Politics

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

Thursday

Gawain Towler

Make election counts great again!

In the grand tapestry of British history, few threads are as vibrant as our electoral traditions. Alas, in recent years, a creeping beige has infiltrated this once colourful corner of public life, dulling the spectacle and distancing the people from the very heart of democratic life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the local elections, where councils, under the flimsy guise of penny-pinching, have taken to postponing the count until the day after the vote, robbing us of a vital tradition. Democracy is not a backroom deal or a spreadsheet tally, it’s a public act, a shared spectacle that demands to be seen, felt and lived Cast your mind

Ed Shackle

Are Reform still the rebels?

‘Reform are going to freshen things up’. Howard looks up from the candy crush-style game he is playing on his mobile. He, despite being a lifelong Tory, will be voting for Nigel Farage’s party today in the Greater Lincolnshire Mayoral election. We’re visiting areas of the mayoralty with the most Tory and Labour voters, places where people steadfastly voted Conservative while the party was being decimated in other parts of the country last summer. These are the voters that Reform are now focusing on. None of our conversations are pre-arranged, as we want to get as close to people in their natural environments as possible. A team goes door to

James Heale James Heale

Michael Gove on how to spin a bad election

12 min listen

Voters have gone to the polls today for a historic set of local elections. The polling indicates a rough night for the two main parties and a good showing for Reform, the Lib Dems and the Greens. So be prepared for a lot of election-night spin from both Labour and the Tories. To talk through the various ways in which politicians can claim victory in the face of defeat, James Heale is joined by our editor, Michael Gove – no stranger to the media round himself. They discuss the best candidates to face up to the media from both the Tories and Labour, as well as some of the greatest

Steerpike Steerpike

FA bans trans players from women’s football

Well, well, well. The ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling on single-sex spaces are beginning to be seen. It transpires that transwomen are to be banned from playing women’s football in both England and Scotland. The judgment from the highest court in the land that backed the biological definition of a woman put pressure on the Football Association to clarify its position and step in line with other national bodies that allow only those born female to take part in women’s competitions. The decision by England’s Football Association follows the move in Scotland, which saw the Scottish FA update its guidance to stop those born as males from taking part

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Has Keir Starmer watched Groomed: A National Scandal yet?

I look forward to Keir Starmer hosting a special summit on the Channel 4 documentary, Groomed. And to hearing him gush about it every time a reporter puts a mic anywhere near his mouth. And to seeing his proposals for showing it to teens in schools across the land in order that we might prise open their innocent eyes to the dangers of so-called grooming gangs. These girls were sacrificed at the altar of preserving the ideology of multiculturalism After all, he did all that for Adolescence, a Netflix drama about a made-up crime against a fictional working-class girl. So surely he’ll do it for a documentary that lays out

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Trump’s Ukraine minerals deal is pure extortion

So the on-again-off-again US-Ukrainian resources deal has been signed. It is perhaps appropriate that it was done without fanfare, marked by emailed press release. While its terms are rather better than originally mooted, it still shows not that ‘the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine’ as US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent put it, but to neo-colonial exploitation. For all that, Kyiv has some reason to be satisfied by what it considers less of an economic deal and more a necessary piece of performative submission to keep Donald Trump engaged with their cause. Put at its simplest, Ukraine’s natural resources –

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Norway is laughing at Miliband’s net zero folly

Here’s a pub quiz question: which European country has no net zero target? I don’t mean which country is not bothering too much about conforming with its net zero target, because that is most of them, but which one doesn’t even have such a target in the first place? The surprising answer is Norway, which has a target of reducing its carbon emissions by 90 to 95 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050 but has made no commitment so far to go all the way. We are importing ever-increasing amounts of electricity via subsea cables, from Norway included It is surprising because, in many respects, the Scandinavian country is

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

The US mineral deal will give Ukraine fresh hope

Overnight, Ukraine and the US finally signed a deal on Ukraine’s mineral reserves. The agreement, signed two months later than planned, sees the two countries set up what they have called the ‘United States-Ukraine Reconstructions Investment Fund’, the aim of which will be to attract ‘global investment’ into Ukraine following the end of the war with Russia. Until the last minute, it was unclear whether Ukraine would indeed sign on the dotted line, with sounds coming from Washington late last night that chances of the agreement being locked in over the coming day standing at ‘little better than 50-50’.  While details of the fund have yet to be revealed, it

John Keiger John Keiger

Does Britain really need to share ‘geopolitical values’ with Europe?

