Politics

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

Thursday

Zoe Strimpel

Chess doesn’t need Rishi Sunak’s cheesy cheerleading

There’s something embarrassing about Rishi Sunak’s plan to revive chess in Britain. The PM is set to announce half-a-million pounds funding for the English Chess Federation. The money could be used to send teams to international tournaments, install chess tables in parks and teach the game to school kids. But Rishi’s cheesy cheerleading for government-sponsored chess is reminding me a lot of a parent buying condoms for their teenager: there’s no better way to take the sexiness out of sex. Perhaps the PM is trying to take inspiration from eastern Europe. Last October, I went to Budapest to interview the world’s best-ever female chess player, Judit Polgar, and also attended the

Wednesday

Lucy Dunn

Is Scottish Labour embarrassed by Starmer?

They had balloons, handmade posters and a big red van lit up with ‘Michael Shanks: A Fresh Start’ flashing on the side. The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election is Labour’s to lose and don’t they know it. Despite the pressure on the modern studies teacher and now-Labour candidate Michael Shanks, the atmosphere at Labour’s by-election launch was relaxed – if the Glaswegian weather miserable. Former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier lost her seat on Tuesday night and constituents will face a second vote in October, a by-election that will bring the SNP and Labour head to head.  Tuesday’s result was a small win for Labour – literally. The recall petition’s low

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Why has Trump been indicted…again?

19 min listen

Freddy Gray sits down with Jacob Heilbrunn to discuss Donald Trump’s latest indictment over January 6th. The former President faces 78 charges which, if found guilty, could mean he will spend several years in prison. 

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

America’s female footballers should sing their national anthem

Just four members of the US football team at the Women’s World Cup sang their country’s national anthem before their game against Portugal yesterday. The rest stayed silent and impassive with their hands conspicuously by their side, not over their hearts. This was the third time the US team, or much of it, has made a silent protest at this World Cup in New Zealand. Are they to be condemned for this, or does every player have the right to express their feelings for their country, or lack of, in their own way? Pre-match protests have become popular in recent years and the US players are not alone in seizing the limelight to make a point. Germany’s

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Can Labour take back Rutherglen and Hamilton West?

13 min listen

A by-election is on the cards for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was recalled by her constituents. She’d flouted lockdown rules in 2020, taking a train from London to Scotland despite testing positive for Covid. Given that Labour will need to make gains in Scotland in order to win the next election, this by-election has become a bellwether for the party. Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Lucy Dunn about what to expect. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Supercops: the return of tough policing

In a few weeks’ time, police across the country will receive a new order: ‘Investigate every crime’. It may not sound like a novel concept, but over the past few years forces – including the Metropolitan Police – have largely given up on low-level crime. Austerity was seen as a reason to ignore burglaries, thefts and minor assaults if officers believed there was little chance of identifying a suspect. But now a new theory is about to be put into practice: that investigations will lead not just to more convictions, but to more deterrence. Not that the Tories would use the phrase, but this is a back-to-basics strategy This change

The Spectator

Trump’s indictment and the trouble with the law

The latest charges against Donald Trump will do nothing to deter his many supporters within the Republican party. On the contrary, his indictment by a grand jury set up by special counsel Jack Smith plays into the former president’s narrative of victimhood and makes it even more likely that he will be chosen as a candidate. And that, curiously, is exactly what many senior Democrats want. To his electoral opponents, Trump seems reliably toxic – millions of Americans will turn out to vote against him.  It is a depressing development when legal processes are used as a political tool Even if he is convicted of the latest four charges –

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Can the Tories come up with a tax offer in time?

Last summer, all the Tory party could talk about was tax. It was at the heart of the leadership contest and the dividing line between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. The then foreign secretary promised to move fast and bring in deficit-financed tax cuts; the former chancellor said this would end in tears and instead pledged fully funded cuts over six years. Neither plan saw the light of day. All talk of tax cuts was suspended after Truss’s mini-Budget, when the premise of her borrow-and-spend agenda was tested to destruction. Since then, tax has become a difficult topic to bring up. Even within Tory circles, calls to cut tax are

Nick Robinson

My run-in with Nigel Farage

To think I once thought cricket dull. For more than 40 days and 40 nights, I have been gripped by the Ashes. I still couldn’t tell you where short third man ends and deep backward point begins, but I have fallen in love with the rollercoaster ride that Ben Stokes and his team have taken us on. So much so that I covertly watched every ball of the final hour of the final day while on a family outing to Come and Sing: Abba. I could stand the tension no longer when the ninth wicket fell so made my excuses and left to watch the final act outside with a

Steerpike Steerpike

‘Do you not speak English?’: Trump ally blasts BBC’s Chris Mason

Poor old BBC political editor Chris Mason got a rude awakening during his interview with Donald Trump’s former aide this morning. Sebastian Gorka blasted Mason for putting ‘words in his mouth’ in a fiery appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme. Gorka, who served as Trump’s former deputy assistant, defended his former boss who was charged overnight with attempting to overturn the 2020 US election. But when Mason suggested Gorka was ‘talking down’ the US’ reputation as a ‘rich and vibrant democracy’, with no one being above the law, Trump’s ally was not impressed. ‘Why are you putting words in my mouth? I’m talking about the absolute opposite. Do you not

