Politics

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

Monday

15 Apr 2024

Steerpike

Sunak’s popularity among Tory members hits new low

Uh oh. The Prime Minister hasn’t been back from Easter recess for one full day yet and he’s already facing bad news. In the latest poll of Tory party members by ConservativeHome, Rishi Sunak’s net satisfaction rating has dropped to a new low of, er, -27.7. In fact, Sunak is the least popular member of his entire cabinet — with the exception of illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson. It’s not exactly a record to boast about… Sunak’s score has dropped by 4.6 points since last month, and by just under 10 since February. There are now 12 ministers with negative overall ratings — and the scores at the top of the

James Heale

What is Liz Truss up to?

She’s back. Liz Truss is in the headlines once more this week ahead of tomorrow’s publication of her book Ten Years to Save the West. Part memoir, part cri de coeur, it tells the tale of her ten years in government and the lessons she learned about being, in her words, ‘the only conservative in the room.’ In her first TV interview, Truss spoke about some of the book’s themes which, in turn, offer us some clues about her plans for life after office. Some in Truss’s circle hope she can become the British equivalent of America’s Barry Goldwater The question being asked in Westminster is what she wants to

James Heale

Liz Truss returns – again

14 min listen

It’s 18 months since Liz Truss left Downing Street and her new memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, is out. She gave her first interview to Fraser Nelson on Spectator TV, covering why she wants to abolish the Supreme Court, Donald Trump, her husband’s warning that her leadership bid would end in tears, and so much more. We also cover Iran’s missile attack on Israel, and what might come next. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Megan McElroy. You can listen to the full interview on Spectator TV:

Steerpike

Exclusive: Liz Truss interview – ‘The world was safer when Trump was in charge’

Eighteen months have passed since Liz Truss left Downing Street and after an initial period of silence, she has been making up for lost time. In recent months, Truss has tabled a bill in parliament, launched her own ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement and even done the lecture circuit in the US. And now, at last, the former PM has released her long-awaited memoirs, detailing what went wrong in office and who is really to blame. Ten Years to Save the West sets out Truss’s philosophy for a better Conservatism and a better world – and the former Prime Minister has sat down with The Spectator’s editor Fraser Nelson in her very first TV interview

Ross Clark

Why one-man plays are all the rage

Well, it’s nice to feel on trend. The Today programme this morning carried an item on the popularity of one-man and one-woman theatre shows, following on from the success of two such shows in the Olivier Awards: Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Andrew Scott in Vanya. Only in passing did they mention a rather important factor in all this: money. If you’re trying not to haemorrhage cash in a post-Covid world, it helps if you can cut your wage bill. I should know. Straightened times call for inventiveness – which is one of the reasons why my latest venture into musical theatre, A Lark, about the

Jonathan Spyer

Iran’s attack was just a taste of what could be to come

The Iranian drone and missile attacks of 13 April brought less drama for many in Jerusalem than one might have imagined. War brings with it the disappearance of expectations of daily continuity, or of a reasonable and logical sequence of events. It has been wartime for six months now here in Jerusalem; in another way it has been wartime for the last 75 years. If one insists on drawing out the camera range still further, it has been war, or a state of emergency for Jewish people for as long as history can remember. Next week, after all, Jews worldwide will gather to read and recite a nearly 2,000 year old text

Stephen Daisley

Thwarting Iran’s attack was not a ‘win’ for Israel

‘You got a win. Take the win.’ This is reportedly what US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call following the thwarting of Iran’s Saturday night aerial barrage by Israel and a US-led coalition including Jordan and the United Kingdom. Tehran launched 170 drones, 120 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles. While 99 per cent were intercepted, five missiles struck Nevatim Airbase in the Negev and a fragment from a projectile injured Amina Hassouna, a seven-year-old Bedouin girl, in Al Fura. As analysts from the Institute for the Study of War point out, this ‘strike package’ is identical to those routinely deployed against Ukraine

