Politics

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

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Gavin Williamson in fresh ‘dirty tricks’ row

Is the master of the dark arts at it again? Sir Gavin Williamson is back in the headlines following a row about an alleged last-minute stitch up in his Staffordshire seat. With Reform riding high in the polls, every Tory MP is fearing for their future, given Richard Tice’s pledge to stand candidates across the country. But that won’t be a problem for Williamson in his newly-created constituency of Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge where the Reform nominee stood down at the very last minute. How convenient eh? Tom Wellings had been confirmed to fight the seat for Reform, having apparently submitted his nomination papers on Wednesday. But with an hour

Margaret Mitchell

Will my generation still remember D-Day?

In the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, just inland of Utah Beach on the coast of Normandy, a crowd had gathered before an outdoor projector to watch the British, French and American heads of state pay respects to those who served and the thousands who gave their lives on D-Day. While the dancing and drinking and celebration of the town’s 80 years of liberation went on around me, I was caught off guard by the small, dignified faces of the veterans’ broadcast on screen. Watching the royals, Sunak, President Biden and President Macron lean down to shake the weathered hands of veterans in wheelchairs, I saw them, for a moment, as leaders

Michael Evans

Why Biden’s Gaza ceasefire proposal failed

Ceasefire deals to end the war in Gaza have come and gone. President Biden’s unexpected announcement of the latest formula for a settlement, supposedly proposed by Israel, has already fallen by the wayside. In fact, Biden’s three-stage ceasefire deal looked remarkably like the previous ones: a six-week halt to fighting and withdrawal of Israeli troops from populated areas, with a release of some hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners; a negotiated Israel/Hamas settlement for a permanent end to the war; and finally, comprehensive reconstruction of Gaza. However, Israel’s attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the growing hostility around the world towards Benjamin Netanyahu’s grim determination to

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

French healthcare shows there’s another way for the NHS

Nigel Farage says the NHS ‘isn’t working’ and has suggested the UK adopt a French-style heathcare system. He’s evidently been reading my articles here and here. French healthcare isn’t perfect but compared to the bedlam of what most British politicians refer to as ‘our’ NHS, it’s fabulous. I speak from knowledge. I have experience as a patient in both Britain and France. I know where I’d rather be sick. Nobody here seems to be waiting 84 hours in an emergency room, as one NHS patient did in Scotland in 2022. When I was unfortunate enough to attend A&E at the Royal Surrey Hospital a few years ago after falling off a horse,

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Nigel Farage’s Tory manifesto

I’d say that Nigel Farage gave the best performance in last night’s debate. You might expect that: he’s a full-time television host, so he talks politics to cameras for a living. But of the seven that were on stage, he’s also the most experienced street fighter. He knew how to use humour and had a sense of insurgency to set himself against the rest. But what struck me wasn’t so much his style, as his message. On every single issue, his message was one of classic Conservatism. I’ve written already about his distasteful suggestion that Rishi Sunak is not patriotic. In my Daily Telegraph column I also point out how

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Max Jeffery, Melanie McDonagh, Matthew Parris, Iain MacGregor and Petronella Wyatt

28 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Max Jeffery reports on the rise of luxury watch thefts in London (1:18); Melanie McDonagh discusses the collapse of religion in Scotland (5:51); reflecting on the longevity of Diane Abbott and what her selection row means for Labour, Matthew Parris argues that shrewd plans need faultless execution (10:44); Iain MacGregor reviews Giles Milton’s book ‘The Stalin Affair’ (17:30); and, Petronella Wyatt ponders her lack of luck with love (21:49). Presented and produced by Patrick Gibbons. 

Jonathan Campion

A short history of cricket in Ukraine

Since the start of Vladimir Putin’s cold-blooded invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the stories and images being broadcast from the country are horrifying. War is gutting Ukrainians’ lives, but the ambitious and quirky place where I have lived and worked is still there. Many people are surprised, for example, to learn that Ukraine has several cricket teams. The father of cricket in Ukraine is a man named Hardeep Singh, who brought the game to the city of Kharkiv in 1993. After first arranging hit-arounds in local parks, where he and other expats from India could stave off homesickness, Singh went on to create a cricket league with several teams. If

Tom Slater Tom Slater

The troubling truth about the Greens

Wind farms. Heat pumps. Hamas apologism. It’s a curious combination, but one that an alarmingly high number of Green party candidates seem keen to pursue at this General Election. Yes, the political party nominally devoted to a single issue – ‘saving the planet’, at the cost of ordinary people’s living standards – has landed itself in another anti-Semitism scandal, after a bunch of its candidates for parliament were caught posting pro-Hamas or Israelophobic things online. The Greens’ anti-growth, anti-fossil-fuel, anti-car agenda would immiserate the working classes Around 20 would-be Green MPs have made rancid statements about Israel, Hamas and 7 October, according to a devastating report in the Times. Adam

Christopher Snowdon

Why was George Orwell a socialist?

