Politics

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

Thursday

13 Mar 2025

Lucy Dunn

Why Labour are abolishing NHS England

10 min listen

It was widely briefed that the main focus of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech in Yorkshire today was his plan to do away with Whitehall red tape. What was kept under wraps was the Prime Minister’s plans for the NHS – specifically to scrap NHS England. In a bid to tackle bureaucracy in the health service, the PM this morning told reporters that the ‘arms-length NHS’ needed to go – adding that the move will ‘shift money to the front line’ and free the health service to ‘focus on patients’. What’s the point of abolishing NHS England? And are Labour ‘doing the things that the Tories only dreamed of’? Lucy Dunn

Owen Matthews

What Vladimir Putin really wants from Ukraine

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have very different negotiating styles. Trump lines up his offer in advance, browbeating all the parties on his own side into compliance before slapping his bottom line on the table. Putin, by contrast, is a haggler. He loads his proposals with superstructure intended to be jettisoned in the course of getting to yes. Or to put it another way, what Putin says he wants and what he realistically expects to get are two different things. On the face of it, Russia’s first response to US proposals for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine contain several major deal-breakers that the Ukrainians could never swallow. First and foremost,

Ross Clark

The Tories should have scrapped NHS England

Listening to Keir Starmer announce this morning that he is going to abolish NHS England can only make the Conservatives wonder at what might have been. It should have been a Conservative prime minister making this sort of speech, declaring the civil service to be ‘flabby’ and cutting out masses of duplication in public administration. Indeed, the Conservatives made a good start in increasing the efficiency of public services when they returned to office in coalition with the Lib Dems in 2010. Civil service numbers were cut by more than a fifth, from 492,000 in 2010 to 384,000 in 2016. But then something went desperately wrong, and Whitehall was allowed

Isabel Hardman

What is the point of abolishing NHS England?

What does Wes Streeting think the government will achieve by abolishing NHS England? The Health Secretary gave a statement to MPs this afternoon in which he confirmed that the health service will no longer be operationally independent from the government. As Streeting made clear to the Commons, the NHS was given operational independence by the Conservatives, who regretted doing so for years. The Tories reversed many of the Andrew Lansley reforms in their Health and Care Act 2022, but the NHS remained independent, even though ministers were the ones answering for its performance and mistakes. The Health Secretary today claimed that he ‘cannot count the number of Conservatives who have

James Heale

The trouble with Starmer’s plan for change

At his speech at a Hull business campus this morning, Keir Starmer was introduced by a man who proudly noted that the site was home to various brands, including Durex. So it was fitting that ‘protection’ was a constant theme throughout the Prime Minister’s speech on his planned reforms to the civil service – and his announcement that NHS England is to be scrapped. ‘National security for national renewal’, the PM promised, stressing the need to have an ‘active state’ to deal with challenges both abroad and at home. The beginning of the Ukraine war gave Boris Johnson’s premiership purpose in 2022; the conflict’s looming close offers Starmer a narrative

Lucy Dunn

Starmer scraps NHS England

It was widely briefed that the main focus of Sir Keir Starmer’s speech in Yorkshire today was his plan to do away with Whitehall red tape. What was kept under wraps was the Prime Minister’s plans for the NHS – specifically to scrap NHS England. In a bid to tackle bureaucracy in the health service, the PM this morning told reporters that the ‘arms-length NHS’ needed to go – adding that the move will ‘shift money to the front line’ and free the health service to ‘focus on patients’. The move – which will see NHS England taken back under the control of the Department of Health in a re-politicising

John Keiger

Defence cooperation with France would be a bad idea for Britain

Donald Trump’s recent decision to deny Ukraine access to American intelligence data in the war against Russia has concentrated minds on how the US could restrict Britain’s defence capability, from F-35 stealth jets to its independent nuclear deterrent. Some fears are well-founded. Others, such as the recent suggestion by a former French ambassador to the UK that a ‘dual key’ controls Britain’s submarine-launched Trident ballistic missiles, are a myth. The idea is growing in some quarters that now is the moment for Britain to switch away from the US to Europe for defence equipment cooperation. One need not look too far to detect its motivation or to see its naivety. Like

Lara Brown

Have we reached peak EDI?

As the old saying goes, ‘when American sneezes, England catches a cold’. This week, the two major city watchdogs announced they will be ditching planned ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ regulation. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulator for Britain’s financial services sector, first announced their plans to impose extensive new Diversity and Inclusion rules in 2023. After significant pushback at the time, they have finally declared it has ‘no plans to take the work further’. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the Bank of England’s regulatory arm, has also issued a statement saying that they are not proceeding with similar proposals. Is this the first sign of a turning point in the

Steerpike

Watch: Reynolds grovels over solicitor claim

Well, well, well. After Guido Fawkes revealed that Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds had previously – and inaccurately – referred to himself as a solicitor, the Labour man has now been forced to rather publicly correct the record. While the Stalybridge and Hyde MP did receive solicitor training at Addleshaw Goddard for ten months, he left without qualifying to pursue a political career. Yet, similar to another of his colleagues, Reynolds was later found to have embellished his CV – even referring to himself as a ‘solicitor’ in a spoken contribution in the Commons. Not only has Reynolds never been registered on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s register, the job title is

Ian O’Doherty

Ireland isn’t out of Trump’s firing line just yet

The Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s White House encounter with Donald Trump was controversial even before it was announced. Before any invitation had been extended, Sinn Fein said they were going to boycott the event in a show of solidarity with the people of Ukraine and Gaza and as a sign of their commitment ‘to humanity’. The People Before Profit party said Martin was endorsing America’s role in a genocide and Labour leader Ivana Bacik insisted the Taoiseach take the opportunity to publicly scold Trump on Ukraine, Gaza and his perceived failures to take action on climate change. But Martin is a more experienced politician than that and knew there was only

