Politics

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

Wednesday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How we should deal with Just Stop Oil

One need not cast around for signs that Britain is no longer a serious country, but the indulgence with which Just Stop Oil is treated stands out more than most. The doomsday cult has now sprayed Stonehenge in orange cornflour to protest our failure to shutter every industry in the land and relocate the entire population to a cave. Apologists for these insufferable toerags wave away objections, sighing that it’s just cornflour and no long-term damage has been done. Don’t mistake these excuse-makers for libertarians. The Venn diagram of people who are relaxed about Just Stop Oil’s methods and would also be relaxed if a group called Just Stop Immigration

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

How to save liberalism

41 min listen

In this episode, Freddy Gray is joined by Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and columnist for The Washington Post. They discuss liberalism, the state of America, and identity politics. They also cover Fareed’s new book, Age of Revolutions, which asks one central question: what are the causes of the seismic social disruptions we are going through and the political backlashes that have ensued? 

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Poll puts Tories on lowest seat total in history

How is the Conservative campaign going? Well, according to the latest YouGov poll, things are looking worse for Rishi Sunak and his party than when he called the election. The latest MRP poll from the pollster suggests that were an election held now, the Labour party would return 425 MPs, the Conservatives would come in second on 108 seats and the Liberal Democrats in third on 67 MPs. What will make this particularly uncomfortable is that the figures are less favourable to the Tories than their poll two weeks ago – they are down 32 MPs from the last poll. Meanwhile, Labour are up two from that poll. The big

Steerpike Steerpike

Sunak on course to lose seat, predicts poll

Good heavens. One of the many polls released today has suggested that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could become the first sitting Prime Minister to lose their seat at a general election. The Savanta and Electoral Calculus poll for the Telegraph predicts that the Conservative party could be left with just 53 MPs – with the party leader not being one of them. Crikey. The Telegraph’s MRP poll – which concluded the Tories are on course to face overwhelming defeat from a disillusioned electorate – surveyed approximately 18,000 people from 7-18 June. It concluded that Sunak is predicted to lose his Richmond seat to Sir Keir’s Labour party – although the

Annabel Denham

Working from home won’t fix Britain’s productivity

Why is Britain’s productivity so stubbornly low? Output per worker increased just 0.1 per cent in the year to April. Across swathes of the economy it is in absolute decline.  One theory, posited by those brave enough to voice unfashionable opinions, is that working from home is dragging down productivity growth. This has been dismissed by unions and the Labour party, who go to great lengths to show flexible working boosts output. Workers, they say, will get more done with fewer breaks, take fewer sick days, and are less likely to change jobs.  Such claims should be taken with a pinch of salt. According to new data from the Office for National Statistics,

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

What does Keir Starmer think a ‘working person’ is?

Keir Starmer has promised not to raise taxes on ‘working people’. But who, exactly, is a working person? The definition, it turns out, is not so simple. Or rather, Starmer has particular characteristics in mind that might not line up with how others would interpret that phrase. Speaking on LBC yesterday, Starmer laid out his definition of a working person he would shield from tax rises: ‘people who earn their living,’ he said, who ‘rely on our [public] services and don’t really have the ability to write a cheque when they get into trouble.’  It’s the kind of answer that leads to more questions. In the UK practically everyone (regardless of

Ross Clark Ross Clark

It shouldn’t be surprising that a Muslim son of immigrants is funding Reform

Should it really be a surprise that Zia Yusuf, a Muslim entrepreneur who made his fortune setting up a company that runs an app providing concierge services for posh blocks of flats, has chosen to support Reform? It is clear that Mr Yusuf has not thrown his lot in with Reform in spite of its policies on migration, but because of them. Britain, he says, has ‘lost control of its borders’, adding, ‘my parents came here legally. When I talk to my friends they are as affronted by illegal Channel crossings, which are an affront to all hard-working British people but not least the migrants who played by the rules

Lucy Dunn

Will the SNP manifesto win back disillusioned voters?

‘Is the biggest problem for the SNP at this election,’ a Times journalist quizzed Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney this morning, ‘a deficit of enthusiasm?’ The SNP leader was in Edinburgh, launching the party’s general election manifesto. It focused on public service improvement, eradication of child poverty, worker’s rights and, of course, Scottish independence. But enthusiasm for the party is hitting new lows – and at a time when the Westminster group looks on track to lose over half its seats in the election, was the manifesto enough to convince Scotland’s undecided voters to vote SNP? Independence may be ‘page one, line one’ of the SNP’s manifesto, but it was only first

Iain Macwhirter

When will the SNP admit its independence dream is over?