When George Orwell’s publisher, Fredric Warburg, read the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four in December 1948 he wrote a rapturous report to his colleagues, saying that the book was ‘worth a cool million votes to the Conservative party’. He described it as ‘a deliberate and sadistic attack on Socialism and socialist parties generally. It seems to indicate a final breach between Orwell and Socialism’. Warburg had known Orwell for more than a decade. If he believed that Orwell had swung to the right, it is hardly surprising that other readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four got the same impression. Orwell was too sick with tuberculosis in 1949 to write more than a few book reviews. He told

Friday

Iain Macwhirter

Nigel Farage will be disappointed by his BBC debate performance

It had been called the dinner party from hell. A seven-strong convention of the also rans. But only one dinner guest really mattered: Nigel Farage. The populist politician’s last-minute decision to stand as a Reform candidate in Clacton has struck fear into the hearts of Conservative MPs across the country, but especially in the 60 marginal seats that Professor John Curtice says Reform could help the Tories lose on 4 July. The surprise of the night was a new coalition on electoral reform between Farage and the Lib Dems But none of tonight’s participants in the BBC debate were going to allow the debate to turn into the Nigel Farage show. He

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Mordaunt’s debate strategy was to pretend Farage wasn’t there

How is it possible that a seven-way debate between the main parties in this election was more civilised than the two-way stand-off between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak earlier this week? Tonight’s BBC debate was bizarrely better viewing. Sure, the party representatives interrupted one another, attacked each other, and flung about fake figures. But it was easier to follow. Mordaunt did not defend or praise Rishi Sunak It was also fascinating to see who attacked who. Penny Mordaunt largely pretended Nigel Farage didn’t exist, but interrupted Angela Rayner frequently. Farage – who was in much better humour and shape than the 2015 election and 2016 Brexit debates, which he largely

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sunak heckled by local GP

When it rains for Rishi Sunak, it pours. Just hours after the Prime Minister was forced to apologise for leaving D-day commemorations early to film a pre-recorded ITV interview, Sunak was faced with more challenges on the election trail. During a campaign visit, a frustrated member of the public — who is also a local doctor — had a go at the beleaguered PM over his party’s NHS workforce plan. It supports the training of physician associates to work in the health service, which has caused outrage in the medical community amidst fears that doctors in the country are not being adequately supported by the government. In a rather robust

Coffee House

As it happened: Mordaunt clashes with Rayner in BBC election debate

Nigel Farage traded blows with Labour’s Angela Rayner and the Tories’ Penny Mordaunt in tonight’s seven-way BBC election debate. Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations in France early was also a big talking point in the debate which involved Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Lib Dems, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn, Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru and Green party co-leader Carla Denyer. Here’s all the action and analysis as it unfolded on our live blog:

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Farage is wrong to question Sunak’s patriotism

It didn’t take long for Nigel Farage to weaponise Sunak’s D-Day debacle. ‘Rishi Sunak pops into Normandy but omits to go to the big international commemoration,’ he says in a pre-debate warmup video. ‘He doesn’t really care about our history. He doesn’t really care, frankly, about our culture…This man is not patriotic. Doesn’t believe in the country, its people, its history or frankly even its culture. If you’re a patriotic voter, don’t vote for Rishi Sunak.’ Jeremy Corbyn was frequently attacked for being unpatriotic but that’s more to do with his links with Sinn Fein and taking the non-British side in a few too many international disputes. It is absurd

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Galloway blasts ‘believers’ who support Labour

Oh dear. While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struggles to fend off criticism about leaving Thursday’s D-day commemorations early, another party leader is causing controversy elsewhere. A video of George Galloway of the Workers Party of Britain is doing the rounds in London WhatsApp groups. In a heated campaign speech, Galloway blasted Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party in an angry tirade: Anybody who considers themselves to be a religious believer, who intends to vote for Keir Starmer, the genocide agent, should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves, should forget about the Eid, should forget about fasting, should forget about praying. You think God is listening to someone who’s praying one day and

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Sunak is out of touch, and always has been

Rishi Sunak says it was a ‘mistake’ to leave the 80th anniversary commemorations for D-Day early. That’s one way to describe ditching a memorial to the liberation of Western Europe to record an election interview for the telly. We have heard the various reasons as to why this was such an error. It was dreadful judgement. Terrible optics. Anathema to the very Silent Generation and Baby Boomer voters his election campaign is tailored to. But while I have no designs on defending him, I suspect this is just who Sunak is. As one highly astute commentator, who isn’t above saying ‘I told you so’, once observed: ‘He combines the perception he is out

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Why are Europe’s progressives often intolerant?

For Robert Fico it was a bullet, for Nigel Farage it was a milkshake. The targeting of both men demonstrates the alarming rise of intolerance spreading across Europe. Most of it is perpetrated by people whose political ideology can best be described as progressive, but they are extremists, prepared to make the leap from words to acts. Across the West, elite society is dominated by progressives, overwhelmingly middle or upper-middle class graduates Fico, for example, the prime minister of Slovakia, describes himself as the leader of a left-wing populist party. The man charged with shooting him last month is a 71-year-old poet and supporter of the liberal party, Progressive Slovakia. The

Steerpike Steerpike

SNP’s musical campaign efforts fall on deaf ears

With only four weeks to go until the general election, party campaigns are rapidly ramping up. Politicians and staffers are desperately searching for more creative (and crazy) ways of getting voters’ attention — and north of the border the Nats have mobilised the musical wing of their party. Taylor Swift is in town for the start of the UK leg of her Eras tour and the SNP’s Swift-mania is in overdrive. One press release from the Nats managed to include a whole, um, 11 references to the star’s songs, including a line from social security secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville that read: There’s no question that the Tories are out of Style in Scotland

James Heale James Heale

Will Labour’s manifesto contain a surprise?

14 min listen

Overnight, details of Labour’s manifesto were leaked. There are several new policies, but how surprising are they, and how will they land with voters?  Elsewhere, Rishi Sunak has denied he planned to skip D Day events altogether since our episode this morning. Can the row get any worse? James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair.