Politics

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

Wednesday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Has China admitted failure for zero Covid?

Why did China end its zero Covid policy so abruptly? This question has confounded China-watchers and even the Chinese people over the last month. For the last three years, the Chinese government dictated its people’s lives to an extent unseen since the Cultural Revolution. Zero Covid had become part of Xi Jinping’s political legacy. It was touted as proof of socialism’s concern for human life, compared to capitalist indifference. And yet, almost inexplicably, zero Covid ended pretty much overnight at the beginning of December. For the first time ever, the Chinese government appears to have admitted the real reason – zero Covid was failing to control the Omicron variant. In

Andrew Tettenborn

Ron DeSantis is the Republican party’s best hope

Florida governor Ron DeSantis is shaping up as the GOP’s best hope for next year’s US presidential election. Large parts of his popular appeal are his open attack on (now fairly well-established) left-wing infiltration in education and to some extent in commerce, and his expressed intention to make Florida the state ‘where woke goes to die’. Hitherto his success has been limited. But recently there have been signs that he may be learning from his mistakes. His troubles started with a failure to grasp that a direct legal attack on left-wing influence, however electorally popular, was likely to be doomed. However fed up Floridians might be with the spoutings of left-wing professors

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Khan’s ‘night czar’ gets 40 per cent pay hike

Much was made of Amy Lamé’s appointment as London’s first ‘night czar’ back in November 2016. The then newly elected Mayor Sadiq Khan trumpeted that she would be a ‘much-needed ambassador for the city after dark… a fantastic hire who will give a big boost to our city’s flourishing nightlife’ with a ‘proven track-record of helping save venues’. But fast forward six years and such rhetoric seems somewhat hollow now. Estimates vary as to how many London venues have closed in recent years. One count claims 58 venues shut during the pandemic – or 25 per cent of the capital’s nightclubs. Khan’s own City Hall points to data which suggests

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Nicola Sturgeon has been exposed

The Scottish parliament returned from its Christmas recess today and held its first debate of 2023. Take a guess what it was about.  Yes, independence. Holyrood occasionally touches on other matters – the NHS, the educational attainment gap – but these are mere throat-clearings in a never-ending dialogue between the SNP government and its hardline followers.  This strategy, though counter-intuitive, has thus far proved pretty useful to Nicola Sturgeon: the more she gins up her supporters with talk of breaking away from the UK, the less they seem to notice that she hasn’t taken them a single inch in that direction in eight years as SNP leader.  Today’s debate was

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Will Mexico help Biden stop illegal immigration?

27 min listen

President Biden is visiting Mexico this week to meet with President Obrador, and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada. Biden is expected to bring up illegal immigration with Obrador, and hopes that he can offer him some way out of what is becoming a spiralling crisis. But is any help coming? Freddy Gray speaks to Todd Bensman, author of the upcoming book Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Biggest Border Crisis in US History.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is No. 10 trying to ban strikes?

13 min listen

Business Secretary, Grant Shapps has introduced a bill proposing a minimum level of public sector work during strike action for six key industries. Labour’s Angela Rayner told the Commons these plans are ‘insulting and utterly stupid’. As a policy that Tories largely agree on, could this bill bring the party together? Also on the podcast, Isabel Hardman reacts to Ken Clarke’s suggestion that the middle class should pay fees to use the NHS, and why has former minister Claire Perry O’Neill torn up her Conservative party membership? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Natasha Feroze. 

