Politics

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

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Boris stand for Henley?

Come one, come all! Applications to stand as the Tory candidate in Henley are now open, following the decision of the local MP John Howell to retire. And with such a vacancy comes the inevitable speculation about the return of Boris Johnson, who proceeded Howell as Henley’s MP from 2001 until 2008. Polls suggest Johnson will lose his current Uxbridge seat (majority: 7,210) and would therefore seek the safer berth of Henley (majority: 14,053). Such speculation about a ‘chicken run’ has only been fuelled by Johnson’s new living arrangements. The ex-Prime Minister moved into a £3.8 million Oxfordshire residence earlier this month and was last weekend spotted making a surprise

William Nattrass William Nattrass

Czech Foreign Minister: Ukraine needs to ‘transform’ before it can join the EU

It doesn’t take long for visitors to Prague to figure out how the locals feel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Fifteen months since the war started, yellow and blue flags still seem to flutter in almost every city centre street.   The current Czech government – an ideologically varied five-party coalition united by its pro-EU and pro-western outlook – has played its part in supporting Ukraine’s successful war effort. As a proportion of GDP, Czech military aid to Ukraine has been among the most generous in the world. And when I meet Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, who is set to meet UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly this week, he is unequivocal

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Why won’t Humza Yousaf condemn Celtic fans?

Saturday saw Celtic lift the Scottish Premiership trophy after a 5-0 victory over Aberdeen. Fans crammed into Parkhead, in Glasgow’s east end, to watch goals from Kyogo Furuhashi, Hyeon-Gyu Oh and Carl Starfelt. By way of celebration, Hoops supporters painted the town green — and then some.  Ten people were arrested on suspicion of assault, police assault and public order offences. Three men were hospitalised after being ‘seriously assaulted’. Video footage shows a firework being set off among a crowd of fans while a viral clip has captured the scale of the clean-up operation faced by Glasgow City Council after supporters dumped litter throughout the city’s streets.  A senior police officer has blasted the revellers for ‘an unacceptable level of anti-social

Jim Lawley

What the rise of Vox means for Spain

Vox, the most right-wing of Spain’s mainstream political parties, has emerged considerably strengthened from Sunday’s local and regional elections. With the left-wing vote slumping badly, the Partido Popular, the largest right-wing party, also had an excellent night, but crucially it will need the support of Vox to govern in many regions and town halls.          These elections then suggest that Vox may be a highly influential (albeit junior) partner in the central government after the general election which, it has just been announced, will be held on 23 July. At present it is the third-strongest party in the national parliament with 52 of the 350 seats, while the Partido Popular

Owen Matthews

Erdogan made himself indispensable – to Turkey and the West

Some Turks voted for the devil they knew. More voted for the hero they knew. Either way, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s re-election in the most fiercely contested election of his career last Sunday was a victory for fear over hope, for security over uncertainty, and of the past over the future.  Erdogan has, over the last five years, seen the economic miracle he helped create collapse into runway inflation, cronyism and gross economic mismanagement. Yet despite a litany of failures that would have demolished the career of any western European politician, it’s easy to see why over 52 per cent of Turks voted to stick with Erdogan. His opponent, the avuncular

Nigel Jones

Europe’s rightward drift and the myth of backwards Britain

It is an idée fixe among British Europhiles that continental Europe is a progressive place firmly wedded to left-wing parties and policies, and that in leaving the EU, Brexit Britain was demonstrating its irredeemably reactionary and backward nature. The picture of Europe beloved by British Eurofans as a safe space for only left-wing politics is a complete myth In fact, as a brief examination of recent European elections and current governments reveals, this is the exact opposite of the truth: across Europe the right and often the far-right are on the rise. Meanwhile, the once mighty Socialist and Social Democratic parties that dominated the continent are in eclipse, if not

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Keir Starmer has become the Just Stop Oil candidate

So, Just Stop Oil is now His Majesty’s Official Opposition. Keir Starmer has adopted the group’s main demand – no development of new oil and gas reserves – as his own. Presumably he hopes to attract green votes, especially in Scotland where the SNP has a similar policy. But it means going into the next election with a policy which is both economically and environmentally illiterate. Even with a drive towards clean energy – and even if tricky targets to outlaw new gas boilers and petrol and diesel cars could be met – Britain is going to remain dependent on oil and gas for decades to come. In spite of

Steerpike Steerpike

Phillip Schofield tries to defend himself (again)

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. The scandal surrounding Phillip Schofield shows no sign of going away, with the disgraced star expected to cost ITV millions in lost advertising revenue and a reduced share price. And Schofield is doing his best to deflect and defend by issuing various statements, including one over the weekend in which he admitted to misleading his lawyer and lying to the Daily Mail about a relationship that he had with someone working on This Morning. Now Schofield has done it again, in blithe defiance of the aphorism that ‘When you’re in a hole, stop digging.’ He has released a statement on

Dr Philip Mortimer

How much compensation should contaminated blood victims get?

The Financial Times estimated on 10 May that the impending compensation relating to the UK haemophilia treatment misadventure around 1980 will reach £12 billion. The Times has suggested the figure is £8 billion. These are very large sums indeed, and they relate to previous UK government failures to engage with a problem that the press now refers to as a scandal. ‘Scandal’ implies gross maladministration and/or professional incompetence, and the current (third) inquiry into the matter, under Judge Langstaff, now needs to resolve the problem without any further delay. Judge Langstaff has undertaken to report by the autumn of this year, and he has already recommended interim awards of compensation.

