Politics

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

Wednesday

Euan McColm

Humza Yousaf’s first year has been a disaster

When Nicola Sturgeon stepped down as First Minister of Scotland a year ago, she said she’d reached the conclusion that she could no further advance the cause of independence. It was time for a new leader with new ideas to energise the campaign to break up the United Kingdom. Responsibility for invigorating the separatist movement fell to Humza Yousaf, voted in as First Minister on 29 March last year with the promise that he’d take the nationalist cause forwards. If Sturgeon had become too divisive, Yousaf would encourage Unionist voters to think again about the benefits of independence. Any politician looking to the new poll for a policy blueprint will

Steerpike Steerpike

Galloway suggests Obama involvement in Moscow attack

The fall-out continues from Friday’s attack on Moscow concert hall attack in which 139 people were reported dead. Russian officials have directly accused Ukraine and the West of being involved – despite, er, the Islamic State claiming responsibility and releasing video of the atrocity. But in their bid to prove their side of events, the Russian state press is now citing an unlikely ‘expert opinion’. Step forward George Galloway, the newly-elected MP for Rochdale, who is quoted approvingly at length in Russkaya Gazeta today, giving an ‘expert opinion.’ The quotes appear to be a distilled version of comments which Galloway made on his YouTube channel on Sunday. He suggested to viewers

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Britain is falling out of love with the NHS

Rishi Sunak doesn’t speak much about his five priorities these days, apart from inflation, which ‘halved’ as promised. On NHS waiting lists, small boats, the economy and the public finances, the news hasn’t been nearly as positive – and people have noticed. Satisfaction with the National Health Service has hit its lowest point since records began, according to this morning’s British Social Attitudes survey, which reveals that fewer than one in four respondents were happy with their experience of accessing and receiving healthcare. The main gripe is those sky-high waitlists that the government promised would be falling by now: 71 per cent cited the struggle to get both GP and

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Why did a judge fall for Abdul Ezedi’s lie that he was a Christian?

Abdul Ezedi is dead and gone. The Clapham acid attacker was laid to rest in a Muslim burial at a cemetery in east London after a funeral at a mosque in the west of the capital. This is what his family and friends wanted for him. Given that we know he was a loyal customer of his local halal butchers in Newcastle right up until the end, we must presume it is what he would have wanted for himself too. Head-in-the-clouds vicars are a longstanding stereotype. But judges are supposed to be different Even the liberal dolts of our establishment – church leaders, immigration judges and the like – appear

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories split on CCHQ attack ads

It’s five weeks to go until the local elections and Tory high command are stepping up their attacks. On Monday, the Conservatives released the first of several videos focusing on Labour controlled administrations. A 70-second, black-and-white video attacked Sadiq Khan’s record and gravely intoned that ‘London under Labour has become a crime capital of the world.’ But the in-house clip, voiced by an unknown actor, has since divided opinion among Tories, amid controversy over its use of footage from a New York subway station. Mayoral candidate Susan Hall was quick to distance herself from the adverts, telling the BBC that the video had ‘nothing to do’ with her team. Hall’s spokesman subsequently

Steerpike Steerpike

When will Sunak’s next deputy chair resign?

In the two months since Lee Anderson’s resignation as Tory deputy chairman, there’s been something of a vacancy at CCHQ. Who could fill the gap left by the red wall rottweiler, to motivate the grassroots and energise the base? Well now it seems we have our answer: Jonathan Gullis, a close friend of Anderson and a fellow stalwart of the Common Sense Group. Gullis was last night handed Anderson’s old brief, with party chairman Richard Holden hailing him as ‘inimitable’ on Twitter/X, adding: ‘The non-stop campaigning MP for #StokeOnTrentNorth, #Kidsgrove and #Talke is a formidable addition to the team as we build to the General Election later this year.’ The

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The most striking appointment in No. 10’s mini-reshuffle

