Politics

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

Sunday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Sunak and Johnson’s differences have been exposed

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s plan to press on with the new health and social care levy is not a huge surprise. The deal between them last year to get social care reforms over the line boiled down to a simple principle: new spending projects must be fully funded. That remains as important to the Chancellor today as it was back then. With the Prime Minister still opposed to making cuts elsewhere to pay for his plans, the levy, by default, stays with us. As I wrote last week, it was highly unlikely that recent updates to public finance figures – showing lower borrowing and higher tax receipts than expected

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: It is ‘highly likely’ that Russia will invade Ukraine

Liz Truss – It is ‘highly likely’ that Russia will invade Ukraine January may be Eastern Europe’s coldest month, but most Ukrainians are unwilling to accept Vladimir Putin’s gigantic bear hug for comfort. Last week, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss claimed to have seen intelligence suggesting a Russian plan to install a puppet government in Kyiv, and diplomatic efforts have not yet managed to take the chill off the situation. Truss was interviewed by Sophie Raworth, who asked her how likely it was that the situation could escalate: LT: We think it’s highly likely that [Putin] is looking to invade Ukraine… There is a real threat of invasion, but we don’t

Keiran Pedley

How bad are the polls for Boris Johnson?

It’s no secret that the polls do not look good for the Prime Minister at the moment. The most recent Ipsos Mori political monitor, released this week, shows that seven in ten Britons are now dissatisfied with the job Boris Johnson is doing. The PM’s numbers now are similar to Theresa May’s just before she left office in 2019, Tony Blair’s in January 2007 and the types of figures registered by Gordon Brown throughout 2008 and 2009. In this context, some six in ten Britons think the Conservatives should change their leader before the next general election (up from 42 per cent last July), including more than one in three

John Keiger John Keiger

Zemmour, Marion Maréchal and the union of the French right

The news that the highly influential third-generation member of the Le Pen family, Marion Maréchal, will not be backing her aunt Marine for the French presidency is ‘brutal, violent and painful’, in Marine’s words. But beyond its emotional impact on the Le Pen family, for whom politics, betrayal and intrigue have always been of Shakespearean dimensions, this is potentially an earthquake in French politics. For the 32 year old intellectual branch of the family has hinted that she may join Éric Zemmour’s campaign. Far more important than its impact on the presidential race is the potential to achieve what was the quest of General de Gaulle in 1958 and more

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The Tories have abandoned the young

Tories who tried to convince Number 10 and Number 11 to delay the hike in National Insurance have had their hopes comprehensively dashed this morning. The Sunday Times carries a joint op-ed by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor which confirms the NI rise is going ahead as planned. Raising tax on workers is estimated to bring in an additional £12bn and will see those on £20,000 paying an extra £89, those on £30,000 stung for £214 and earners on £50,000 forced to hand over a further £464. Higher earners will see sharper increases: £839 on £80,000 and £1,089 on £100,000. The Conservatives desperately need a policy framework for addressing

Bruce Anderson

The real reason Boris is unfit to be prime minister

Three years ago, imagine that you had wanted to write a film script about a prime minister and his travails. By some coincidence, your draft bore a close relationship to Boris Johnson’s character and recent developments. We know the outcome. You would have been laughed out of the producer’s office. ‘Some of this is quite amusing,’ you would have been told. ‘You clearly have a talent for slapstick. But you have none for verisimilitude. You are writing about the head of government of a serious country, at a time of great events and challenges, at home and abroad. And this is how you portray the PM and 10 Downing Street?

Saturday

John Lloyd

The power of black conservatives

Black conservatism is a particular form of conservative politics. As a movement, it’s American, with strengthening echoes in the UK, in France and beyond. Some of its most prominent activists would be classed, and class themselves, as straight-down-the-line conservatives. Some, such as Glenn Loury, an economics professor at Brown University, confess to being, as Irving Kristol’s neoconservative quip has it, ‘liberals mugged by reality.’ All would say of themselves that they are Americans first, patriots, proud of being and glad to be so, dismissive of the radical critique of their country, and harsh on black personalities and protestors who they believe parade a status of subjugation which they have not

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Can Boris save his premiership?

12 min listen

Boris Johnson has come out fighting, but that doesn’t mean he’s in the clear. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the Prime Minister’s efforts to keep himself inside No. 10.

Friday

Steven Fielding

Does Keir Starmer really want Boris Johnson to step down?

It’s time for Boris Johnson to go, says Keir Starmer. Angela Rayner agrees: ‘Fundamentally the British public are starting to see that Boris isn’t fit to be Prime Minister’. Other members of the shadow cabinet think the same: the PM ‘should do the decent thing and resign now,’ says Labour Anneliese Dodds. But should they be careful for what they wish for? Whether Labour really wants Johnson to go – at least not until he has fatally damaged his party by its association with a leader many in the public now regard as a blatant liar and hypocrite – is moot. In any case, the party does not get to make the decision: that rests

Matthew Scott

Why the Met’s partygate redaction makes legal sense

Having said just days ago that they had no objection to Sue Gray’s report being published, the Met have now executed a screeching, tyre-burning U-turn and have asked that the parts of her report dealing with the most serious allegations – the only parts in which anyone has any interest – should not be published until they have completed their own investigation. No. 10 will be more than happy to comply. Nobody can be in any doubt about the staggering, bumbling ineptitude of its presentation, but the latest Met position does actually make some sense. This is not because publication of the Gray report could possibly prejudice any criminal trial:

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Will Sue Gray’s report be a whitewash?

