Politics

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

Saturday

David Shipley

How prison changed Julian Assange – and me

Julian Assange was a changed man when he walked free from Belmarsh prison in south London this week. The Wikileaks founder’s appearance was radically different from when he was arrested outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2019. It was a striking example of what prison can do to a person. The images of Assange – whose relief at being free was palpable – made me revisit my own time behind bars and what it did to me. Even the looming prospect of being locked up – the eighteen months from charge to sentencing had been very hard – changed me beyond recognition. I went back to my own photos

Annunziata Rees-Mogg

Why I’m backing the Tories over Reform

You can often tell a lot about people, not by what they say but how they say it. Three weeks ago, I appealed to you to help me make up my mind, as a lifelong Tory, as to how to vote in Boston and Skegness, the constituency in which I live. Many of you kindly responded. Nearly all had a tone of slight despair, much mistrust and a smattering of anger. As far as my experience goes, Reform is the Church of Nigel The two main protagonists in my piece also contacted me. First was Matt Warman, the local Conservative candidate who is defending a 25,000 majority. Warman, as I wrote in

Michael Evans

Is America fit to lead the West?

Foreign policy rarely plays a significant role in a US presidential election. Domestic issues, the economy, money in the pocket, jobs, immigration, these are what voters are most concerned about. But this time, it could be different. The first TV debate between President Biden and Donald Trump seemed focused on one thing: is Biden the man to trust to lead the western alliance for another four-year term? Or, as Trump insinuated, is he so weakened and fragile that none of the adversarial leaders in the world have any respect for him, let alone fear him? For America’s allies, Biden’s lacklustre performance will have caused considerable anxiety Fear, it seems, is

Daniel DePetris

The Biden-Trump debacle doesn’t mean America is in decline

There’s no point sugarcoating it: the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a complete mess. Biden was listless, frail and confused. Trump was defiant, ranting and often incoherent. Kim Darroch, Britain’s former ambassador to the United States, summed it up well. ‘Every answer from Trump, if you listen to them carefully, is a mixture of wild exaggeration and total fantasy…his performance is pretty terrible too, but it was fluent and confident nonsense rather than stumbling, losing my train of thought nonsense.’ I suspect most Americans would agree with him. Yet it’s important to resist the temptation to extrapolate from a single event. Domestic politics is one

Friday

Angus Colwell

Israeli minister’s Labour warning

Britain’s general election campaign is being watched around the world, especially in countries that have relied on our support. One of those countries is Israel, where I spent a few days earlier this week as part of a Europe Israel Press Association delegation. I write about it in next week’s magazine, but there was one exchange that stands out. I met Amichai Chikli. He’s Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism, is a member of Benjamin Netenyahu’s cabinet, and also of his Likud party. His job is to look after ties between the State of Israel and Jewish people. It’s a big task: the ministry’s website says the ‘Israeli

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Michelle Obama run? The runners and riders to replace Joe Biden

After a lamentable performance in Thursday’s debate, much of the Democrat press corps is demanding that Joe Biden step aside. Last night, the New York Times ‘Editorial Board’ said that, ‘to serve his country’, the President must go. If the octogenarian President were to throw in the towel, who could possibly replace him? Below are the bookies’ favourites, with Mr S running an eye over their odds and likely chances come November against ‘The Donald’… Gavin Newsom – 10/3 ‘You don’t turn back because of one performance’, said Gavin Newsom after last night’s debate. ‘What kind of party does that?’ He knows the answer: the kind of party that wants

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Biden’s debate disaster

16 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to pollster Patrick Ruffini about the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Just how bad was it and can Biden survive his performance? They discuss the reaction to the debate, including a surprising theory going around Republican circles.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

America is in trouble if Gavin Newsom succeeds Biden

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California is everywhere at the moment, earnestly assuring Americans of his unwavering loyalty to poor, senile Biden, while at the same time frantically pitching to replace him. This sort of deep duplicity comes quite naturally to Newsom, who is, God help America, a huckster of a very familiar sort.  It’s astonishing that anyone who’s presided over this mess could be a feasible candidate for president, yet here we are Back in the late 1990s, when I lived in Dallas, Texas, I became fascinated by television evangelists. They were snake-oil sellers to a man, offering healing or ‘financial blessings’ in exchange for donations – usually a

Steerpike Steerpike

The New York Times turns on Joe Biden

Politics is a fickle business. One day, the idea that Joe Biden is unfit to be president is heresy; the next it is progressive orthodoxy. No greater example of this can be found than in the comment pages of the New York Times. Overnight, the great-and-the-good of liberal opinion has turned on their former hero, delivering a series of withering verdicts on the 81-year-old White House incumbent. ‘Joe Biden failed at his key task,’ began Josh Barro ‘showing voters he’s still cut out for the presidency.’ ‘Biden cannot go on like this’ declared Frank Bruni; Jamelle Bouie called him ‘raspy and stumbling.’ He ‘looked ancient and sounded lost,’ concluded Clinton

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Meloni is furious at the EU’s centrist stitch-up

The European Union has reached an agreement on the bloc’s political leadership for the next five years – and in the process again demonstrated that ineptitude is no barrier to promotion. The 27 leaders of the EU have reappointed Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission. Estonian Kaja Kallas is the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and António Costa has been nominated as president of the European Council. The nominations of von der Leyen and Kallas must be ratified by the European Parliament next month but Costa, the former Socialist prime minister of Portugal, has been endorsed by his peers and will take office on 1 December. Kallas

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Democrats can’t pretend to be shocked by Joe Biden’s decline

What a difference a week makes. Last week, White House spinners and Democratic pundits were insisting that clips of US president Joe Biden appearing to freeze up, slur his words and generally show his age at various public events were selectively edited ‘cheap fakes’ – tawdry, low-tech misinformation put about by the scurrilous right-wing media. Now, after Biden froze up, slurred his words and generally showed his age during last night’s first televised presidential debate of 2024, in front of tens of millions of Americans and in the full glare of the international media, they’ve suddenly changed their tune. Democratic pundits and politicians have finally had to concede that the president is clearly very

Steerpike Steerpike

Channel 4 hit back at Reform over ‘actor’ activist claims

When you’re in a hole, stop digging. It seems that those words of wisdom aren’t being heeded by Reform as the party battles to handle the fall-out from last night’s Channel 4 exposé. The broadcaster released an undercover report into the party’s campaign in Clacton, featuring examples of anti-migrant rhetoric, homophobia and one canvasser called Andrew Parker ‘making racist and offensive remarks’. Parker was swiftly booted out of the party but attention has now focussed on his professional background as a part-time actor. Both Reform’s leader Nigel Farage and party chairman Richard Tice have been quick to jump on suggestions that this might explain his comments in the programme. Farage wrote

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Biden’s legacy has been left in tatters

Joe Biden did not simply alter his chances at winning a second term last night. He altered his legacy. It will remain forever changed, regardless of the outcome in November. In 2020 Biden was chosen to be president – first by his party, then by the public – to take some toxicity and radicalism out of the debate. This centre-left Democrat (or centre-left compared to the rest of his party, at least) had a decades-long history of working with his Republican counterparts. He had the once common, now miraculous, ability to get along with (and even on occasion praise) politicians outside of his own party.  This was a dereliction of

Yascha Mounk

Democrats have led America to the brink of the abyss

Before Thursday’s debate, the leading contender to win the upcoming presidential election was already Donald Trump, a man whose first stint in the White House provided all the necessary evidence that he is spectacularly ill-suited for the job. During that term in office, Trump ruled rashly and selfishly. He lavished praise on his appointees before firing scores of them for incompetence or insubordination. He picked constant fights with the independent institutions that preserve the separation of powers. And when he lost a hard-fought race, he refused to concede defeat, inspiring a mob to assault Congress, and breaking the key norm that has sustained the American Republic for the past centuries.

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Biden and Harris must go

For months US Democrats have been wondering why voters were not supporting Joe Biden. He has been a good president, and enacted many worthy reforms. Donald Trump, by contrast, is clearly a dictator in the making. The idea that American voters have elderly relatives and (love them though they do), know that an 81-year-old cannot take on a tough job, let alone stay in post until he is 86, did not seem to occur to them. You are in a fight to save your democracy. You can’t expect others to do your fighting for you Ah, Democrats were saying only this week, Trump is as rambling and senile as Biden. Maybe, but you need

Steerpike Steerpike

Fact check: how many of Biden’s debate claims stack up?

Most presidential debates tend to be underwhelming but last night certainly was not one of them. Much of the subsequent coverage focused on Joe Biden’s hesitant, stumbling performance, prompting Donald Trump at one stage to remark that ‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.’ But Mr S was more struck by the sheer number of times that Joe Biden seemed to make statements that were either misleading – or simply downright untrue. Below are eight of the worst instances… Trump ‘bleach’ comments on Covid Biden began the debate by accusing Trump of not taking the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Will Biden survive his debate implosion?

13 min listen

The Democrats wanted and needed a compelling performance from Joe Biden last night: a rebuttal to the concerns about his age and ability. Instead, his performance was disastrous. Is there any way he can survive this performance? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and Sarah Elliott, director of the UK-US special relationship unit at the Legatum Institute. 

Steerpike Steerpike

Biden’s descent: the five worst debate moments

Can Joe Biden cling on? That’s the question being asked in Washington DC after a painful performance from the US President in the first debate of the contest. While there’s still plenty of time between now and the November election debate, even dedicated Democrats are struggling to shrug off Biden’s performance. There’s already talk that the upcoming Democrat convention in August could provide on opportunity to change course. So, how bad was it? To let readers decide for themselves, Mr S has compiled Biden’s five worse debate moments. Warning: painful viewing ahead. 1. Medicare JUST IN: Trump seizes the moment after Biden completely froze on stage. Biden: "What I've been

Matthew Lynn

Markets are readying for a Trump victory

If you didn’t have time to watch the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden last night you could have just watched the share price of a little-known Chinese company called Wisesoft instead. Its Chinese name ‘Chuan Da Zhi Sheng’ sounds very like ‘Trump Wins Big’ in Mandarin, and local speculators piled in as it became clear just how catastrophically the incumbent had performed. In reality, that verdict is going to be repeated when Wall Street opens later today. Investors, though, have already made up their minds. Trump is going to win, and nothing can change that now.  The markets are already buying up all the assets that will

Steerpike Steerpike

Full list: every controversial Reform candidate

After storming out of the blocks at the beginning of this campaign, polls suggest that Reform’s support has now tailed off slightly in the past week. So what’s the reason for this? Nigel Farage himself suggested to ITV yesterday that he had been ‘wilfully misinterpreted’ over his Ukraine comments but added that: ‘I think the other thing that’s perhaps had a bigger impact is we’ve just had too many candidates who’ve said stupid things. I think that’s perhaps the reason that we’ve dropped off a little bit.’ So who are these candidates saying ‘stupid things’? Mr S has started pulling together a handy guide of Reform’s nominees across the party