James Heale James Heale

Shapps seeks the mantle of moderation on strikes

Fresh from his photoshop debacle, Grant Shapps arrived in the Commons today to outline the government’s plans for minimum safety level legislation. He and his colleagues are currently engaged in a difficult balancing act: negotiating with unions over pay one day, then seeking to curb their powers the next. It is emblematic of the ‘carrot and stick’ approach that ministers have adopted throughout this winter of industrial action – hinting heavily that workers will receive pay improvements in the next financial settlement, while threatening new restrictions to prevent a future repeat of these strikes. Shapps is seen as one of the Conservatives’ more affable communicators. He therefore sought to present

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson falls victim to Grant Shapps’ photoshop fail

It seems that Grant Shapps’ day has just gone from bad to worse. Having cursed the Virgin Orbit mission by declaring that ‘tonight all eyes are on the United Kingdom’ an hour before, er, it failed, the Business Secretary has become embroiled in a Twitter row about photoshop. Shapps is, famously, a keen user of all things tech-related. He exploited his Excel spreadsheet to help co-ordinate MPs trying to bring down the Truss government. He also became something of an unlikely TikTok star while at the Transport department, teaming up with Michael Portillo in a viral video to promote trains. So it must be to his consternation then that one

Steerpike Steerpike

Are the Osbornites coming out for Starmer?

Is there something in the Westminster air? This morning the Times reports that Claire Perry O’Neill– the Conservative MP for Devizes from 2010 to 2019 – has quit the party and lavished praise on Sir Keir Starmer. In an article she praised the Labour leader’s ‘sober, fact-driven, competent political leadership’ and warned that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have become too beholden to inter-party factions to ‘deliver the big changes we need in a fact-based, competent way.’ Just a straw in the wind? Or a sign of something more significant? Perry O’Neill was once considered something of a rising star in that great Tory vintage of 2010. Widely seen as

James Snell

Is this the real reason Russia is trying to seize Bakhmut from Ukraine?

Bakhmut is not of immense strategic importance. It’s a backwater, empty of almost all civilian life, and largely in ruins. But the city is where Ukraine’s war of self-defence has been at its most intense for months.  The defenders are suffering, under a hail of artillery fire and under constant threat of attack. But the Russians are losing more. Almost daily, it seems, Putin’s forces advance without cover across a moonscape torn with shell-holes. They are cut down in their tens every time. The front line has barely moved in weeks. Russian bodies, uncollected in the cold, litter the surrounding fields.   To Ukrainians and their allies, these suicidal attacks are no longer simply foolish. They

Philip Hensher

Spare reviewed: Harry is completely disingenuous – or an idiot

A surprising number of royal personages have published books under their own names, and sometimes they have even been written by the purported authors. The first, I think, was the Eikon Basilike, published shortly after Charles I’s execution and presented as his account of himself and of events. The authorship of this highly effective piece of propaganda has been questioned, but its simple, direct, haughty tone is very similar to the king’s recorded speech at his trial. After Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria published two journals of her life in the Highlands. We know that she was an enchantingly vivid writer from her diaries and letters, with a novelist’s ear

Limor Simhony Philpott

Why does Israel want to patch things up with Russia?

Is Israel cosying up to Russia? When Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov last week, it was the first such call between the countries’ foreign ministers since the start of the war in Ukraine. Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, Cohen said, was planning to establish a new ‘responsible’ policy with regard to the country and ‘talk less’ about the war in public. The announcement of the call caused a frenzy, with speculation that Israel wants to adopt a pro-Russia policy. It prompted a public admonition from senior Republican senator, and ally of Israel’s newly reinaugurated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lindsey Graham. Graham tweeted ‘The idea that Israel should speak less about Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine is a bit unnerving.’ He continued, calling Lavrov ‘a

Steerpike Steerpike

Mysterious hampers greet returning MPs

Gifts, earnings and outside interests: all are in the news this week thanks to an interactive tracker unveiled by Sky News and Tortoise. One of the headline revelations is that Theresa May earned £107,600 speech for a speech she delivered in Saudi Arabia in November – a country she blocked ministers and officials from visiting temporarily while she was prime minister following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But there’s a belated Christmas gift for those MPs who feel left out by some of their colleagues coining it in. For a number of Fortnum and Mason hampers have turned up this week at the Houses of Parliament to greet MPs and their staff,

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Foreign Office U-turns on Truss’s legacy

What, if anything, will survive of Liz Truss’s legacy? Last week it was her childcare review that was dropped by ministers. And now, the Foreign Office (FCDO) has reversed her decision to end the department’s funding for the the Great Britain China Centre (GBBC), an executive public body established to support UK-China relations. Just seven months ago, Mr S broke the news that the FCDO, then run by Truss, was ending its grant-in-aid funding in response to cuts in the development budget. A spokesman told Steerpike in June 2022 that ‘due to the current fiscal climate, including reductions to Official Development Assistance, we have made the decision to end FCDO

Andrew Downie

Can Lula use the pro-Bolsonaro riots to unite Brazil?