Line one page one of the SNP manifesto is, as promised, about independence. If the SNP wins a majority of seats it will ‘be empowered to begin immediate negotiations with the UK government to give democratic effect to Scotland becoming an independent country’. Well in your dreams. No one seriously believes that independence is coming, even in the SNP. The leadership has been underplaying independence in this election so far; John Swinney hardly mentioned it in the first leaders debate. The nationalists realise that it is better not to call this 2024 general election any kind of ‘de facto referendum’ as Nicola Sturgeon claimed it would be. This is for the

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Boris Johnson can’t save the Tories from the coming wipeout

Are you beach-body ready? Boris Johnson, who has always projected a joyously uninhibited confidence about his physical form, clearly thinks that he is. The blond bombshell has been basking in Sardinia and is now reported to have a second summer holiday already in the diary which will keep him away from these chilly shores until Wednesday 3 July. So all the speculation about him helping the Tories out on the campaign trail, being a secret vote-winning weapon and reaching the parts that Rishi Sunak cannot reach, turns out to have been nonsense: he hasn’t offered and he wasn’t asked. Seldom have so many column inches been expended so pointlessly. Perhaps

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sunak hits out at defector donor

As the election date draws ever closer, this morning it was the turn of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to face callers on LBC’s phone-in. And as the questions rolled in, the PM found himself doing a rather lot of defending: of his decision to have the national poll in July, on his party’s plans to introduce national service for 18 year olds and of his, um, predilection for Haribos. On public trust, LBC introduced a rather novel way of measuring voters’ faith in their potential leaders. Sunak was told by presenter Nick Ferrari that 60 per cent of people would rather Sir Keir Starmer be their GP than the PM

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Why Sunak will struggle to win the credit for falling inflation

After a three-year saga, inflation has finally returned to the Bank of England’s target. The Office for National Statistics reports this morning that the inflation rate slowed to 2 per cent in the 12 months to May 2024: its lowest point since July 2021. The greatest contribution came from another slowdown in food and non-alcoholic beverages: having once peaked at a staggering 19.1 per cent in 2023, prices have now slowed to 1.7 per cent in the year to May, down from 2.9 per cent in the year to April. It’s a painful reminder of what triggered an early election in the first place Clothing and footwear also played a

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France’s left-wing coalition would unleash migrant chaos on Britain

Emmanuel Macron has described the left-wing coalition’s manifesto as ‘totally immigrationist’. The Popular Front, which brings together Communists, Greens, Socialists and Anti-Capitalists, was formed at the start of last week to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections. While there has been the odd divergence on personnel – notably who should be prime minister in the event the left wins the election on 7 July – one issue on which the Popular Front is agreed is immigration: the more the better. The French left describes immigration as ‘an opportunity’ for the Republic Its manifesto states that once in power it will establish a maritime rescue agency to help bring migrants across the

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour ditches Scottish candidate over ‘pro-Russian’ posts

It’s a day ending in ‘y’ which means that a political party somewhere is having candidate drama. This time it’s Sir Keir Starmer’s lefty Labour lot, who have had to drop their Aberdeenshire North and Moray East candidate over controversial social media posts about Russia and antisemitism. Oh dear… Andy Brown shared contentious posts about the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, in which the nerve agent Novichok was used in an attempt to take the lives of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The links shared by the ex-Labour candidate raised doubts about Putin’s involvement in the attack and suggested that the life-threatening nerve agent did not come from Russia.

Steerpike Steerpike

Why does Labour want to ban these 15 peers?

Following last week’s manifesto launches, Mr S has been looking into the fine print. As part of Labour’s plans to reform the House of Lords, Starmer says that he now wants to forcibly retire British peers at 80 years old when – he believes – they will be unfit for public service. But Steerpike is rather sceptical of how Sir Keir’s grand plans will go down with the second chamber, given the Labour leader will be turfing out some rather high-calibre comrades.  Labour’s manifesto states that ‘at the end of the parliament in which a member reaches 80 years of age, they will be required to retire from the House

Robin Ashenden

The case for not voting at this election

Anyone over the age of 40 can scarcely help comparing this election, or the state of our two main parties, with those of the past. Though in 2024 it seems a choice between dumb and dumber (or grey and greyer), this wasn’t always the case.  The government of Blair, Brown, Prescott and Cook seem like a supergroup compared to the current front bench The first election I could vote in was in 1992, and back then there was a clear difference. Yes, Labour, under Neil Kinnock, had kicked out many of the hard left and moved to the centre-ground, but it was more a question of style. The Tories wore

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Tory member behind anti-Reform attack ad firm

Are the Tories feeling the heat from Reform? Apparently so, if online adverts are anything to go by, with London-based Facebook users complaining of an increase in online adverts targeting Nigel Farage’s party. The latest example involves an advert which tells social media users ‘Vote Reform, Get Labour’ — a phrase trotted out regularly by numerous Tory politicians. Facebook rules say that when an advert is about ‘social issues, elections or politics’, those paying for the adverts ‘are required to disclose who paid for the ad’. In this case, the advertiser has been listed as ‘3rd Party Ltd’. On 3rd Party Ltd’s website, the organisation says it is registered with

Ross Clark Ross Clark

What’s the real reason Jim Ratcliffe is backing Starmer?

On the face of it, there could hardly be a better example of a turkey voting for Christmas than the news that Jim Ratcliffe has come out and backed the Labour party. Yes, a Brexiteer who owns one of Britain’s six oil refineries really is throwing his weight behind Keir Starmer, a man who wanted to frustrate Brexit through a second referendum and whose party is committed to speeding up net zero by refusing to issue new licenses for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea and by decarbonising all power by 2030. Clearly, Ratcliffe is not stupid, so is he suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, or is there some

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is Boris back to save the day?

12 min listen

If you’re a Twitter user, you might have seen more of Boris Johnson than usual. He’s been making videos to endorse selected candidates from his holiday in Sardinia. Might he make a bigger return to the election campaign? Is he the man that could save the Tories from Farage – and does he want to?  James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson.