Politics

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

Tuesday

29 Jul 2025

The US-China trade war is not over yet

Stockholm, Sweden The United States and China have concluded two days of trade negotiations in Stockholm without reaching an agreement to extend the truce in their ongoing trade war. Shortly after the talks ended, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who led the American delegation, told reporters that any decision to extend the current 12 August deadline – at which point tariffs would revert to 34 per cent – rests solely with President Trump. A meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping was not on the agenda. The Chinese delegation said both sides had agreed to ‘push’ for such an extension. Bessent, along with Trump’s trade adviser Jamieson Greer, told me

James Heale

Starmer to recognise a Palestinian state

Following a lengthy cabinet meeting this afternoon, No. 10 announced that the UK is prepared to follow France in recognising a Palestinian state in September. Keir Starmer intends to press ahead with this plan unless three conditions are met: that Israel takes substantive steps and reaches a ceasefire, makes clear that there will be no annexation of the West Bank and commits to a long-term peace process to deliver a two-state solution. Given that Israel is currently unlikely to commit to any, let alone all three, of these conditions, British recognition of Palestine now looks inevitable. The official Downing Street read-out of today’s session stretches to 664 words. That is

Tim Shipman

How much pressure is Starmer facing over Gaza?

20 min listen

Ministers have been recalled for a rare cabinet meeting during recess to discuss the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. As the UN warns of famine and aid agencies are raising concern about widespread starvation, countries are coming under pressure to change their approach and influence Israel. In the UK, the focus is on recognition of a Palestinian state, following Emmanuel Macron’s decision that France will do so in September and after more than 200 cross-party MPs signed a letter endorsing recognition. Political editor Tim Shipman and senior associate fellow at RUSI Michael Stephens join deputy political editor James Heale to discuss the situation, recognition and the UK’s role in the

Constantin Eckner

Germany isn’t happy about the EU-US trade deal

The US-EU trade deal has been given a lukewarm reception in Europe. Although the agreement between US president Donald Trump and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is merely a framework, rather than a full-trade deal, there are already major concerns on the continent, especially in Germany – a country famously reliant on exports. German chancellor Friedrich Merz did not seem too pleased with the deal, negotiated by his party colleague von der Leyen. ‘I’m not satisfied with the result in the sense that (it was said) this is good as it is,’ Merz stated. ‘Which, in plain terms, means the German economy will suffer significant

Tom Jones

What Labour’s Jimmy Savile attack on Nigel Farage reveals

Nigel Farage is on the side of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile. That’s the verdict of Labour Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, after the Reform leader criticised the government’s Online Safety Act. Kyle, is of course, speaking nonsense: opposing a law that fails to protect children and cracks down on free speech doesn’t put you in the same group as Savile. But Kyle’s comments do make one thing clear: Labour is seriously rattled about the rise of Reform. Farage has demanded an apology from Kyle, who has so far refused to back down. Instead, having told Sky News ‘make no mistake if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today he would be

Ross Clark

Trump is right about North Sea oil

Maybe it is Donald Trump’s way of getting back at Keir Starmer for Labour sending activists to campaign for Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. Either way, the US president seems to have no intention of obeying the convention that leaders of democratic do not delve into the domestic politics of their counterparts in other nations – and especially not while they are on a foreign tour. Today, Trump has doubled down on his attack on the windfarms he says are spoiling the view from his golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire. Posting on his Truth Social account he asserted that UK government ministers ‘have essentially told drillers and

Steerpike

Corbyn and Sultana use same crowdfunder as Tommy Robinson

You’d think two botched party launches would have chastened Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn somewhat. Not so. The duo continue to heap praise on the number of sign-ups their new group has seen – reaching 550,000 in the last 24 hours – while Sultana uses the rising figure to barb Reform, boasting at the weekend that it had overtaken Nigel Farage’s party membership. But, as Reform figures were quick to point out, a free sign-up is a rather different thing than being a paid-up party member… And Mr S has spotted another amusing feature of the dynamic duo’s freshly-formed website. YourParty – which Sultana rather confusingly insists is not the

Kate Andrews

Trump, MAGA, and US foreign policy

Kate Andrews speaks to Damir Marusic, assignment editor at The Washington Post and co-founder of Wisdom of Crowds. They examine Donald Trump’s surprising foreign policy moves in his second term: his position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, why he’s armed Ukraine despite MAGA frustration, and whether his instincts are reshaping Republican foreign policy for good.

Alexander Horne

How could Britain deport more foreign offenders?

Barely a week passes without headlines about the UK’s ongoing issues deporting foreign national offenders (FNOs). Foreign offenders are estimated to make up around 12 per cent of the UK prison population and many are not deported upon release. While some stories may be exaggerated or misrepresented – such as the well-known case of an Albanian offender who initially avoided deportation due to his son’s aversion to foreign chicken nuggets (a decision later overturned on appeal) – there’s little doubt that the current system is both inefficient and somewhat unpredictable. It would be possible to exclude the immigration tribunal system entirely – potentially eliminating the drawn-out appeal process Despite claims that the deportation

Steerpike

Labour minister: Nigel Farage is on Jimmy Savile’s side

An extraordinary exchange on Sky News this morning. Peter Kyle was invited on to discuss the reaction to the implementation of the Online Safety Act, amid concern that it is stifling free speech on the internet. But the Science Secretary opted to hit out at Nigel Farage after his comments at press conference yesterday, by suggesting that the Reform leader was enabling grotesque sexual predators. Kyle told Sky: I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he would overturn these laws. So we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, pedalling hate, pedalling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side. Make no mistake about it: if people like

Lucy Dunn

Will the SNP get another independence referendum?

Tumult, turmoil, chaos: select as appropriate how best to describe the last two years for the Scottish National party. Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, the infighting that followed and the infamous Operation Branchform police probe caused public trust in the party of government to plummet. Fast forward through the gaffe-a-day leadership of Humza Yousaf and current First Minister John Swinney has managed to regain control somewhat, with the SNP noticing a turnaround in the polls and projected to become the largest party in Holyrood next year. Yet while it has been suggested that the nationalists could pick up a third of the vote, this is some way off a majority. The worry

Stephen Daisley

Do Donald Trump’s fans like South Park or not?

Eric Cartman, the antihero of South Park, is a disgusting bigot who mocks disabled people, demeans women and says hateful things about Jews. When the series debuted in 1997, much of what offended parents, educators and religious groups came out of the mouth of this school-aged Alf Garnett. Later, it was the forces of coercive progressivism who bridled, especially at its derision of the trans creed. Suddenly, the median South Park disapprover was Emily, 30 ans, who worked in HR, actually met a black person once, and renamed her dachshund because ‘Dumbledore’ made her feel complicit in JK Rowling’s gendercide. Now the series is displeasing MAGA groupies after its 27th

Elvira Bary

Russians worry what happens when the soldiers come home

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that Vladimir Putin actually respects Trump’s 50-day ultimatum to stop the war in Ukraine. We know what this will spell for millions of Ukrainians. It will mean a chance, among other things, for the ferocious nightly bombings to end and for the country itself to draw breath. But ask yourself this: what happens when over half-a-million Russian troops finally come home? What happens when over half-a-million Russian troops finally come home? To make predictions, you first need to know exactly who these soldiers are and where Russia found them. Throughout the war, Putin has avoided, as far as possible, recruiting in St Petersburg and Moscow

Monday

28 Jul 2025

Freddy Gray

What should we make of Trump’s trip to the UK?

Donald Trump is in Scotland, holding court at Turnberry. He’s welcomed Sir Keir and Lady Victoria Starmer to his golf course, and had a long discussion with reporters at a wide ranging press conference, that covered Russia, Gaza, and his long running feud with London mayor Sadiq Khan. To unpack it all, Freddy is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, and deputy US editor Kate Andrews.

Andrew Tettenborn

Starmer must not kotow to the ICJ on climate change

Last week, 15 judges from the International Court of Justice at the Vredespaleis in the Hague, at the request of the UN General Assembly, pronounced solemnly on climate change. Every state, they said, owed duties in international law to take all reasonable measures to suppress climate change; duties, they added, which included exercising control over the activities of private companies. Furthermore, they went on, any state that had broken that duty faced potential claims for compensation from any other state that had suffered damage. Environmental activists went wild. Organisations such as Amnesty and Greenpeace swiftly welcomed the new era where polluting countries (meaning states like such as the US, the

John Foreman

Gagging the military is a mistake

Some weeks ago at an army conference I listened to senior officers discussing the lethal, agile, ‘integrated’ British military of the future as set out in the government’s recent Strategic Defence Review. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what they said. The Chief of the General Staff Sir Roly Walker answered questions on what the SDR meant for the army. I can’t tell you what he said either. Officers attending the conference were apparently told that, if they found themselves in accidental conversation with a journalist, they were to extricate themselves immediately. At a time of increased focus on national defence, it was a poor day for transparency. This was not

Lucy Dunn

Questions remain about Farage’s crime crackdown

As Keir Starmer prepared to meet Donald Trump at his Scottish golf course this afternoon, Nigel Farage kept himself busy with another ‘Lawless Britain’ press conference in London. (‘I had dinner with Donald Trump Junior the other week,’ he said to reporters asking if he had been able to secure an audience with the US President.) Social media dominated. Reform’s new police and crime adviser, retired detective Colin Sutton, told attendees: ‘We need to refocus what police are doing onto homes and streets – not posts and tweets.’ The latest addition to the Reform outfit will stand as a candidate in the next general election and in the meantime use

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The leaked email that blows apart the BBC’s impartiality claims over Gaza

A leaked internal email from a BBC executive editor reveals that the Corporation has issued prescriptive instructions to staff on how to cover the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The memo, titled ‘Covering the food crisis in Gaza’, amounts to a top-down editorial diktat that discards impartiality, elevates one side of a deeply contested narrative, and imposes a specific anti-Israel legal-political framing as settled fact. The existence of this email is a telling sign of how the Corporation works to ensure its journalists stick to its own ideological angles. This latest leaked BBC email suggests it is failing in its duty The email, which was sent to BBC staff on Friday, begins

Steerpike

Watch: Trump slams Sadiq Khan as ‘nasty person’

While relations between Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump have been lauded as ‘unparalleled’ by the President himself, the same cannot be said for Sadiq Khan. In a press conference in Scotland this afternoon, Trump was pulling no punches when London came up in conversation. When quizzed on whether he would visit the UK’s capital, Trump was quick to remark: I’m not a fan of your mayor. I think he’s done a terrible job, the mayor of London, a nasty person. Shots fired! Starmer jumped in to defend the Labour politician, interjecting: ‘He’s a friend of mine.’ Not that the President appeared to care all that much, repeating:

Freddy Gray

What should we make of the Starmer-Trump relationship?

It’s often the rotator blades of Marine One that blare over Donald Trump’s voice as he stands near the helipad on the south lawn of the White House. In Turnberry, Scotland, it was bagpipes. Trump, playing host to the British Prime Minister in Britain, performed his now familiar ingratiation ritual as he welcomed Sir Keir and Lady Victoria Starmer to his golf course. “Our relationship is unparalleled,” he said, above the din. He flattered the PM’s wife and even suggested, in his delightful nonsensical way, that she is a well-known figure all over the United States. Lucy Dunn is joined by US editor Freddy Gray and political editor Tim Shipman to