Politics

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

Wednesday

8 May 2024

Passport e-gate outages are an embarrassment to Britain

Queues that stretch for hours. Technology that doesn’t work. And a system so poorly designed that this isn’t the first time it’s broken down. There appears to be a perfectly innocent explanation for the failure of the passport e-gate system across the UK’s airports last night – a ‘system network issue’ – despite the wilder conspiracy theories that immediately started circling on the internet. But one point is surely clear: the e-gates have become a national embarrassment – and if we can’t rely on them to work, we should get rid of them. Some passengers spent longer waiting to go through passport control than they did on their flights The

Freddy Gray

Trump’s trial has nothing to do with Stormy Daniels

Why did Stormy Daniels testify in court yesterday about her allegedly sexual encounter with Donald Trump? Anybody who has followed the Donald Trump story in recent years will have already heard most of Stormy’s account of her interactions with him. Daniels has a sense of humour. Like many others, she enjoys mocking Trump in public. And in our licentious yet strangely puritanical times, details such as the porn star spanking the 45th president with a rolled-up copy of Forbes magazine are just too much to resist. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Nobody seems to care much The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the

Steerpike

BBC immigration coverage falls short over ‘racism’ fears

Another day, another BBC slip-up. This time the much-lauded public service broadcaster has been dragged back into the spotlight after an independent review found it hadn’t been reporting fully on immigration — because it feared being labelled either ‘racist’ or ‘woke’. Oh dear… The 75-page report, carried out by Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory with Samir Shah before he became BBC chairman, revealed that journalists had been ‘anxious’ about covering issues that might appear anti-immigration. What complexities might these stories involve? Concerns from local residents about an influx of migrants to their hometowns or immigration fraud which is, er, a crime. So much for impartial journalism… One BBC insider

Karl Williams

How to fix Britain’s migrant crisis – quickly

Conventional wisdom has it that Britain faces an awkward dilemma on legal immigration: either we cut migrant numbers to keep faith with voters (more than 60 per cent of whom say immigration has been too high over the last decade), or we keep the economy growing by allowing net migration to continue at levels well beyond anything the country has ever seen. But this is a false dichotomy. The government is not facing a choice of either/or. If we are more selective in our migration policy, we can cut overall numbers Let’s start with a bit of historical perspective. For centuries, Britain was a country of net emigration, not immigration. Annual

Patrick West

The delusion of the pro-Palestinian campus protestors

Much has been made in recent weeks, and especially in recent days, about the degrees of ignorance often displayed by those protesting for the people of Gaza and Palestine. To put it pithily, many don’t seem to know from which river and to which sea they chant about with such passion. Such ignorance has prompted some to conclude that these protests are less about showing solidarity with beleaguered Palestinians and more an excuse to vent incoherent anti-Western sentiment, or, more sinisterly, old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Some of the protestors have been replicating what they believe to be the conditions in Gaza Similarly, the cosplay in evidence at university campuses in the USA

Tuesday

7 May 2024

Isabel Hardman

Parliament’s Rafah rage

It’s been a while since the Commons has had so much anger in it as it did during the urgent question on Gaza. The anxiety and criticism of Israel in Rafah wasn’t confined to the usual group of opposition MPs, but came from across the House. The anger wasn’t just directed at Israel, but at UK ministers, too, for warning against the incursion and then not appearing to change government policy towards Israel now that it was going ahead. The anger wasn’t just directed at Israel Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell told the chamber in his opening answer that the UK government’s ‘position has been consistent: we are deeply concerned

Matt McDonald

Stormy Daniels takes the stand

Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star and director who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, took the stand in Donald Trump’s ‘hush-money’ trial in Manhattan today, vividly describing the sexual encounter between them in 2006. Unlike with previous witnesses, where Trump has seemed tired or disengaged, the former president paid close attention to Daniels’s testimony, according to reporters in the courtroom. The trial centres on payments that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in 2016, allegedly on Trump’s behalf, that total up to $130,000. That money, the prosecution alleges, was intended to buy Daniels’s silence about having sexual intercourse with Trump ten years earlier, when his third wife