Another week, another set of Tory MPs announcing their retirement plans. This time it’s serving ministers. As MPs head into the Easter recess, defence minister James Heappey has ended the parliamentary term by following through on his promise to step down as armed forces minister. Meanwhile Rob Halfon has announced he is resigning as an education minister. The resignations have been taken as further proof that it is an end of an era for the Tory party and many are preparing for election defeat, with over 80 MPs now announcing they will step down. However, it’s not over yet – with No. 10 this afternoon carrying out a mini-reshuffle to

Edward Howell

Why North Korea hates Alan Titchmarsh’s jeans

Alan Titchmarsh presumably did not expect to see his programme Garden Secrets, filmed in 2010, air on North Korean state television this week. He would perhaps have been even more surprised to see the network blur out his blue jeans for viewers. In the mid-to-late 1990s, under the rule of Kim Jong Il the anti-jeans rhetoric heightened Why did the higher ups in North Korea decide that the public needed protecting from Titchmarsh’s denim? The reason has nothing to do with diplomatic relations between the hermit and United Kingdom. Nor is Pyongyang particularly interested in the topiary and 17th century gardens featured in the episode. Instead, Titchmarsh’s North Korean star turn is a

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The UAE bid for The Spectator is over

In the end, it was watertight. The House of Lords has just voted through a new law banning foreign governments from owning British newspapers and magazines. Any ‘material influence’ has been banned, so neither the United Arab Emirates or any ‘foreign power’ will be allowed so much as a 0.1 per cent stake in The Spectator, Daily Telegraph or any similar publication. The Emiratis had agreed to buy both titles through RedBird IMI, a vehicle majority-funded by vice-president Sheikh Mansour. Tina Stowell, the Tory baroness who led the campaign, has now stopped this deal in its tracks. She drew from the government an amendment to the Digital Markets Bill which

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

I’ve done very well, says Rishi Sunak at select committee grilling

Normally when a select committee hearing or interview is described as ‘wide-ranging’, it’s because a lot was said, but none of it of much note. Today’s Liaison Committee session with Rishi Sunak was wide-ranging, but in an unusually newsy way. The Prime Minister was grilled by select committee chairs on immigration, Rwanda, Gaza, defence spending, China, online harms, pensions and local government. Almost all the topics yielded a line of note – though admittedly some of the lines were notable for what Sunak did not say. On defence, for instance, an issue that is heating up again in the Tory party, the Prime Minister refused to go beyond the holding

Stephen Webb

How can we avoid another Batley Grammar blasphemy row?

Dame Sara Khan, the government’s adviser on social cohesion, has produced a powerful and brave report with some stark findings which should make for seriously uncomfortable reading among political and public sector leaders. The report describes how politicians, academics, artists and journalists are self-censoring because of severe levels of harassment and abuse, which Khan calls ‘freedom restricting harassment’, a finding mirroring the survey Policy Exchange commissioned from teachers last year in the report Blasphemy in Schools. The University of Bradford abandoned plans for a School for the Study of Political Islam The case studies are harrowing, in particular the plight of the Batley Grammar School teacher whose life was threatened –

Portia Berry-Kilby

The Youth Parliament makes children of us all

When the British Youth Council (BYC) announced last week its imminent closure, people went near-hysterical, declaring it ‘devastating’ news and a ‘dark day’ for Britain’s youth. Of particular concern was the future of the Youth Parliament, one of the BYC’s flagship programmes. In all likelihood, the Youth Parliament will see new leadership rather than the graveyard. But the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport would be well advised to think twice before increasing its £750,000 grant for the project.  I say this not just as an old curmudgeon, but (for all my sins) as a former ‘Member of Youth Parliament’ (MYP). My criticism of it is not purely self

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sunak jibes at Truss over ‘deep state’

