Politics

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

Monday

Terry Barnes

Australia could regret its decision to recognise Palestine

When it comes to major decisions certain to anger Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seeking safety in numbers is a wise idea. For that’s what the joint decision by Britain, Australia and Canada to recognise a state of Palestine actually is. It isn’t a bloc of Anglosphere nations showing a united front to Trump and Netanyahu; rather, it is their huddling together in an attempt to deflect the wrath of the Israelis and Americans. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese foreshadowed the possibility of Palestinian recognition several weeks ago, giving him something to announce today in New York as the UN General Assembly yet again deliberates on the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Forget Palestine – when will Starmer recognise Britain?

Who does Keir Starmer think he’s kidding? There he is in that glossy video imperiously decreeing there should be a State of Palestine, yet he can’t even hold the British state together. Under his half-hearted purview our borders have become more porous, our state machinery has become more enfeebled, and the country has become the laughing stock of the civilised world. Forget playing fantasy states overseas, Sir Keir: fix the one you run. Here’s my question for the PM: when will you recognise the British state? Here’s my question for the PM: when will you recognise the British state? We have become a nation where you risk being branded far

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Charlie Kirk and America's fifth great awakening

Political Islam is a powerful global force. Wahhabism, the Muslim Brotherhood and Shia theocracy are different yet successful strands of the same impulse to govern according to the will of Allah. Political Christianity, by contrast, has in recent decades, even centuries, taken a back seat when it comes to public affairs. With some exceptions, Christians have broadly interpreted Jesus’s message to ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’ as an injunction not to muddy the holy pursuit of justice with the worldly pursuit of power.  At Charlie Kirk’s memorial yesterday, the world witnessed something different: not just a Christian politics but a political Christianity. Republican party campaigns have long had

Fin de Pencier

After Charlie Kirk, will the right fight or forgive?

Charlie Kirk’s status as a martyr was sealed at his packed memorial on Sunday evening, when an estimated 100,000 people showed up to honour him. Among the crowd was Joseph Moulton, a young right-wing activist from York. He was not far behind President Trump and members of his administration. Moulton is a founding member of Flag Force UK, one of the original groups that inspired the Raise the Colours movement. When Kirk was assassinated, Moulton had just landed in Phoenix, Arizona, at the beginning of a trip to recruit powerful allies that could spread the movement even further. He had meetings arranged with the Turning Point team and was pushing

Tim Shipman

Farage goes after Boris

16 min listen

Nigel Farage has unveiled his most radical immigration plan yet – scrapping indefinite leave to remain for migrants – in a move designed to reverse the so-called ‘Boriswave.’ James Heale explains how this would affect hundreds of thousands already living in the UK, why the party claims it could save £250 billion, and whether any of it is remotely feasible. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has formally recognised Palestine as a state, a decision hailed by many Labour MPs but criticised by others as diplomatically reckless. And, to round off a busy political Monday morning, the government has approved a second runway at Gatwick – but will it really boost growth before

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour MP backs claim that Farage's migrant policy is 'racist'

Labour might have recognised Palestinian statehood and green-lighted a new Gatwick runway, but Nigel Farage has once again managed to steal the show. This morning the Reform UK leader held a London press conference in which he announced his plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain, make foreign nationals ineligible to claim benefits and introduce an English standards test – which would be retaken every five years. Crikey! Reform has planned its headline domination well, with Farage and his head of policy Zia Yusuf taking aim at ex-prime minister Boris Johnson and the ‘Boriswave’ of immigration that came after Brexit. Ashfield MP Lee Anderson has also written in the Daily

Patrick West

The danger of defining 'Islamophobia'

Many people have been warning for some time about the perilous consequences of introducing an official definition of ‘Islamophobia’ to this country, specifically in regard to its potential to curtail free speech and reintroduce de facto blasphemy laws. But it’s taken a leading KC – an adviser to the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, no less – to remind us of a further danger: the likelihood that it will deter police from investigating Muslim suspects or offenders for fear of accusations of racism. As reported in the Daily Telegraph today, Tom Cross KC has said it was ‘reasonable’ to Suppose that such a definition would in practice be relied on in