Daniel Thorpe

Erdogan’s debts are piling up

President Erdogan once again emerged victorious in Sunday’s presidential elections. In the highly contested race, he secured 52 per cent of the votes, beating his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu by four points. With challenges mounting from his previous terms, the next five years will be one of the most challenging for President Erdogan. The biggest and most immediate crisis he is facing is the Turkish lira. Since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2018, the lira has lost over 450 per cent of its value against the US dollar. In the run-up to the elections, the Turkish Central Bank burned billions of dollars to keep the Turkish lira from sliding

Charles Parton

The next Chinese tech threat is already here

In recent years we’ve had fierce debates about the safety and security of Huawei, 5G, TikTok, semiconductors, ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. All of which may have given you technological indigestion. Let me add something even more threatening to the mix of the threat from China: the security of cellular (internet of things) modules.   Unlike the mythical urban rat, you really are never more than a few feet away from a cellular module. If semiconductors are the bricks with which the new industrial and lifestyle revolutions are being built, cellular modules are the doors and windows. They are small components embedded within equipment or devices which process software, have geolocation capability, e-sims

Liam Duffy

The French academic paying a heavy price for probing the Muslim Brotherhood

Loitering by the entrance, I clock a large gentleman with tattoos crawling up his neck from underneath his collar. It’s immediately obvious he’s not there for lunch: he is there on behalf of the French state to prevent an assassination. Specifically, the targeting of the academic I am meeting: Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, who’s been living under police protection for the last six weeks since the reaction to her book on the Muslim Brotherhood took a turn. The Muslim Brotherhood is perhaps the most significant Islamist organisation in the world. A political party founded against the backdrop of 20th century colonialism in Egypt, it arrived in the West via students and exiles fleeing repressive

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Erdogan won

This was supposed to be the year when Recep Erdogan would finally come to grief. Instead, he has defied the odds and won today’s runoff in the Turkish presidential election with 52 per cent of the votes vs 48 per cent for 74-year-old opposition leader Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. This establishes Erdogan as one of the great political survivors, whose personal popularity has risen over the declining stature of his party. And it all but kills off the hope that reformist Turks had for change. Anyone who has visited Turkey recently will know the mayhem that Erdogan’s rule has introduced. When I was last there, inflation was so bad that shops didn’t

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Russian ambassador says Ukraine will not prevail

Russian ambassador – We haven’t ‘started yet to act very seriously’ In an extraordinary interview with Laura Kuenssberg, the Russian ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin repeatedly deflected questions about Russian war crimes, instead suggesting Ukraine posed a threat to Russia. He said Russia had the power to massively escalate the conflict, and claimed it was a ‘big idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine may prevail’: Is the government really building 40 new hospitals? Kuenssberg questioned whether the government’s manifesto pledge to build 40 new hospitals was as extensive as they claimed it to be. Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the government was sticking with the proposals made in 2020, but

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The madness of Sunak capping food prices

It wasn’t long ago that supermarkets stood accused of selling food too cheaply. Their price wars and two-for-the-price-of-one deals were destroying farmers, undermining local shops and making us fat. How long ago that now seems, with the government now considering 1970s-style price controls. While the measures would apparently be voluntary, they would fix the prices of a number of basic foodstuffs – the sort which Jack Monroe keeps her eyes on. The price of price-fixing is likely to be more pictures of empty shelves, which of course will be blamed on Brexit You don’t need to have studied economics in any depth to understand the problem with price controls. In

John Keiger John Keiger

How Keir Starmer could walk into the EU’s trap

Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour front bench are increasingly candid about their plans to ‘recalibrate’ Britain’s relationship with the EU within 18 months of entering Downing Street. Trade barriers with the EU would be lowered, regular EU-UK summits would be held at permanent official and ministerial level, a return to the Dublin Agreement on migration would be negotiated. They would also sign a UK-EU security pact. The Labour leader insists he is not promising to return the UK to the single market or the customs union. But the fear is that a novice, naïve and inexperienced Labour government would be putty in the hands of Euro-maximalist leaders of the calibre of

Tom Goodenough

Let’s call time on football’s absurd beer ban

When Qatar announced an alcohol ban at last year’s football World Cup, there was uproar. The decision, made public a few days before the tournament kicked off in November, was proof for critics that the event should never have been held in the country. But in English stadiums today a similar – and perhaps even more bizarre – rule relating to alcohol is enforced. Fans at Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two games are banned from drinking ‘in sight of the pitch’. They can booze to their heart’s content in stadium bars, but if they take a drink back to their seat, they risk being arrested and fined. 

Saturday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Conservatives are blaming civil servants for their own failings

Conservatives are once again doing what they do best: whining. By ‘conservatives’, I don’t mean conservatives in any meaningful sense, but conservatives in perhaps the least meaningful sense: members and supporters of the Conservative Party. The latest grist for their self-pity mill is their conviction that the government is being undermined by the Civil Service. Specifically, that politically motivated civil servants are targeting right-wingers deemed too effective at advancing conservative principles or resisting progressive causes inside government.  Victims of this vast left-wing conspiracy are said to include Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary this week dodged a ministerial code inquiry into her request that civil servants arrange a private rather than public speed awareness course after she

Steerpike Steerpike

Does BBC Verify need to review the Beeb’s own output?

Much has been made about the BBC’s new Verify service, launched last week. According to the Corporation’s glutinous press release, the 60-strong team represents a ‘new brand to address the growing threat of disinformation and build trust with audiences by transparently showing how BBC journalists know the information they are reporting.’ But does such diligent fact-checking need to start at home? Steerpike couldn’t help noticing some rather odd editing by BBC Breakfast today in their segment on the tragic deaths of two teenagers in Cardiff. The footage aired by Sky News shows an electric bike caught on CCTV whizzing through the streets of the Welsh capital, followed 15 seconds later