Steerpike

Watch: John Swinney’s comments come back to haunt him

What comes around goes around. John Swinney has this afternoon become Scotland’s seventh First Minister after being appointed, unopposed, as SNP leader on Monday. It was a coronation event like no other – where Swinney was threatened by a contest from a rank and file activist within his own party after hapless Humza Yousaf paved the way to his own resignation. Now, the veteran Nat and former SNP leader has swooped into government from the backbenches in a move that some hint was a little more scripted than first thought… Today, Swinney faced off challenges for the top job from the leaders of the Scottish Labour party, the Scottish Conservatives

Kate Andrews

Can Labour or the Tories fix the economy?

It’s all but certain that the UK’s exit from recession will be confirmed at the end of this week. Preliminary Q1 data, released on Friday, is expected to how slow and steady growth in the first three months of the year. It is also very likely that inflation will return to the government target of 2 per cent this month, due to Ofgem’s changes to the energy price cap last month and higher energy costs falling out of the data. The return to target may not last – which is one of the reasons hopes for a spring rate cut have been dashed. But all this will help cushion what

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Hunt snaps at Rachel Reeves over National Insurance

Rachel Reeves may have been getting attention for her accusation that the government is ‘gaslighting’ the public over the state of the economy, but this afternoon she ended up being accused of spreading fake news. The ‘gaslighting’ line came from a speech in the City of London this morning, after which Reeves then popped up at Treasury questions in the House of Commons. She asked a question that both she and Labour leader Keir Starmer have been repeating for weeks now, about the Conservatives’ ambition to abolish national insurance. Labour has badged this as a £46 billion unfunded plan, though, as ever, it is worth pointing out that this is

Steerpike

Rufus Wainwright blames Brexit for his failed musical

These days it seems there’s little you can’t blame on Brexit. From low ratings to school bullying, Britain’s departure from the European Union has served as a wonderful catch-all, consequence-free excuse for various individuals and institutions to explain their shortcomings. A vintage example of this was offered today by Rufus Wainwright, the Canadian-American singer-songwriter. His latest production ‘Opening Night’ – starring Sheridan Smith – flopped so badly in the West End that it was forced to close its doors two month early. Both audiences and critics alike were left unimpressed by the musical, adapted from John Cassavetes’ 1977 film about a struggling actor. Audiences were so bored that there were reports of multiple

Katy Balls

Will there really be a hung parliament?

14 min listen

It’s the first day back after the local elections. Following Thursday’s results, some polling suggests that if the votes were replicated in a general election, there might be a hung parliament. Could this be a reality? The Spectator’s James Heale and Katy Balls are joined by Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta. Produced by Megan McElroy.

Hardeep Singh

Starmer should think twice before listening to ‘The Muslim Vote’

A grassroots campaign group called ‘The Muslim Vote’ is aiming to capitalise on the success of pro-Gaza candidates at the local election by issuing a set of 18 ‘demands’ of Keir Starmer. The organisation seeks to ‘punish’ MPs who fail to back a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. It says that Labour must ‘return the Zionist money’, bin the government’s new extremism definition and slap a travel ban on pro-war Israeli politicians. The group says its members will turn to other parties if Starmer doesn’t listen up. Not all the demands made by ‘The Muslim Vote’ relate to Gaza On the question of Gaza, Labour is in an almighty pickle.