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Gatwick expansion won’t happen any time soon

How refreshing to hear transport secretary Heidi Alexander approve plans for a second working runway at Gatwick Airport, taking on the ‘eco warriors’ she has previously attacked for blocking airport expansion. Just the one thing, though. Does she really think she has heard the last from them? If she thinks she is going to drive this plan through so that planes will be taking off on the second runway by the time of the next election, as she seems to think, then she is going to be disappointed. Indeed, Sadiq Khan has already threatened legal action against the expansion. This is going to end up in the courts, and sadly

Jonathan Sacerdoti

What will Keir Starmer’s Palestine declaration achieve?

Keir Starmer has justified Britain’s declaration of Palestinian statehood by insisting that it will keep open the path to a two‑state solution and ultimately lead to peace. He has emphasised that Hamas could play no role in such a state, and seems to assume the move would position Britain as a key player in shaping the future of the Middle East. Is any of this accurate? Hamas welcomed the move, as did Husam Zumlot, the PLO representative in London, who went on television to say that Starmer’s declaration (made in concert with Canada and Australia) was simply recognition of an already existing fact. He even described historic Palestine as ‘the

James Heale James Heale

Reform thinks Boris Johnson is finished

This morning Nigel Farage will unveil Reform’s latest policy. The party plans to abolish the status known as indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which allows those who have lived here for more than five years to receive benefits and apply for citizenship. All migrants with permanent residency will have to reapply for visas under stricter criteria, including higher language and salary requirements. Foreign nationals will be barred from accessing benefits. Reform claims this will save £234 billion – though the think tank which produced those figures now suggests a revision is necessary. The announcement aims to address concerns about the party’s fiscal probity. Farage has previously said that plans to

Neal Pollack

America pays tribute to Charlie Kirk

In an exhilarating, often exhausting and unprecedented moment in American history, thousands of mourners gathered in an Arizona football stadium on Sunday afternoon to honour slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Attendees included dozens of members of Congress, half the cabinet, President Donald Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance and the former shadow president, Elon Musk. They remembered Kirk as a husband, a father, a friend, a devotee of freedom of speech, a lover of classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and, perhaps most significantly, a warrior for the Christian God – belief in whom animated Kirk’s every utterance and action. Kirk’s memorial – or, as many speakers called it, ‘revival’ – was perhaps

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Macron is abandoning France's Jews by recognising Palestine

France will today officially recognise the state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In justifying his decision, Emmanuel Macron said that recognition ‘is the best way to isolate Hamas’, adding: ‘Now is the time to act – not tomorrow, not in ten years. If we don’t move, the conflict will only deepen, and the hope of peace will vanish.’ Some are cynical about the timing of the President’s decision. ‘Emmanuel Macron is into performative politics,’ says Pierre Lellouche, who was a (Jewish) minister in Nicolas Sarkozy’s government. ‘He’s going to New York to make people forget the chaos reigning in France’. Macron’s declaration flies in

James Sunderland

Starmer risks repeating Britain’s Palestine mistake

Britain has formally recognised a Palestinian state for the first time. The Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his announcement yesterday keeps ‘alive the possibility of peace’. Given Britain’s history in the region the move is deeply symbolic, even if it is unlikely to change the reality on the ground. Britain will recognise a country with whose past it is deeply enmeshed and correct a historical injustice. But Starmer would do well to learn from Britain’s involvement with Palestine a century ago: promises and words are cheap, a viable two-state solution will require more. Seventy-seven years after the last High Commissioner left Palestine, his vision of two states for two peoples

Sunday

James Heale James Heale

Keir Starmer: UK recognises a Palestinian state

This afternoon, Keir Starmer declared that the UK now formally recognises a Palestinian state. In a six-minute video, posted on X, the Prime Minister took the step that many of his colleagues have wanted him to do for months. ‘We are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution’, said Starmer. He argued that the move was necessary because of the ‘growing horror’ of the Israeli offensive, insisting it did not amount to ‘a reward for Hamas’. The Labour leader urged Hamas to release the remaining hostages, with further sanctions expected in the coming weeks. A reformed Palestinian Authority would run the new state, with provisional