To parliament, where the Commons is about to go into recess, again. Winding up this term’s proceedings was Rishi Sunak’s traditional grilling at the Liaison Committee. Back in the good old days of Boris Johnson there was mutual loathing between the Prime Minister and the various chairs of the select committees, some of whom were elected explicitly because they were Johnson’s critics. But these days under top swot Sunak, the panel’s session are much more staid affairs. The ninety-minute encounter proved to be something for a walk in the park for the PM as he eagerly displayed his mastery of the brief. Humour was provided, however, by William Wragg: the

Colin Brazier

The British farmers’ tractor protest may just be the start

As you tuck into a leg of roast lamb this Bank Holiday weekend, consider how religious festivals are a boon for British farmers. The agricultural sector may be struggling overall, but lamb prices have just hit a record high, up £2 per kilo since the start of the year. Simple supply and demand. The surge is not driven so much by Easter, as Ramadan. The three-day feast of Eid al-Fitr is now an established – and prized – feature of the shepherd’s calendar.  Farming never stands still. New markets emerge, even as old ones shrink. But the recent protests in Cardiff and Westminster have been prompted not by questions of

The Spectator

Covid and the politics of panic

During Easter weekend four years ago, the country felt on the verge of catastrophe. The prime minister was in hospital having just come out of intensive care, the Covid-19 death toll was at more than 1,000 deaths a day, and hospitals were trying to cope with a flood of patients. It had been estimated that 90,000 ventilator beds would be needed; we had only 10,000. That weekend, no one went to church and no one visited family: instead we sat inside, preparing ourselves for the horror to come. Science is always evolving, never settled. Our understanding changes as we gain new information No one knew, then, that the virus was

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Inside Sue Gray’s Labour party

At 8.30 a.m. each morning, Keir Starmer holds a meeting with his inner circle to go over the business of the day. Once, these meetings were mainly filled with unelected aides, but now they are attended by senior shadow ministers, such as Labour’s campaign co-ordinator and Blairite old-timer Pat McFadden or the shadow cabinet office minister and Brown-ite Jonathan Ashworth. Starmer’s deputy, Angela Rayner, may drop in too. If Rachel Reeves can’t make it, one of her shadow treasury aides goes in her place. The new setup is one of the many measures Sue Gray has brought in since she was appointed Starmer’s chief of staff a year ago. Her

Steerpike Steerpike

Braverman to headline NatCon with Orban

Ping! An email arrives in Steerpike’s inbox. Some happy news for headline-starved hacks at last: the National Conservatism conference is back! After last year’s Westminster offering brought with it quotes galore from Miriam Cates and Suella Braverman, this year’s event in Brussels promises more of the same. For Braverman is now being billed as the ‘keynote speaker’ alongside one other name: controversial Hungarian premier Viktor Orban. The two-day jamboree begins on Tuesday 16 April: just two weeks before much of the UK goes to the polls in local elections across England and Wales. And Labour will no doubt be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of Braverman’s jibes

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Stephen Colbert grovels for Kate joke

Oh dear. In his never-ending quest to prove that he’s almost as funny as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert has tripped up again. The late-night American TV host was last night forced to issue a humiliating apology to the Princess of Wales after he produced a segment mocking her ‘disappearance’ and marriage – shortly before it emerged that she had cancer. Classy. Colbert began his Late Show on 12 March with a two-minute-long monologue ‘spilling the tea’ on the Royal Family in which he made a series of not-especially-funny jokes about scurrilous rumours involving William and Kate. Unfortunately for Colbert, they aged so poorly that he was forced to make the

Andrew Tettenborn

Why the WHO’s pandemic planning poses a threat to Britain

The fall-out from Covid continues. Its latest manifestations on the international stage are a draft pandemic preparedness treaty, soon to be formally published and opened for signature by the WHO, and an upcoming vote on proposals to amend the organisation’s International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR). The latter is a set of internationally binding rules for dealing with, among other things, pandemics. Neither text makes for gripping reading; both might look innocuous and almost uncontroversial. In fact, however, as a group of Tory MPs and peers from the all-party parliamentary group on pandemic response and recovery pointed out this week, they could carry considerable dangers for Britain’s sovereignty, freedom and democracy.  It is