Politics

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

Monday

4 Dec 2023

Sunak loses Commons vote for first time as PM

The government has just been defeated in the Commons for the first time since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister. It wasn’t on one of the issues Sunak and his camp fret most about: it was on compensation for victims of the contaminated blood scandal. It was close: the government lost by just four votes on an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill by Labour’s Diana Johnson. The new clause passed 246 votes to 242, with 23 Conservatives backing the motion. Johnson was calling for the government to establish a new body chaired by a High Court judge to administer compensation for victims, and that this would be done within

Kate Andrews

The Tories’ migration crackdown will have many victims

The UK’s immigration system must be ‘fair, consistent, legal and sustainable’, proclaimed the new Home Secretary as he presented his ‘five-point plan’ to reduce legal migration in parliament. James Cleverly billed these changes as ‘more robust action than any government’ has taken before to reduce the headline net migration figure. They involve increasing the skilled worker earnings threshold from £26,200 to £38,700 from next spring; increasing the NHS surcharge (paid every time most migrants secure or renew their visa), from £624 to £1,035; ending the 20 per cent salary reduction for shortage occupations (as well as reforming and reducing the list); increasing the minimum salary for a family visa to

Steerpike

Watch: Scottish Lib Dem leader accused of voting from the pub

It takes a lot for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to make headlines, but party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today gone and done it. The Lib Dem leader made a rather embarrassing gaffe when trying to vote remotely on a recent Holyrood motion, prompting calls for the politician to apologise for his ‘inappropriate’ conduct. Absent from the Chamber, Cole-Hamilton used his phone to raise a point of order, projecting his face onto the parliament screen without quite managing to keep his background discreet. MSPs were quick to spot Cole-Hamilton in the parliament’s pub Margo’s, a mere minute’s walk away from the Chamber. Calls of ‘shame!’ and ‘disgrace!’ from his eagle-eyed colleagues

Steerpike

Six of the worst SNP sex scandals

It seems a fresh scandal is embroiling the SNP. In recent days, reports have emerged that two of the party’s politicians were so wrapped up in an extramarital affair during Covid that they disregarded their own government’s pandemic restrictions to continue it. Matt Hancock, step aside… The SNP has denied the rumours as ‘categorically untrue’, but reports of the illicit affair continue to dominate the news. Mr S takes a look at some of the most recent SNP sex scandals to have hit the headlines. Here are six of the worst that we can report on: 1. Love triangle A storyline fit for the movies, this scandal began with three

James Heale

Cleverly promises to cut migration by 300,000

‘Migration to this country is far too high and it needs to come down’, began James Cleverly at the despatch box this afternoon. It has been a difficult three weeks since his appointment as Home Secretary, with the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Rwanda scheme and then the publication of record migration numbers. It was the latter subject of legal migration that dominated this afternoon’s debate in the Commons, ahead of Cleverly’s expected visit to Kigali in the coming days. The Home Secretary’s tone was hawkish on the subject, with repeated reference to migration being too high. That reflects a concern in his party that Rishi Sunak’s government is too

Stephen Daisley

The real reason the Tories are getting tough on the licence fee

You know the Tories are worried about their core vote when they start talking tough on the BBC licence fee. Rishi Sunak took time out of his Cop28 jaunt to declare that the Corporation must ‘cut its cloth appropriately’. Meanwhile, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is against the planned £15 increase in the fee, which comes after a two-year freeze agreed between Auntie and the government. The new hike, set for April, will reflect the 12-month average of inflation, bringing the annual cost to television viewers to £173.30. Frazer is concerned about any increase being ‘sustainable for families across the country’ and so she reportedly wants to use a different metric for inflation,

Steerpike

Eddie Izzard’s charm offensive backfires

If there’s one thing Eddie Izzard can’t be faulted on, it’s enthusiasm. The comedian and actor, who also self-identifies as Suzy, is standing to become the Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion. After Green MP Caroline Lucas announced she would not be standing for election in 2024, Izzard jumped at the chance to succeed her — less than a year after attempting to stand for Sheffield Central some 230 miles away. Since then, Izzard’s self-promotion has been nothing short of relentless, ahead of the upcoming local Labour selection meeting. Indeed Eddie is so committed to the area that Brighton will become Izzard’s ‘main home’ — but only if the constituents deign

Isabel Hardman

Starmer has no vision. Is that a bad thing?