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Davey: arrest Elon Musk

Liberal Democrat party conference – four words which turn the blood of any lobby journalist cold. Yes, it is that time of year again: the annual five-day bonanza in which the perennial third party of British politics desperately tries to find some relevance. In his never-ending quest for headlines, Sir Ed Davey – the clown prince of Westminster – has alighted on a new stunt: leading a marching band, drum and all. Less Orange Book, more Orange Order… But for Davey, who furiously complains that his antics are not getting enough airtime, one wheeze is not enough. The Kingston MP is reprising his Love Actually routine by talking tough on

Joe Bedell-Brill

David Lammy: A Gaza ceasefire 'lies in tatters'

Keir Starmer is set to announce the UK’s official recognition of Palestinian statehood later today. In July, the Prime Minister had said that the UK would recognise the state of Palestine if Israel did not improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process. Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that Israel’s attack on Qatar and its highly controversial ‘E1 development’ plan to divide the West Bank show that Israel is not committed to ‘two states’. Phillips noted that the UK government had set conditions for Israel, but not Hamas. Lammy said the government has been ‘crystal clear’

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Where is the outrage over the aid trucks hijacked in Gaza?

Unicef has confirmed it in black and white: armed men in Gaza hijacked aid trucks at gunpoint, stealing ready-to-use therapeutic food meant for thousands of severely malnourished infants. According to the UN, at least 2,700 children have been deprived of life-saving nutrition as a result. And yet, the world barely blinked. When Israel takes military action, the scrutiny is immediate and unforgiving. When images of hungry children emerge from Gaza, they are broadcast with relentless urgency, almost always with the implicit or explicit framing that Israel is to blame. But when terrorists intercept UN aid trucks, seizing food for their own infants in need, that story scarcely registers. This incident reveals not

Cristina Odone

Can schools force parents to reconnect with their children?

Parents must be ‘front and centre’ in their children’s education, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has told schools. Her upcoming white paper will introduce clear expectations around parental engagement with schools. The idea, presumably, is that parents have the confidence and know-how to oversee their children, allowing teachers to focus on teaching rather than on being a therapist, a social worker, or a nanny. If only. Parents have lost confidence, courage, and, as a result, authority. Teachers quite understandably fear ‘engagement’ will require teaching parenting skills that have grown rusty: too many mothers and fathers seem to have abrogated all responsibility for their child’s hygiene, toilet training, and vaccinations. At a recent

Matthew Wilcox

What rewilders don't understand about the British countryside

It comes without warning. A black shape shearing out of the sky, a clap of wings like a sail breaking. The foal has no time to startle. Talons hit, the ground shakes, and in the next breath it is gone, dragged upward into the light. Rewilding is the countryside’s answer to cosplay This summer on South Uist, a Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, crofter Donald John Cameron says he lost five Shetland pony foals from his hillside farm, each one vanishing between May and July. He believes they were carried off by white-tailed eagles, reintroduced to Scotland in the 1970s after the species had been hunted to extinction. The foals,

Iram Ramzan

The mullahs’ grip on Iran is failing

Mahsa Amini was killed by Iran’s morality police on 16 September 2022. Her only ‘crime’ was wearing ‘improper hijab’. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman’s death galvanised the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests that shook the Iranian regime. Three years on, the anger behind the protests remains. On the anniversary of Amini’s death, residents of Tehran chanted ‘Death to the dictator’ (referring to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei) from rooftops and windows, and shopkeepers in Mahsa’s hometown of Saghez, in Kurdistan province, went on strike.  This week, I’ve been speaking to Iranian exiles in Britain. For Ellie Borhan, a 43-year-old Iranian exile and activist, Mahsa’s death marked a turning point. ‘Something switched on