Sir Keir Starmer will sign a new strategic partnership with Brussels at a summit on 19 May. The draft preamble apparently states that the UK and the EU are committed to similar ‘geopolitical values’. This is all part of Labour’s ‘reset’ with Europe intended to return Britain to the EU’s orbit in everything from phytosanitary and food safety alignment to defence and security. That Britain and the EU share geopolitical values is no scoop. Such utterances are the ‘motherhood and apple pie’ of all summits. Where allies so often disagree is less on objectives than priorities. Aligning Britain’s defence and security with the EU will mean bowing to the EU’s

Will Moore

Chambers of horrors, the ‘Dubai-ification’ of London & the enduring obsession with Diana

37 min listen

This week: the left-wing radicalism of Garden Court Garden Court Chambers has a ‘reassuringly traditional’ facade befitting the historic Lincoln’s Inn Fields in the heart of London’s legal district. Yet, writes Ross Clark in the cover article this week, ‘the facade is just that. For behind the pedimented Georgian windows there operates the most radically effective cell of left-wing activists in Britain’. Ross argues that cases taken on by Garden Court lawyers raise questions of impartiality. Is this just another example of ‘law’s expanding empire’ over the domain of elected politicians, as former Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption has warned? The Spectator’s editor, and former Justice Secretary, Michael Gove joined the

Owen Matthews

What does Putin want? Whatever he can get away with

The US general Mark Clark knew a thing or two about dealing with Russians. In the aftermath of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Clark commanded the American occupying forces in Austria. His Soviet opposite number, and nominal ally, was Marshal Ivan Konev. The two war heroes were tasked with pacifying the conquered and divided country at the dawn of the Cold War. ‘The Russians were not interested in teamwork,’ recalled Clark in his 1950 memoir, Calculated Risk. ‘They wanted to keep things boiling… They were accustomed to the use of force. They were skilled in exploiting any sign of weakness or uncertainty or appeasement. This was their national policy.’ Two

James Heale James Heale

Labour vs the unions

At the start of February, trade union chiefs assembled in No. 10 with their agenda for government. Top of the list was the Employment Rights Bill, which makes it easier to strike, picket and join a union. It will shortly pass into law: proof, Labour MPs say, of a Prime Minister willing to ignore squeals from business leaders. Yet the danger for Keir Starmer is that the unions, having banked this win, will keep returning for more. Starmer is perhaps the most union-friendly PM since the 1970s. Staff happily reel off a series of ‘wins’ he has already delivered for Britain’s 6.4 million trade union workers: a higher minimum wage,

Ian Williams Ian Williams

How China bought Britain

Somewhere in the bowels of the Foreign Office, civil servants are still working on the government’s ‘China audit’. The report was commissioned by the new Labour government to ‘assess trade-offs in the UK-China relationship’ and to ‘ensure consistency across government, business and academia towards engagement with China’. Little is known about its workings or who’s being consulted. Instead of bringing clarity, the process is deepening confusion, and there are worrying reports that the audit has been pared back to support Keir Starmer’s ‘pragmatic’ approach. All the while, there have been a series of troubling events that demand extreme caution about Beijing. The British Steel debacle is only the latest. Jingye,

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Trump’s big gambles are paying off

‘I run the country and the world,’ said President Donald Trump last week. That’s not really an exaggeration. In our ever more mediatised age, Trump doesn’t just make the news. He is the news, win or lose. Why did Mark Carney triumph in the Canadian elections? A Trump backlash. What happened at the Pope’s funeral? Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky talked peace. Is the economy tanking? It’s the Trump, stupid. Younger Donald’s ambition was to be the world’s most famous man – to achieve, as his son-in-law Jared Kushner put it, ‘virtually 100 per cent name recognition’. He surpassed that years ago. His aspirations now are far bigger. In the first