A week is a long time in politics. Just ask Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.  On 1 January this year he was greeted by adoring crowds at Brasilia’s presidential palace after being sworn in for a four-year term. Seven days later that same building had been overrun by far-right insurrectionists intent on overthrowing him. The incredible scenes in Brasilia were almost a carbon copy of the Trump insurrection of 6 January 2021, bar a few key details.  First, the North America mob wanted to prevent Joe Biden taking power. In Brazil, Lula was already in office, having replaced Jair Bolsonaro after winning a narrow election victory in October. Second,

Steerpike Steerpike

Eight policies Labour claimed are ‘unworkable’

It’s a tricky time for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. They’re well ahead in the polls but have little to say on strikes: bankrolled by the unions, they are nevertheless unable to support the cause because of their remorseless mission to prove their political credibility. They need to look sober, sane and sensible: wild spending pledges are out, jettisoned in favour of fiscal restraint. Having shed themselves of the ideological baggage of the Corbyn years, Labour have instead resorted to often just criticising government policies on the grounds of practicality. Take efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, for instance. Labour knows that such measures are popular: God forbid they

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Should Confucius Institutes be shut down?

30 min listen

Should Confucius Institutes be shut down? There are hundreds of these centres across six continents, funded by the Ministry of Education, with the stated goal of public education on and cultural promotion of China. They offer classes on language, history and culture of China, and some would say they help to plug a crucial shortage of Chinese language skills in host countries, especially across the West.  And yet, these have become deeply controversial. Criticism of the institutes range from their CCP-sanctioned curriculum which do not include sensitive topics, to allegations of espionage and erosion of academic independence with Confucius Institutes as the core. Sweden closed all of its CIs two

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Who cares if Rishi Sunak uses a private GP?

Rishi Sunak is absolutely right to say, in softer terms, that his family’s healthcare arrangements are no one’s business.  There is a reason that one of the core tenets of the Hippocratic Oath is confidentiality: accessing healthcare is a deeply personal and private matter. That’s as true for the prime minister as it is for anyone else. That right to privacy doesn’t diminish because it’s suspected that an insurance bill or out-of-pocket fee might be involved in the process.  This is one of the many ugly ironies of socialised medicine: a purported universal public service gets used as a political tool to single out and criticise people (often politicians) who

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Should Sunak use an NHS GP?

9 min listen

In an interview on Sunday, Rishi Sunak refused to tell Laura Kuenssberg whether he has a private GP. Could this question come back to haunt him amid accusations he is ‘out of touch’? As Parliament returns from recess, ministers are holding talks with unions to avoid further public sector strikes. However, with strike action still set to go ahead, the expectation of these talks by union bosses may not coincide with reality. Is the government fighting a losing battle?  Also on the podcast, could a Boris Johnson comeback be on the cards? Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson.  Produced by Natasha Feroze.

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France is losing patience with Macron

When the Sunday newspaper, Le Journal Du Dimanche, recently published its annual list of France’s fifty most popular personalities, politicians barely got a look in. Only two made the cut: Emmanuel Macron, at number 35, and Marine Le Pen, at 48. When the list was first published in 1988 the president of France was François Mitterrand, ranked third, one of fifteen political figures that year.  Frédéric Dabi, the head of IFOP, the polling company responsible for the annual list, explained that its changing composition was telling. ‘It is a reflection of the society’s mistrust towards its politicians,’ he said, noting that conversely admiration for scientists, sports stars and comedians had