Jason M. Brodsky

American weakness made the Iran attack possible

This weekend, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel. For the first time since 1979, Iran’s leadership launched strikes from Iranian territory at Israel proper using more than 300 drones and missiles, with the vast majority shot down. In the handful of cases where Biden has responded militarily, it has been mostly aimed at Iran’s proxies and dispensable facilities in the region These strikes took place ahead of Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 85th birthday on April 19. His regime is deeply unpopular at home and planning for succession. Yet Khamenei has demonstrated a surprising willingness to take risks in his old age. His strategy towards Israel

Mikhail Fridman

The sanctions against me are a huge injustice

Early on the morning of 1 December 2022, 50 helmeted and body-armoured National Crime Agency officers and a media relations officer burst into Athlone House, my home in Highgate, north London. They seized telephones and computers and issued a derogatory press release. The police could not name me, but pictures of the inside of my house with police officers inside soon circulated on social media. My assets and businesses in Britain and the EU have been in effect nationalised Raids of this kind may be familiar in repressive regimes. But I did not expect them in Britain, a perceived champion of fair play, the rule of law and a declared

Katy Balls

David Cameron urges Israel to show restraint

All eyes are on the Middle East this week following Iran’s attack against Israel on Saturday night. Nearly all of the 300 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles fired at Israel were stopped by the country’s air defences. The UK, US and Jordan also helped protect Israel during the attack. Since the bombardment, the line from the Iranian government is that this is a case of ‘job done’ and they have no plans to go further. However, Israel has pledged revenge and so the matter is far from closed. Cameron tried to say that Israel was in a way already winning despite the bombardment This morning, David Cameron used his first

Steerpike

Watch: David Cameron says Iran has suffered ‘double defeat’

The question of how Israel will respond to Iran’s attack dominated David Cameron’s first broadcast round since he became Foreign Secretary last year. Immediately condemning Iran’s attack as a ‘very, very dangerous act in an already dangerous world’ on BBC Breakfast, Cameron added that ‘fortunately, it was a failure’. The Foreign Secretary told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that ‘Iran has suffered a double defeat: a defeat because they’ve failed, but a second defeat because the world can now see that they are the malign influence in the region’. But it’s not Iran that Israel should be focusing on now, Cameron believes: They have every right to respond and you’d understand that

Limor Simhony Philpott

How will Israel hit back against Iran?

Iran’s attack on Israel signals a new era. For the first time, Iran targeted Israel directly, not only through proxies – and not in a way that leaves room for deniability in order to limit Israeli reprisal. The attack on Saturday night, in response to the killing of two Iranian generals in Damascus by Israel, included 185 explosive drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 36 cruise missiles launched from Iran, Iraq and Yemen. Israel, alongside allies that include American, British and Jordanian forces, managed to shoot down 99 per cent of the munitions aimed at Israel and avoid the death and destruction that would have ensued. The question is what happens

James Heale

Sunak set for final game of Rwanda ping pong

Parliament’s return from recess this week means the Rwanda Bill is now back in the Commons for the final game of ping pong. Rwanda has previously dominated the news agenda whenever it is debated in parliament. But this week it is expected – by both supporters and opponents of the scheme – to feature far less heavily in the headlines. A good indication of where MPs’ minds are at is to look at the predominant focus on policing, rather than migration, in this afternoon’s Home Office questions. One government source referred to this week as ‘process-y’, with a Rwanda sceptic conceding that ‘a horrible sense of inevitability hangs over the

Gavin Mortimer

France and Britain have both shamefully neglected the white working class

Emmanuel Macron told a communist newspaper earlier this year that he didn’t consider Marine le Pen’s National Rally part of the ‘Republican arc’. By extension, the French president presumably thinks the same of the 13,288,686 million men and women who voted for Le Pen in the second round of the 2022 presidential election. In the event of a war with Russia, or another hostile state, would the president therefore consider Le Pen voters unworthy of serving in the Republic’s military? The average Le Pen supporter has much in common with Britain’s Red Wall voter; they tend not to have gone to university, to have been hit hard by deindustrialisation and