Keir Starmer seems to be most comfortable when he’s pointing out how badly the Tories are doing, rather than when he is setting out his own plans. This afternoon he talked about the importance of long-term decision-making, skills and supply side reform: none of which would sound out of place in a speech by Jeremy Hunt or Rishi Sunak. The question-and-answer session afterwards was more enlightening than his speech. Starmer distanced himself not just from the Conservatives on public spending, but the Labour party too. There would be no opening of the spending taps, he said in his speech, and he further articulated this in answers afterwards, saying that having

James Heale

Was Starmer right to praise Thatcher?

11 min listen

This weekend Keir Starmer’s team took the opportunity to discuss Margaret Thatcher in an op-ed for the Sunday Telegraph. Whilst Starmer also praised other former prime ministers – such as Tony Blair and Clement Attlee – his admission that ‘Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism’, has ruffled a few feathers in the Labour party. Could this be a genius piece of politics to reach out to those on the right? Or is it a misfire? Also on the podcast, Rishi Sunak has started the week with the news that he has recorded his lowest rating ever in the latest ConservativeHome league

Kate Andrews

Starmer offers a heavy dose of the big state

Keir Starmer wants to set expectations early. Speaking at the Resolution Foundation’s economy conference later today, the opposition leader used his speech to emphasise just how little scope he’d have at the start of any Labour government to splash the cash. His party will not ‘turn on the spending taps’, he told an audience of economists and policy analysts. Anyone expecting them to do so is ‘going to be disappointed.’ The speech seemed to deliberately echo the infamous ‘I’m afraid there is no money’ note left for the incoming Tory government by a Labour minister. Starmer responded to the spending trap laid out in the Autumn Statement last month: where

Katy Balls

Sunak to unveil new measures on legal migration

Rishi Sunak has had a bad start to the week, with the latest ConservativeHome cabinet league table placing him at the very bottom at minus 25.4, just below his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Now, the Prime Minister is hoping to move his government onto firmer ground with a package of measures aimed at reducing legal migration. Sunak has been under renewed pressure to act since new figures showed that net migration reached a record high of 745,000 in 2022. Given the Tories promised to reduce overall levels of migration in the party’s 2019 manifesto, they are some way off delivering their pledge. When the Home Secretary addresses the Commons later, the

Steerpike

Union hosts festive bash after derailing commuters

Merry Christmas to the rail unions – they strike quicker than Harry Kane. On Friday, the Aslef union began a week of industrial action and reduced service, ruining Christmas parties across the nation. But like the good trade unionists that they are, Aslef boss Mick Whelan made sure that his own union’s party plans were unaffected by the service, hosting a 100-strong, full-trimmings bash at the four-star Earl of Doncaster hotel. So much for solidarity…. Whelan was featured in the Sun this morning, sharing a festive cracker with Labour MP Kate Osborne who on social media later praised her union ‘comrades’ and celebrating the ‘womderfully [sic] Christmas venue.’ Good night was it,

James Heale

Starmer risks a backlash with his Thatcher praise

Two Telegraph stories in successive days illustrate Labour’s dilemma. Today the paper gives a favourable write-up to the party’s Australian-style scheme for AI to analyse hospital scans. It comes after the Sunday edition yesterday splashed Keir Starmer’s praise for Margaret Thatcher – a tactic they have previously deployed in the same paper to great success. Alongside warm words for Tony Blair and Clement Attlee, Starmer wrote that the Tory premier effected ‘meaningful change’ in the UK as she ‘sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.’ Both stories are positive for Labour, making use of the opposition’s relatively-few tools to try to dominate the

Gavin Mortimer

France isn’t buying Macron’s excuses after the Eiffel Tower attack

There was more bloodshed in Paris this weekend, this time involving a man who, prosecutors claim, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS). A German tourist was killed as he strolled close to the Eiffel Tower with his wife during the attack on Saturday evening. Two other passers-by, including a Briton, were wounded by the assailant, who French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ranted about Muslims dying in Afghanistan and Palestine as he launched his deadly assault. Police used a stun gun to stop the man who is being questioned by anti-terror police. France is supposed to be on high alert following the outbreak of war in