Steerpike Steerpike

Rishi Sunak takes a pop at Nadine Dorries

Rishi Sunak is jetting off on holiday to California this afternoon, but it seems the Prime Minister couldn’t resist a dig at Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries before he departs. Dorries, a close ally of Boris Johnson, has refused to quit parliament, despite saying in June that she would stand down as the MP for Mid Bedfordshire ‘with immediate effect’. When LBC host Nick Ferrari asked Sunak for his ‘view of Nadine’, the PM responded: ‘I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them wherever they are…just making sure that your MP is engaging with you, representing you, whether that’s speaking in parliament or being present in their constituencies.’ He

The Spectator

Rishi Sunak is right to hedge his bets on oil and gas

It is quite right that the Prime Minister has chosen to approve new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, in spite of the bitter reaction from climate activists, the Labour party – and some of his own MPs. Chris Skidmore, who just recently completed a review of net zero policies on behalf of the government, said this week that the decision to award new licences ‘is on the wrong side of the future economy that will be founded on renewable and clean industries and not fossil fuels’. Yet the Prime Minister is not retrenching on investment in renewable energy; he is hedging the government’s bets. While

Nick Timothy

How wine gums helped me win my Tory selection battle

To the uninitiated, Tattersalls is an historic and world-renowned bloodstock auction house in Newmarket, Suffolk. Since 1766, the finest race horses in the world have been bought and sold here. As the magnificent beasts are paraded around the sales ring, eager bidders sit in circular rows of seats, each aiming to catch the auctioneer’s eye. This is a serious business: last year Tatts sold 10,000 horses and turned over 400 million guineas.  On Sunday, the famous old building bore witness to a different business but one which is no less serious. Lord Hayward, former Conservative MP and retired rugby referee, played auctioneer. And the members of the West Suffolk Conservative

Jacob Heilbrunn

Donald Trump can run but he can’t hide from his 6 January indictment

The surprising thing isn’t that Donald Trump was indicted. It’s that it took this long. After Attorney General Merrick Garland dithered for two years, Special Counsel Jack Smith is making up for lost time. He’s been on something of a judicial tear, indicting Trump whenever and wherever he can. Smith’s latest move is a forty-five-page indictment assailing Trump for attempting to obstruct ‘a bedrock function of the US government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.’ Bedrock, shmedrock. Trump’s followers are depicting the indictment as a new instalment in the Deep State’s prolonged attempt to prevent Trump from returning to the White House. The indictment

Michael Bachmann

Donald Trump charged with bid to overturn 2020 US election

Former president Donald Trump has been indicted, again, by Special Counsel Jack Smith — this time over his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the subsequent January 6 riot. Trump faces four counts: Molly Gaston, a prosecutor affiliated with Smith, submitted an indictment on Tuesday evening. The forty-five page document can now be read here. In a statement, the Trump campaign described the indictment as ‘nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponised Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election, in which President Trump is the undisputed frontrunner, and leading by

Jawad Iqbal

Modi’s cheetah rewilding project is coming unstuck

Political vanity projects come in all shapes and forms but invariably turn out badly. One such is India’s ‘Project Cheetah’, a madcap scheme to reintroduce cheetahs to the country after an absence of just over 70 years. It has the personal backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has made it an issue of national prestige, which means it is all but impossible for anyone in authority to acknowledge that things are not quite going to plan. So far, eight cheetahs have died out of a total of 20 imported from Africa and questions are growing about the reasons behind the deaths. There are even claims of an official cover

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Why the SNP must cling on in Rutherglen and Hamilton West

They are the words Humza Yousaf has been dreading: Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. South Lanarkshire Council confirmed yesterday afternoon that Margaret Ferrier, the incumbent MP, has been recalled by her constituents via petition. Ferrier was elected as an SNP MP but now sits as an independent after admitting that she travelled between London and Scotland on public transport having tested positive for Covid-19. She is currently serving a Commons suspension for these actions.  The by-election will be a major test for the First Minister and a chance to put his nightmare first four months behind him — or extend the agony, if his party loses the seat. Rutherglen and

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election is a big test for Labour

Another week, another by-election. Constituents in Margaret Ferrier’s seat of Rutherglen and Hamilton West have voted for their MP to be removed from her seat after she was suspended from the Commons for 30 days after being convicted of breaking travel rules during lockdown. Following the rule breach, Ferrier was also ousted by the SNP, and has since sat as an independent.  More than 10 per cent of eligible voters signed the recall petition, and a by-election will now follow. Ferrier first won the seat for the SNP in 2015 before Scottish Labour took it back in 2017. In 2019, she reclaimed it, with a majority of 5,000. It means

Steerpike Steerpike

SNP face by-election after Margaret Ferrier ousted

Well, well, well. After almost three years of Margaret Ferrier’s Covid breaches coming under the spotlight, the SNP MP has finally been ousted from her seat in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. In the end, 11,896 people in her constituency – 14.7 per cent of eligible voters – physically signed the recall petition to eject her, a little over the 10 per cent needed. As if things couldn’t get much worse for Humza Yousaf, the First Minister now has his first big electoral test on his hands in the form of a by-election… If readers need reminding, Ferrier is the hapless halfwit who became the focus of public uproar in October

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sunak heckled while pulling a pint

The government’s alcohol-duty reform came into force today, which could only mean one thing: the customary press pictures of politicians pulling pints. Earlier on today, the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt ‘popped to the local’ Two Chairmen in Westminster, while the famously teetotal Prime Minister went to a London beer festival to mark the change in alcohol duty. Mr S wonders though if these PR pub visits may soon become a thing of the past – after the PM failed to get the reception he was presumably hoping for. As Sunak pulled a pint of Black Dub stout at the festival, the Prime Minister was heckled by an onlooker, who shouted ‘Oh the