Politics

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

Sunday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Sunak and Von der Leyen to meet as Brexit deal nears

A new deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol is imminent. Today, Rishi Sunak will meet with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as the Prime Minister prepares to announce changes to the Protocol. In a joint statement between the two sides yesterday, a meeting has been confirmed: Today, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. President von der Leyen will therefore meet with the Prime Minister in the UK tomorrow. While No. 10

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Labour does not deserve Luciana Berger’s forgiveness

Luciana Berger’s return to the Labour party is not only a restoration but a supreme act of forgiveness. The former MP was hounded out of the party in 2019 because she was Jewish at a point where the whole rotten institution had become infested with antisemites. Berger fought to hold on to her party, not wishing to hand a victory to Jew-haters. This steeliness was not surprising, given her pedigree.  Berger’s great-uncle was Manny Shinwell, Labour MP for Seaham and a straight-talking left-wing Jew. During a 1938 Commons debate, Shinwell was on his feet when the Conservative MP Robert Bower shouted: ‘Go back to Poland’. Shinwell paused his speech, walked

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Raab confirms the DUP has no Protocol ‘veto’

It’s Groundhog Day in Westminster. A week ago, many were braced for the grand unveiling of the new, improved Northern Ireland Protocol – only for it, er, to be shelved at the last moment. The key actors of various Brexit-related factions have been out all over the airwaves in recent days. And Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group, has seized on comments made by James Cleverly on Friday to Times Radio: When, hopefully, we get those issues resolved, then I would hope that the DUP would recognise that we’ve addressed their concerns, and until we have addressed those concerns, we’re not going to sign off on the

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Government ‘confident’ of Protocol deal, says Raab

Dominic Raab – ‘There is a degree of quiet confidence’ about a Northern Ireland Protocol deal Brexit dominated the news once again this morning, with government officials making positive noises about an imminent deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab sat down with Laura Kuenssberg to discuss the likelihood of the deal’s success, although he was vague about whether parliament would get a chance to have a proper vote on it: David Lammy – Labour expects to ‘support this deal’ Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy sounded a similarly optimistic note, telling Sophie Ridge he expected the deal to be an improvement on Boris Johnson’s deal. He

Andriy Zagorodnyuk and Sergey Radchenko

‘For Ukrainians, this is a matter of survival’

Andriy Zagorodnyuk was Ukraine’s minister of defence from 2019 to 2020. He is Chairman of the Centre for Defence Strategies and is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. To mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, he spoke with Russian Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko. The pair disagreed on Russia’s objectives, the possibility of a negotiated outcome, what a Ukrainian victory might look like, and the fate of Crimea. Sergey Radchenko: Thank you for joining me today, Andriy. I’d like to start by asking: where are we in this war a year on? Andriy Zagorodnyuk: Russia is still attempting to pursue its original goal of

Iain Macwhirter

Is Scotland ready for the return of Alex Salmond?

There’s a fourth person in this SNP leadership race, only he’s not on the ticket and he can’t be elected as leader. The former SNP leader and First Minister, Alex Salmond is using this chaotic leadership election to engineer his rehabilitation.  Ash Regan, the former community safety minister, who launched her leadership campaign on Friday is a Salmond protege. She echoed his call for an ‘independence convention’ to bring all independence parties together, including Mr Salmond’s breakaway Alba party. This would propel Alex Salmond back into the centre stage of Scottish politics. He would be a big presence in such a body, given his experience and history – not to

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Humza Yousaf could save the Union

At the heart of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation statement there came a moment of self-awareness that one does not often encounter among those at the top of the political tree. While Sturgeon insisted that there was majority support in Scotland for independence, she acknowledged that it needed to grow further in order to prevail. ‘To achieve that, we must reach across the divide in Scottish politics. And my judgment now is that a new leader will be better able to do this,’ she said. So it is bizarre that less than a fortnight later the bookies’ odds point to SNP members leaning to the view that the person they should turn

Lisa McKenzie

The rise (and fall?) of Lee Anderson

It has taken only three years for Lee Anderson to rise from fledgling Tory MP to deputy chairman of his party. It’s a remarkable achievement for a man who, until 2018, was a Labour politician. Since his election, Anderson has frequently hit the headlines – not least after an interview in The Spectator earlier this month in which he backed the death penalty. ‘100 per cent effective,’ he said of the ultimate punishment. For that intervention, Anderson was promptly lambasted and denounced as ‘thick’ and monstrous – but also won plenty of support. It’s clear Anderson is a politician loved and loathed in equal measure. But it’s difficult to understand

Nicholas Sheppard

Jacinda Ardern’s resignation has saved New Zealand’s Labour party

Many expected the abrupt resignation of Jacinda Ardern to fatefully deprive New Zealand’s government of its best asset. However, the moderate pragmatism of her successor, Chris Hipkins, may in fact have allowed many Kiwis to give themselves permission to return to Labour. Within a fortnight of taking over, Hipkins has been confronted with a quick succession of civil defence emergencies, with the second, Cyclone Gabrielle, being the most significant weather event in New Zealand so far this century. At least 10,500 people have been displaced by Gabrielle so far, according to officials. The new Prime Minister has none of his predecessor’s star power, although he is widely seen as competent and