Sean Thomas

Why the world loves Margaret Thatcher

There are many rituals surrounding the placement of a new Japanese Emperor on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Perhaps the most peculiar is the would-be emperor’s encounter with aquasi-sacred, 1300-year-old bronze mirror, the Yata no Kagami. This object, which embodies ‘wisdom’, is so enigmatic the aspirant emperor isn’t even allowed to see it; instead, functionaries are sent to assure the mirror of the new emperor’s fidelity. Some historians believe the mirror no longer exists, and was lost in a fire in Honshu’s Ise Shrine, 980 years ago. Thus it is with Labour leaders and Margaret Thatcher. Ever since the departure of the Iron Lady, aspiring or actual Labour prime ministers have made obeisance to the strange, overpowering ghost of British politics, years after her retirement and death, when her continued omnipresence is therefore a kind of Zen mystery. Tony Blair, as ever, got in his fealty precociously early. As a young Labour frontbencher, he expressed his high regard for her election winning clarity,

Steven Fielding

Why Starmer praised Thatcher

In an event that almost forms part of Britain’s unwritten constitution, if not quite as regular an occurrence as Big Ben’s bongs, a Labour leader has praised Margaret Thatcher. Keir Starmer has now expressed his admiration for the woman who helped keep his party out of office for eighteen years. That this made the news only shows how limited the time horizons of most political journalists are. For every Labour leader since Tony Blair has at one point or another done the exact same thing. The only notable exception is Jeremy Corbyn, who is no longer a member of the parliamentary Labour party. None of these Labour leaders praised Thatcher

Sean Rayment

Why Israel is changing tactics in its war on Hamas

The conflict in Gaza is about to enter a crucial phase as Israel continues its military campaign to destroy Hamas. After a seven-day pause in hostilities saw Hamas release 110 hostages in return for 240 Palestinians, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are now locked into a more complex and politically tricky battle as they venture into southern Gaza. If the IDF adopts the same tactics in the south as they did in the north of the Gaza Strip, then thousands more Palestinian civilians will die. There are signs, however, that Israel is changing tactics after bowing to pressure from allies. Over 15,000 civilians have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled

Sam Leith

Newsnight’s fate is a bad omen for the BBC

Newsnight, we learned last week, is losing ten minutes off its running time, more than half its staff including its entire reporting team and is dropping its investigative films in favour of cheap ‘n’ easy studio-based debates. The BBC’s news supremo Deborah Turness calls it ‘an important BBC brand’, but said ‘we’ve made the decision to reformat Newsnight as a 30-minute late-night news-making debate, discussion and interview programme’. She hasn’t quite taken the old captive bolt gun to it yet, then, but this sacred cow is definitely mooing anxiously as it makes its way down the slaughterhouse gangplank. Newsnight has gone from being a must-watch to being the most missable programme on television I hate to say it, but: fair

Sunday

3 Dec 2023

Steerpike

Sunak hits record low in Tory members’ poll

If things seem bad, they can always get worse. That’s the message for poor Rishi Sunak in the latest ConservativeHome league table of party members. The Prime Minister today records his worst ratings ever, racking up a dire -25.4 among card-carrying Conservatives. It comes after a yo-yoing three months in which his negative ratings rose to 25.8 after the Net Zero speech before falling slightly to 7.1 after party conference season. But Sunak is now bottom of his own cabinet – one place beneath longtime-struggler Jeremy Hunt, whose ratings rise to ‘just’ -13.4. So much for that Autumn Statement bounce… The other big beasts around the cabinet table fare little

Steerpike

Keir Starmer changes his tune on Mrs T

Has Starmer Chameleon gone too far this time? In his never-ending bid to be all things to all men, the Labour leader has decided that now is the perfect time to tell Middle England of his love for Margaret Thatcher. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph today, Sir Keir declares that: ‘Every moment of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them.’ He continued: ‘Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism,’ adding a plea for ‘disillusioned’ voters to ‘take a look’ at Labour again. It’s