Conservative party in opposition? By Tory party conference, we should have the answer. After much debate about the rules and timing of the contest to succeed Rishi Sunak, a timetable is expected to be announced later this week when the party board meets. There are two options being discussed at present: one in which the contest finishes just before party conference, this year held in Birmingham at the end of September; and another whereby the contest is completed at the event. Under this second scenario, the final hustings could take place on the Sunday night, voting close on the Monday, a winner announced by the Tuesday

Eliot Wilson

Starmer’s ‘defence review’ is much-needed

While this new government’s approach to many issues – the NHS, prisons, China policy – seems to start with a ‘review’, a re-examination of defence policy seems reasonable. New Labour launched a Strategic Defence Review shortly after taking office in 1997. The coalition did a defence review in 2010, and David Cameron’s Conservative government undertook a review in 2015. On 16 July, the Ministry of Defence announced the details of the latest Strategic Defence Review. The headline is that, for the first time, it will be conducted by outsiders rather than government officials. Three eminent defence and security policy experts will lead the process: supported by former US National Security Council director

Ross Clark

Labour’s war on nimbys won’t work

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has promised the ‘most ambitious programme of devolution this country has ever seen’, with new powers for local councils and more directly-elected mayors. But this will not apply, it seems, when it comes to planning. On the contrary, the centrepiece of the King’s speech today will be planning reforms aimed at reducing the powers of local communities to block housing and infrastructure developments. Powers will be centralised, with central government taking it upon itself to rule on more housing and infrastructure projects deemed to be in the national interest – just as Energy Secretary Ed Miliband did last week when he approved three large solar farms

Kate Andrews

Don’t blame Taylor Swift for stubborn inflation

The UK’s inflation rate is comfortably back to target: inflation held at 2 per cent in the 12 months leading up to June, the Office for National Statistics confirmed this morning. This rate is unchanged from last month. Yet this morning’s news is stirring up doubts that the Bank of England will go for its first rate cut in August. This is because, while the headline rate is back to the Bank’s target, the services annual rate remains sticky, unchanged from 5.7 per cent. Big reductions in clothing and footwear – which slowed to 1.6 per cent in the year to June, down from 3 per cent in the year

Andrew Tettenborn

Have the Republicans resolved their abortion dilemma?

The botched assassination attempt on Donald Trump could well generate a wave of sympathy that helps waft him into the White House in November. Another indirect result of those same events may contribute further to this effect. Until the Republican National Convention opened in Milwaukee this week, the GOP had a potentially awkward problem over its stance on abortion rights. Following the attempt on Trump’s life, this has now disappeared. The abandonment of the old hard-line position removes an intellectual difficulty for the Republicans Since the right-leaning Supreme Court a couple of years ago overturned Roe v Wade, suppressed the judge-made constitutional right to abortion that had existed since 1973 and