Politics

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

Tuesday

27 Sep 2022

The message behind Starmer’s Labour conference speech

As market volatility in response to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s Budget on Friday continues to dominate the news, Keir Starmer will try to use his conference leader’s speech to pitch his party as the safe choice on the economy. When Starmer takes to the conference hall stage this afternoon, he will say it is now the Labour party that stands for ‘sound money’ – as he attempts to capitalise on the fallout of Friday’s fiscal event. Starmer wants to position Labour as the ‘party of the centre-ground’ The Labour leader will accuse the Tories of having ‘lost control of the British economy’ and for bringing in ‘tax cuts for

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

Is Europe’s attitude to asylum seekers changing?

The EU spent last November reinforcing its borders as Vladimir Putin directed a wave of refugees through Belarus towards the bloc. This winter, politicians in Brussels are once again preparing for another wave of asylum seekers caused by Putin – Russian men fleeing conscription. Baltic countries are taking a hard line. Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas told CNN that ‘every citizen is responsible for their country’s deeds… so we are not giving any asylum.. For Russian men’, while interior minister Lauri Laanemets said asylum ‘would be fundamentally contradictory to the aim of all our sanctions so far, which is the collective responsibility of Russian citizens’. Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis

Brendan O’Neill

Does the EU respect the Italian people?

I know we’re all meant to be quaking over the election result in Italy. That we’re all supposed to be gnashing our teeth over the ‘first far-right politician since Mussolini’ to lead the Italian people. That is how much of the media is referring to Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party and now on course to become Italy’s first female Prime Minister following the victory of the right-wing bloc in Sunday’s elections. And yet I find myself far more concerned – troubled, in fact – by the behaviour of Brussels than by anything that has happened in Italy. Consider the comments made by the President of the

Charlie Methven

Why football needs a regulator

Plans by the government to introduce a regulator to the football industry – endorsed by all Westminster parties just a year ago – have, to use jargon oddly appropriate in this case, been ‘kicked into the long grass’. Truss is instinctively against regulating almost anything. When I asked her about the ‘fan-led’ Crouch Report on the campaign trail a few weeks back, she replied, not very cryptically, that she would apply a ‘very high bar’ to any new types of regulation. So, the news that the legislation has been paused is no great surprise to me. The Premier League has, in effect, largely become a closed shop of the 20

Monday

26 Sep 2022

James Forsyth

Labour storm ahead of Tories in latest poll

Tonight’s YouGov poll in the Times is brilliant news for Keir Starmer ahead of his conference speech tomorrow. It has Labour 17 points ahead, its biggest lead since the company started polling in 2001. These numbers, following the market reaction to the statement, are an awful start To be sure, the numbers reflect more voter disappointment with the government than a sudden bout of Starmer mania. Some 68 per cent of voters said the government was managing the economy badly. Only 12 per cent thought the ‘mini-Budget’ is affordable. Just 19 per cent said it was fair, against 57 per cent who thought it was not fair. And 69 per

Rod Liddle

The BBC’s Meloni problem

Here is a quote from the BBC Europe Editor, Katya Adler’s, very short piece on the BBC Radio 4 Six O’Clock News this evening, concerning the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni in Italy: Millions of Italians didn’t vote for her. They say they do not recognise themselves in her nationalist, protectionist proposals, her anti-immigration rhetoric and her conservative family mores. Isn’t that remarkable? Can you imagine the awful Adler, or indeed any correspondent, commenting on the victory of a left-wing candidate: Millions of people didn’t vote for her. They say they do not recognise themselves in her mentally unbalanced identity politics, ranting support for cripplingly high taxation, foreign policy characterised

Winston Marshall

Jordan Peterson: The Book of Revelation, Ronaldo and the role of the artist

117 min listen

Winston speaks with best-selling author, clinical psychologist and leading public intellectual Dr Jordan Peterson. They discuss the role of artists in society and the state of the arts today. What is so original about Dr Peterson’s work? How hopeful is he for universities? Is it the duty of the privileged to serve the oppressed? And, among other things… Ronaldo, the Book of Revelation, the New Atheists, the Queen’s personality traits and how the energy crisis will end in apocalypse.

Kate Andrews

Can the Bank of England inspire confidence?

It has dawned on the government that last week’s mini-Budget might have been a bit too one-sided: £70 billion worth of extra borrowing and not a single mention of spending cuts or efficiency gains has seen borrowing costs spike (up by 0.3 per cent just today). As James Forsyth reports on Coffee House, this afternoon’s announcement that a ‘medium term fiscal plan’ will be announced next month is an attempt by the Treasury to reassure markets – and convince them that fiscal responsibility has not totally disappeared from this government’s agenda. Emphasis is being placed on previous promises to make sure debt falls as a percentage of GDP in the

James Forsyth

Can Kwarteng reassure the markets?

The Treasury has just released a statement saying that a medium term fiscal plan will be delivered by Kwasi Kwarteng on 23 November, accompanied by an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. This plan will, the Treasury says, set out the government’s fiscal rules and how it intends to ensure debt falls as a percentage of GDP in the medium term. The Treasury also confirms the Times story this morning that there’ll be no new spending settlements, meaning an effective cut for departmental budgets. The question is whether the government can persuade the market that it is prepared to hang tough on public spending The Bank of England has also issued a

Steerpike

Labour’s assisted suicide pitch

It’s day two of Labour conference and there’s no end of attractions for bleary eyed delegates. Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband, David Lammy: all the party’s intellectual heavyweights are up before the faithful. But away from all the centrist paeans and ritual Tory bashing, Mr S couldn’t help but observe the roaring popularity of one of the fringe stalls in the conference hall. ‘My Death, My Decision’ are campaigning to legalise assisted suicide in the UK, urging delegates to pressure MPs to change the law on euthanasia. A novel approach to win the grey vote? Intrigued – and all too aware of the obvious puns – Mr S sidled up to

Kate Andrews

The miscalculations exposed by Kwarteng and Truss’s Budget

The Chancellor’s first ‘fiscal event’ has revealed two major miscalculations – one by most of the political class and the other by the government. The political class broadly didn’t think Liz Truss’s government would actually push forward with its campaign pledges. It did. The government, for its part, appears to have badly underestimated the sceptical reaction of the markets to its economic agenda. Let’s take these in turn. First, anyone who is shocked by discussion of higher interest rates wasn’t paying attention during the leadership campaign. The attacks on ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ were frequent and explicit. Rishi Sunak insisted it was inappropriate to take aim at the Bank, while Truss called

James Heale

Is Labour on the cusp of victory?

13 min listen

It’s day two of Labour Conference and the party appear upbeat and confident of their chances at the next election. But are they being too reactionary in their narrative? What do they have to offer other than not being the Conservative party?From Liverpool, James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Stephen Daisley

Liz Truss is a liberal. So how will she approach immigration?

Should Tories already be feeling buyer’s remorse over their new leader? It has been only 20 days since Boris Johnson, a liberal who pretended to be a populist, was replaced by Liz Truss, a liberal who doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a liberal. Whereas Johnson’s was a patrician liberalism with a keen sense of public opinion, Truss is an economic liberal with a swot’s enthusiasm and a swot’s grasp of human instincts. In short, the Tories have swapped a lazy dissembler for an ardent geek. It’s not all they’ve swapped. The communitarian shift that began under Theresa May has been set in reverse and libertarianism has regained the

Philip Patrick

The anger behind Shinzo Abe’s state funeral

Tokyo While not quite on the scale of Her Majesty’s service, Tuesday’s state funeral of Japan’s longest serving PM Shinzo Abe, gunned down while campaigning on the streets of Nara in July, will be an extravagant affair. The ceremony will take place at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo with approximately 6,000 attendees including the US Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Theresa May will represent the UK. It will cost 1.6 billion yen (10.5 million pounds). The event has become mired in controversy. Many in Japan are fiercely opposed to the decision, made by current PM Fumio Kishida, to grant a

Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves takes aim at ‘Tory trickle-down economics’

Rachel Reeves’s speech to Labour conference was very warmly received – though her thunder was rather stolen by the rapturous reception for Ed Miliband shortly before. The shadow chancellor made her refrain ‘it is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government’. Like her other frontbench colleagues, she took care to be upbeat about the future, rather than merely focusing on how dreadful things are at the moment. She talked about the potential that British workers had, saying: ‘The world is changing fast but the British capacity for enterprise for innovation and for hard work remains undimmed.’ She claimed that a Labour

Isabel Hardman

Labour try to show they are serious about governing

The mood at Labour conference so far has been pretty upbeat. Last night on the fringes, frontbenchers were visibly happier and more relaxed than they’ve been for years, feeling emboldened to criticise left-wing groups such as Momentum (Wes Streeting told one meeting they’d be better named ‘Inertia’). The broadcast screens around the centre underline why the party is feeling confident: the fall of the pound is just, in Labour’s view, the latest sign that the wheels have come off the Conservative party. The fall of the pound is just, in Labour’s view, the latest sign that the wheels have come off the Conservative party That’s not to say that everyone

Gabriel Gavin

Life among the Russian refuseniks

Yerevan, Armenia It was getting dark outside Yerevan Airport when I arrived, but there were still a dozen flights from Russia yet to land. Groups of young men in their twenties and thirties were milling around the terminal building, stacking suitcases onto trolleys, changing money and working out what to do next. Armenia is one of the few countries they can still fly to since much of the western world closed its skies to Russian planes; it is almost alone in not requiring them to have visas. ‘I’m just here for a holiday,’ one weary traveller carrying four heavy bags insists, ‘everything is fine in Moscow.’ Others are more up front

Kate Andrews

How worrying is the falling pound?

19 min listen

Following Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini’ budget, the pound has fallen to a record low against the dollar, fueling speculation that the Bank of England will hike interest rates. How worrying are these figures? ‘I think the pound falling is a bit of a distraction from the real problem’ – James Forsyth Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth. Produced by Natasha Feroze.

Jack Smith

Will Meloni be able to govern Italy?

Mario Draghi’s national unity government lost badly in yesterday’s Italian election – worse even than the polls predicted. Fratelli d’Italia, the main opposition party, was the big winner. Five Star, which pulled the plug on Draghi’s government, also gained. What we did not see is a big shift between left and right. The right coalition of Fratelli d’Italia, Lega, and Forza Italia, got 44 per cent. The really big movements occurred within the coalition. Giorgia Meloni’s FdI ended up with 26 per cent – way ahead of the published polls. Lega got only 9 per cent. The coalition is on course to secure a majority in both houses of parliament,

Robert Peston

The Bank of England has no good options

How will and how should the Bank of England, and the Treasury, react to this morning’s continued fall in the value of the pound? I’ve been talking to former Bank of England executives and ex-Treasury officials, who make clear that the stakes are incredibly high and that reassuring markets will not be easy. This further devaluation in the currency is a serious problem for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after his maxi ‘mini-Budget’ on Friday because it means the price of imports will continue to rise, stoking already-high inflation. And it raises the spectre that the government will struggle to borrow what it needs at acceptable interest rates, because of the falling