Steerpike

Seven in ten Reform voters don’t recognise Rupert Lowe

It was only a few weeks ago that Reform UK was flying high in the polls. Now a fallout between the party leadership and MP Rupert Lowe has left their voters shaken – with Lowe currently suspended from the group over allegations of bullying made against his office and under investigation by the Metropolitan Police. But while Lowe’s social media supporters are outraged by his treatment, it doesn’t appear like much of the rest of the public know quite who he is… According to polling by JL Partners for GB News carried out between 10-11 March, when a ‘nationally representative’ sample of 2,065 Brits were shown a picture of Lowe

Peter Lilley

Debunking the myths about the ECHR

This year the European Convention on Human Rights and its Strasbourg court are 75 years old – the age at which British judges are obliged to retire. Is it time for Britain to retire from this ageing institution? Not according to the Attorney-General, Lord Hermer, a former human rights lawyer, who recently pledged that under Labour Britain would never leave. Apologists for the ECHR invariably turn to myths to make their case, foremost of which is the creation myth. The ECHR, they say, was a British invention. It was inspired by Winston Churchill and drafted by David Maxwell Fyfe. It codified historic British rights and the UK was the first

Douglas Murray

Why Nigel should listen to Rupert

I was thinking lately of Robert Kilroy-Silk. For younger readers, and people who were never students or unemployed, a quick refresher course may be needed. From 1986 to 2004 Kilroy-Silk was the presenter of a BBC daytime television programme called Kilroy. It had something of a cult following because of its unintentional hilarity. The live audience was carefully ring-mastered by Kilroy-Silk, who wandered around the studio with a microphone asking people what they thought about various ‘ishoos’ of the day. For some of us the main entertainment came from the fact that there was never quite enough room on the audience banquettes and so we watched for those moments when

Rod Liddle

How to reform Reform

In early June last year I had a reasonably agreeable meal with a bunch of Reform UK activists at a restaurant in Guisborough – the main town in the seat which I would be contesting for the Social Democratic party, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. There were four of them, united primarily by one thing – a visceral loathing of the Conservative party. Beyond that they were basically anti-woke and economically dry, as we used to call it. But all that took second place to the animus against the Tories. I have met pink-haired, nose-ringed, utterly vacuous LGBTQI sociology students who were more kindly disposed to the Conservatives than this

Katy Balls

Starmer’s next target: his MPs

Labour MPs these days are experiencing whiplash. When in opposition, the party attacked the Tories’ proposed benefits cuts for ‘effectively turning on the poorest in our society’. Now, Keir Starmer plans to drive through £6 billion in welfare cuts of his own. Labour ministers previously spent much of their time scolding the government for showing insufficient respect towards civil servants. Now, Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has launched a crackdown on poor performers. Since the start of Starmer’s premiership, ministers have announced 27 new quangos – yet this week the Prime Minister scrapped one in a signal of intent, telling his cabinet they cannot do what the

Wednesday

12 Mar 2025

Svitlana Morenets

Losing Kursk is a big blow to Zelensky

After eight months of fighting on Russian soil, Ukrainian troops are pulling back from the Kursk region. This morning, Russian forces raised their flag over Sudzha and are now closing in on the last 50 square miles of Ukrainian holdouts. The retreat couldn’t come at a worse time for Kyiv – just as a ceasefire and potential peace deal are on the table. Zelensky had hoped to trade the Kursk salient for Ukrainian land in negotiations. Now, that leverage is almost gone. Russian troops, reinforced by North Koreans, have been steadily clawing back the 500 square miles of Russian territory seized by Ukraine last August. But the real breakthrough came

Freddy Gray

Can Trump survive a recession?

27 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Fox News broadcaster Deroy Murdock to discuss Trump’s America. They cover what could be the real reason behind Trump’s tariffs, how concerned Americans should be about a recession, the Ukraine-Russia peace plan and what the Democrats can do to recover from the election defeat.

James Heale

What will Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy be?

12 min listen

Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to step down at the next Scottish Parliament election in May 2026. One of the original MSPs elected to Holyrood in 1999, Sturgeon has dominated Scottish and UK politics over the past two decades. The Salmond-Sturgeon era began in 2004 and she went on to serve as First Minister for the best part of a decade. Stewart McDonald, former SNP MP for Glasgow South 2015-24, and Lucy Dunn join James Heale on this special Coffee House Scots to discuss Sturgeon’s legacy. She brought Scotland the closest to independence for 300 years, yet resigned in 2023 under a cloud over party management. Attention turns to next year’s

Damian Reilly

Man Utd fans – and Gary Neville – should stop moaning

What exactly is it that the Glazer family has done that makes Manchester United fans whine so endlessly? I ask only because I’ve just finished watching Gary Neville’s frequently ludicrous interview with British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe – who since purchasing a 27.7 per cent stake in the club in 2023 has overseen its football operations – and am none the wiser. After hearing Ratcliffe, very patiently, it must be said, appraise Neville of the truly parlous state of the club’s finances – it seems obvious if the Glazers are guilty of anything, it is of being too trusting. For the last 12 years, the family on the other side of the Atlantic

Mary Dejevsky

Is £250 a year enough for you to have a pylon ruining your view?

As part of its plans to streamline the planning process for much-needed infrastructure, the government has confirmed that it intends to give people a discount on their energy costs if they have new power pylons or other energy infrastructure built near their property. Outlining the plan, the housing and planning minister, Alex Norris, said that the discount could amount to £250 a year – around 12 per cent of the average household’s energy bill – for those living within 500 metres of new or upgraded structures. ‘If you’re making that sacrifice of having some of the infrastructure in your community, you should get some of the money back,’ he said.