Sunday

14 Apr 2024

David B. Green

Netanyahu’s political survival is his top priority

On Sunday morning, Israelis – those who hadn’t already spent part of the night in bomb shelters or safe rooms, unable to sleep – woke up to the good news that nearly all of the approximately 300 missiles and drones fired from Iran hours earlier had been destroyed before crossing into Israeli airspace. One Israeli was injured in the attack, but no one was killed. As has been the case since the 7 October disaster that marked the start of the war in Gaza, Israel’s military and technological prowess had performed successfully and efficiently. No less impressive than the military feat of keeping these weapons from hitting their targets in

Arieh Kovler

Netanyahu can’t ignore the scale of Iran’s attack

Today was supposed to be the day we sent our kids back to nursery. For two weeks, my toddler and baby have been home with a nasty stomach bug that turned out to be shigella, a bacterium that causes dysentery and that has been ripping through Israeli troops in Gaza. Then, on Saturday night, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the IDF, announced that schools and nurseries would be closed nationwide today, due to the Iranian threat. The parents’ WhatsApp groups grumbled that this, alone, was a disproportionate response by Iran, throwing Israel into turmoil the week before Passover. But then the news reports became starker: we should expect a drone

Paul Mason

Israel has a chance to de-escalate after Iran’s failed attack

Iran’s strike on Israel yesterday is, simultaneously, a moment for alarm and calm. Alarm because, by unleashing more than 300 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles in response to Israel’s attack on its Damascus consulate at the start of the month, Iran is basically saying: we can do this every time Israel or its allies cross a line. Calm because not only did Israel repel the attack, it did so thanks to collaboration from its Western allies and friendly Arab states, with both Saudi Arabia and Jordan opening their skies to US combat aircraft. Israel has the right to defend itself, and will doubtless respond militarily. But its allies have a

Joe Bedell-Brill

Atkins: British planes operating in region at time of Iran attack

Conflict in the Middle East entered a new dangerous phase on Saturday night, as Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first direct military attack against the country after years of shadow warfare. On the BBC this morning, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told Laura Kuenssberg this was an ‘incredibly significant attack’. She confirmed that British military planes were operating in the region as part of pre-existing missions, although could not clarify whether British planes had taken part in shooting down missiles and drones. Yvette Cooper: ‘We strongly condemn this reckless attack’ Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned Iran’s actions, saying that whilst the international community had been

Ian Williams

The rusting Philippine ship raising US-China tensions

The rusting and disintegrating hulk of a former Second World War landing ship has become an unlikely but dangerous flashpoint in US-China relations. The Sierra Madre, built for the US navy to land tanks, has for several decades been stranded on a shoal in the South China Sea. But now it has become a symbol of Beijing’s growing aggression in the region and its disdain for international law. The Philippines, which bought the ship in 1976, intentionally grounded her on the largely submerged Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly islands in 1999 to defend their claim to the territory. There she has remained to this day as a lonely symbol of sovereignty and home to a small contingent of Philippine marines. For many years,

Sean Rayment

Despite their failed attack, Iran should not be underestimated

Iran’s overnight mass drone attack on Israel was supposed to be payback for the assassination of Iranian Republican Guard Corps commander General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. In truth, though, it was a tepid, face-saving response which the ayatollahs in Tehran knew would fail. In the early hours of this morning, the Iranian army described what it called ‘Operation Honest Promise’ – the drone and missile attack on Israel – as a complete success. But in reality, the attack had minimal tactical impact, despite the highly orchestrated flag waving jubilation in Tehran’s Palestine Square. Iran’s military would have made certain that both Israel and the US, knew what was coming Former MI6 Chief Sir