Maya Foa

Newcastle United’s success comes at a heavy price

Newcastle United play their first cup final for over 20 years this afternoon. Facing Manchester United in the Carabao Cup is a big moment for the club and the city and is a mark of Newcastle’s recent success. But these achievements are tainted because it is built with money from a bloodthirsty Saudi Arabian regime, which has executed over 1,000 people in the last eight years. Since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought Newcastle United in October 2021, 157 people, including some children, have been put to death. These executions are overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who is also the Chair of the PIF. Dozens more have been arbitrarily arrested

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Why China is courting Hollywood again

Until a few years ago, Hollywood dominated Chinese cinemas. In the People’s Republic, Marvel’s superhero romps were the people’s favourite. In 2019, Avengers: Endgame took more than 4 billion RMB (£510 million) at Chinese box offices. That success might partly explain why the Chinese Communist party went on to effectively ban Marvel films for the next three years. Real heroes should be Chinese.  Other Hollywood smash-hits such as Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home have also beendenied entry into the Chinese market. A new Film Administration Bureau, created in 2018 and headed by a Xi loyalist, brought film distribution closer to the party line. Last year, only 29 American-made films were released in China; compared to 73 in 2018. One estimate put the China-shaped gap for Hollywood at $2 billion. American filmmakers were about to lose hope. But that’s all

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Senedd triumphs in Westminster rugby clash

The Six Nations season is well underway, which means the return of the parliamentary tournament too. Two weeks ago the Westminster team delivered the sporting equivalent of a Section 35 order, when they beat their Holyrood equivalent 17-10 in a feisty match that saw multiple yellow cards awarded for the first time in a Commons & Lords game. Good to see no love lost… But today saw an even tougher test for the Westminster side, when they faced a Senedd squad comprised of the finest talent that Cardiff Bay has to offer. And while the Welsh national team is currently facing a few difficulties, its parliamentary side has no such

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Biden’s muddle on Chinese arms for Russia

Will China send arms to support Russia? That was the possibility that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised at the Munich Security Conference, accusing Beijing of considering doing so. China has officially rejected this claim and, as of last night, so has President Biden. ‘I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia,’ Biden told ABC, seemingly directly contradicting his right-hand man on foreign policy. Is this just another case of Sleepy Joe misspeaking, a comment that will have to be walked back by his team in the hours to come? After all, Biden has form. He has previously pledged to defend Taiwan

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

How is the government helping Ukrainians in Britain?

14 min listen

Today marks one year since Putin sent the Russian army into Kyiv. Since then, what has been the experience of the Ukrainians who fled their homes and came over to the UK? Svitlana Morenets, a staff writer at The Spectator speaks to Kate Andrews about the year reporting on her war-torn country from Britain. Also joining the podcast is Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis UK whose work involves helping those 4000 Ukrainians who arrived on the Homes for Ukraine scheme and are now at risk of homelessness. 

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

The secret truth about Dom: The Play

‘Who wrote it?’ asks the Times, of Dom: The Play. I’ll let you in on a secret: it was me. If you’re selling a product, you need to advertise what you’re flogging, rather than its creator. That’s why, when my satire about Dominic Cummings launched at The Other Palace in Victoria this week, I withheld my name from the poster and the programme. Simple reason: my name doesn’t shift tickets. And a poster without the waffle is likely to cut through better. As a result, our poster has the show’s emphatic title in crimson letters beneath three shots of Dom’s face taken from different angles. This has a decent chance

Jawad Iqbal

The many missteps of Humza Yousaf

The apparently irresistible rise of Humza Yousaf, the SNP politician seen as the frontrunner to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland’s first minister, reveals much about the dearth of talent at the very top of Scottish politics. Yousaf is a politician with almost no discernible achievements to his name despite almost a decade in senior ministerial roles. If truth be told — cruel as it may sound — many will consider Yousaf a serial political incompetent who has made a name for himself in Scottish politics for all the wrong reasons.  Even so, Yousaf certainly takes himself seriously enough. There he was on Monday launching his leadership campaign in Clydebank, a

Harry Mount

Humza Yousaf and Anas Sarwar’s debt to private schools

Humza Yousaf, the favourite to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish First Minister, has been ticking all the right boxes in his campaign so far. Last week, he declared: ‘As your SNP First Minister, and as someone from a minority background myself, I will stand up and champion equal rights for all.’ I don’t imagine he’ll be championing the rights of Scottish public-school boys, though. But that is exactly what Yousaf is.  Yes, the 37-year-old Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is the first non-white, first Muslim cabinet minister in the Scottish government. But he’s also an old boy of Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow, one of the oldest public schools in Scotland,

Robin Ashenden

What happened to the Russia I loved?

For three and a half years, between Autumn 2018 and 2022, the most thrilling words I could say to anyone – especially myself – were ‘I live in Russia.’ I had read about the country since I was a child – obsessively from my mid-twenties onwards – and it was Holy Land for me. Other people I knew had flirted with the place on study-courses, temporary work-placements or backpacking, yet always with an end in sight. But I had a child growing up in Rostov, in southern Russia, had put down roots, integrated into its society and planned to grow old there. For the rest of my life, I thought,

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Has Prigozhin pushed his luck too far with Putin?

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the businessman behind Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries, is hardly a man to keep a low profile. He is at his loudest and most vitriolic, though, either when he feels he has the upper hand over his (many) enemies or when he is on the ropes. He’s pretty outspoken these days, and no one thinks it’s because he’s winning. For months, many of the small gains made by the Russians had been thanks to Wagner and its use of expendable soldiers recruited from the prison system. This had given Prigozhin a degree of latitude and license and, true to form, he had used that to prosecute his personal vendettas,