10 min listen

Today the Metropolitan Police requested that Sue Gray’s report makes ‘minimal reference’ to the events in her inquiry, whilst there is an ongoing police investigation. ‘I think it puts the government in a difficult position. If you publish the report with minimal reference to the alleged parties being investigated by the police you’ll be accused of a whitewash report’ – Katy Balls.As a consequence of the police investigation, there are also rumours that staffers in Whitehall might be fined over parties in the coming weeks. What will be the outcome of this? Will the culprits, who are likely to be junior staffers at No.10 dispute the fines? All to be

Steerpike Steerpike

Nadine Dorries’s Twitter game backfires

The current impotence of the Prime Minister can be measured in many forms. But one of them is just how few Cabinet ministers are willing to go out and give Boris Johnson their full-throated support on various media platforms.  It’s telling that of the 30 or so ministers attending Cabinet, only two seem to be shouldering most of the responsibility: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries. But while Mogg tends to focus his energies on traditional broadcasters, Dorries prefers taking to Twitter to proclaim her loyalty and decry the waverers. Unfortunately, the recently-appointed Culture Secretary appears to be embracing her social media brief a little too enthusiastically. Not only did she retweet comedian Joe Lycett’s

Sam Holmes

Martin Vander Weyer, Laurie Graham, Michael Mosbacher

15 min listen

On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from Martin Vander Weyer on the crash of crypto. (00:47) Next, Laurie Graham on the difficulties of downsizing. (04:20) And finally, Michael Mosbacher on the history of the fur industry. (12:20) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucher

Steerpike Steerpike

Has Cressida bailed out Boris?

‘Wait for Sue Gray’ was the ministerial mantra last week. And wait, we all have, as the days have ticked by with no sign of her report into the lockdown parties allegedly held at No. 10. But now, after a week of stasis which has had Westminster on tenterhooks, Cressida Dick and the Met police have dropped another bombshell on a quiet Friday morning. Dick revealed on Tuesday that her officers would be launching a criminal investigation into ‘partygate,’ having previously ignored all calls to do so. And today the Met has issued a fresh statement, saying they want ‘minimal reference’ in Gray’s report to the No.10 parties which they’re

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Met calls for the redaction of Sue Gray’s report

After a week of speculation about the release of Sue Gray’s report into partygate, its publication has now been complicated further. This morning the Metropolitan police released a statement confirming that they have asked the government to make ‘minimal reference’ to the eight events they are now investigating after being passed evidence from the Cabinet Office that triggered a police investigation. A Met spokesman said:  Pushing the report into the long grass is not without risk for the Prime Minister ‘For the events the Met is investigating, we asked for minimal reference to be made in the Cabinet Office report.’ The police add that they did not ask for ‘any

Thursday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Who authorised Pen Farthing’s animal rescue operation?

16 min listen

Whilst everyone waits for the Sue Gray report, all eyes turn to the next scandal: Pen Farthing’s animal rescue operation out of Afghanistan. It has been revealed that Boris Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary, Trudy Harrison contacted a jet hire company in an attempt to secure a plane to evacuate the pets. The PM has responded to these allegations saying they are ‘total rhubarb’ – but what does that mean?‘You don’t seem to get the impression that Downing Street feels as if they are under pressure about this’ – Katy Balls Also on the podcast, is Boris Johnson planning a shake-up of his staff at No.10? And if so, who might

Tucker Carlson

Read: Tucker Carlson on Ukraine, ethno-nationalism and M&Ms

This week, Tucker Carlson spoke to Freddy Gray on the latest episode of Spectator TV. You can watch their conversation here, or read it below: Freddy Gray: It’s a great honour to be joined by Tucker Carlson, who is the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which is a show on Fox News, but it’s also available in the UK or through the Fox News app. We’re going to continue to be talking about Ukraine. And Tucker, I think it’s fair to say you’ve encountered quite a lot of criticism in recent days because as far as I can figure out, you are the only mainstream host who is sceptical of

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Tucker Carlson: Why should America go to war over Ukraine?

24 min listen

On Spectator TV this week Freddy Gray interviews the Fox News host Tucker Carlson on what role the US should play in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Here is the full unedited conversation. ‘Western European nations — which I think we at this point can trust to have weapons — should defend themselves. I mean, that’s the idea of the nation state!’ – Tucker Carlson Watch the full Spectator TV episode here: https://youtu.be/YbaLQKhqwFc

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

The phoney war

39 min listen

In this week’s episode: Will Putin invade Ukraine? For this week’s cover story, Owen Matthews argues that if Putin is going to invade Ukraine, he will do so later rather than sooner. He joins the podcast, along with Julius Strauss who reports on the mood in Odessa for this week’s magazine. (00:42) Also this week: Is Brexit working? This week marks the second anniversary of Brexit. But how successful has it been? Joining the podcast to answer that question is Lord Frost who was Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe from January 2020 until his resignation in December last year – and the journalist Ed West, who runs the Substack,

Steerpike Steerpike

BBC advertise for new Laura K

Roll up, roll up: the biggest prize in political journalism is up for grabs. Laura Kuenssberg is stepping down as BBC political editor after more than six-and-a-half years, which means a bun fight over who gets to replace her. Highly-rated internal candidates include Jon Sopel and Alex Forsyth, after the favourite, Kuenssberg’s deputy Vicki Young, ruled herself out of the race. The job advert went live six hours ago so Mr S has been taking a dive into what the corporation wants from its political editor in 2022. Scoop-getting is clearly top of the bill, with the Beeb demanding ‘a strong track record of breaking stories first’ and ‘an extensive contacts book at