Wednesday

The Spectator

Americano Live: Trump’s first 100 days

As a subscriber-only special, get exclusive access to our Americano Live event with Freddy Gray, The Spectator’s deputy editor and host of the Americano podcast, and special guest Lionel Shriver, as they discuss Trump’s first 100 days. It can be hard to keep up with Donald Trump’s ‘breakneck’ pace in his second term in the White House. What to make of his headline-making, eyebrow-raising executive orders? Will his tariffs derail the US economy or usher in the ‘golden age’ he has promised? Is he going to achieve ‘peace through strength’ – or mire the US in yet another endless conflict in the Middle East? Watch Freddy and Lionel discuss all of the above and

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Is Starmer more afraid of Badenoch or Farage?

We have two leaders of the opposition. Labour can’t decide which is the larger threat. Prime Minister’s Questions opened with a botched query from Labour backbencher Dan Tomlinson. He asked Sir Keir Starmer to comment on a possible pact between the Tories and Reform. An amazing spectacle. An MP so clueless that he can’t ask a question without being ruled out of order. ‘The Prime Minister has no responsibility for any of that,’ said the Speaker. Tomlinson sat down, unanswered. But the timing of the question, at the start of the session, indicates that Sir Keir’s team are terrified of an anti-Labour alliance. We have two leaders of the opposition. Labour

Ed West Ed West

Labour’s demographic crisis

It’s local election week in Britain (stifles yawn) and a chance to observe the exciting next generation of political idealists. Among those standing for office in Burnley, Lancashire, 18-year-old Maheen Kamran is an aspiring medical student who was ‘motivated to enter politics by the war in Gaza, where she believes a “genocide” is taking place.’ Kamran told PoliticsHome that she wanted to ‘improve school standards, public cleanliness and encourage public spaces to end “free mixing” between men and women.’ Sensible policies for a happier Islamic Britain. ‘Muslim women aren’t really comfortable with being involved with Muslim men,’ the youngster told the website: ‘I’m sure we can have segregated areas, segregated gyms, where Muslim

Steerpike Steerpike

Cartoon exhibition cancelled after art deemed too political

Is the era of political satire over? The Kingston Riverside TownSq venue seems to think so. It transpires that the Surrey events space has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists’ work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. You couldn’t make it up… The Kingston TownSq venue has cancelled an exhibition of political cartoonists’ work called Licence to Offend in case, er, anyone was offended. The showing featured work from celebrated newspaper cartoonists including the Spectator’s JG Fox, Morten Morland, also formerly of the Spectator, the Mail’s Mac and Pugh, and the Guardian’s Martin Rowson. The event, organised by photographer Paul Mowatt and artist Zoe Dorelli, was

Andrew Tettenborn

Voters won’t be fooled by Yvette Cooper’s human rights gimmick

Keir Starmer’s government has grudgingly accepted publicly something it has privately known for months: voters are deadly serious about what they see as uncontrolled immigration. Despite the best attempts of the Prime Minister to make vacuous promises to “smash the gangs”, they can no longer be fobbed off. Labour’s real problem is that on immigration and human rights it has painted itself into a corner This realisation has led to a flurry of announcements from the Home Secretary. Yvette Cooper has said that serious sex offenders will be automatically denied asylum. To prevent undesirables avoiding deportation on unmeritorious human rights grounds, Cooper has also promised “a stronger framework,” that would

James Heale James Heale

Badenoch attacks Starmer over rape gangs

All politics is local – and no more so than this week. With various voters set to head to the polls across England tomorrow, the different party leaders were hoping to land their last-minute messages at today’s session of Prime Ministers’ Questions. For Kemi Badenoch, the approach seems to have been ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Labour’s stubborn refusal to hold a national inquiry into rape gangs is clearly making their front bench uncomfortable, months after the subject was first raised. So Badenoch chose to spend all six questions on the theme, winning today’s session comfortably. Badenoch’s peppy performance will cheer the Tories For the first half of