Lisa Haseldine

Putin’s next six years in power spell more repression for Russia

Amidst the golden splendour of the Kremlin’s Hall of the Order of St Andrew, Vladimir Putin was once again inaugurated as president of Russia this morning. But while today’s event was in many ways a carbon copy of the ceremony that has taken place five times now since 2000, it marks a significant watershed in the history of Putin’s rule: for the first time since assuming power 24 years ago, his leadership can no longer be considered constitutionally legal. Technicalities such as this, though, matter little to Putin. Taking to the podium in the hall that once served as the throne room to the Tsars of Russia, Putin placed his hand on a specially-bound

Gareth Roberts

The attacks on Britain’s history have backfired

UK university courses on race and colonialism are facing the axe due to cuts. ‘There’s not very much about race and colonialism on the curriculum to start with,’ fumed Professor Hakim Adi at the report, which revealed that Kent university’s anthropology course and a music programme at Oxford Brookes is under threat. Adi, a former leader of Chichester university’s history of Africa programme, told the Observer: ‘It sends a signal from those in power that these types of subjects are not desired…they just won’t be taught in higher education, if this trend continues’. This empire obsession is very strange and unfair To which one is tempted to reply, in the

Jake Wallis Simons

Israel’s Rafah operation is tragically necessary

There is, as Ecclesiastes reminded us, a time for war and a time for peace. In its 76-year history, Israel has rarely selected the time for war, almost always reinforcing its position and responding in self-defence to Arab attacks. The invasion of Rafah will be another such tragic chapter in the tragic history of the Jewish state. Hamas has made it a time for war. The tanks went in after volleys of rockets were fired by Hamas Has it started already? Last night, Israeli tanks entered the southern town after a last-ditch ceasefire proposal from Hamas was rejected as inadequate. But the operation has so far fallen short of a

Steerpike

Milei asks: who is Liz Truss?

Since coming to office in December, Javier Milei has won right-wing fans across the world for his bombastic rhetoric and fervent championing of libertarian ideas. Among them is Liz Truss, who sees Milei as very much an ideological ally. In a recent interview to promote her book, she was asked by GB News to name her favourite Tory leader other than ‘Churchill and Thatcher’. Truss thought for eight seconds and then replied ‘Well, I like Javeir Milei.’ Sadly for her it seems that the admiration is not mutual. For Milei has just done a sit-down interview with the BBC’s Ione Wells at which he was informed of the former PM’s

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is deluded if he thinks he can persuade Xi to change

Try as he might Emmanuel Macron and his party are unable to arrest the popularity of the National Rally. A month out from the European elections, the latest poll has their principal candidate, Jordan Bardella, on 32 points, double the score of Macron’s representative, Valerie Hayer. The latest head of state with dubious ethics to be courted by Macron is Xi Jinping Hayer and Bardella have clashed twice in recent days in live television debates, and on both occasions Hayer has condemned as ‘shameful’ the National Rally’s benevolence towards Vladimir Putin in the years leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That this strategy doesn’t appear to be working for

Euan McColm

Will John Swinney end the SNP’s war on business?

Accepting the leadership of the SNP on Monday, John Swinney said his political priority as Scotland’s seventh First Minister would be the eradication of child poverty. If he is sincere in his desire to achieve this ambition, then Scotland’s economic growth – just 0.2 per cent last year – needs be a great deal better. As soon as Swinney gets his feet under the First Ministerial desk, he must throw open his doors to Scotland’s business leaders and show them the love his party has been withholding for the last decade. Shortly after the SNP won its first Scottish parliamentary election in 2007, new First Minister Alex Salmond fired off

Steerpike

Greens embroiled in anti-Semitism row

Oh dear. The Green party is in hot water after it emerged that one of its newly-elected councillors labelled a rabbi a ‘creep’ and a ‘kind of animal’. The party is under fire for failing to suspend Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council in last week’s elections, after the new councillor was revealed to have directed an angry tirade at a Jewish chaplain during a self-made YouTube video recorded in February. Ali labelled rabbi Zechariah Deutsch an ‘absolute low-life’, ‘absolutely disgusting’ and ‘shameful’ in the clip he made three months ago about the rabbi’s return to his IDF unit. On the day of the 7 October attack