Politics

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

James Kirkup

Starmer won’t talk about sex and gender. That’s a problem

Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t want to talk about penises. He’s going to have to do it anyway, and he’s not going to be alone. The Labour leader was interviewed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari on Monday, becoming the latest journalist to test Starmer on questions of sex and gender. Ferrari asked, can a woman have a penis? Starmer’s verbatim response, offered with a pained expression and sorrowful intonation: Nick, I’m not… I don’t think we can conduct this debate with… you know… I just… I don’t think, erm, discussing this issue in this issue helps anyone in the long run. What I want to see is a reform of the law as

Steerpike

Is Cressida Dick’s stand-in any better?

Goodbye and good riddance: that’s the message from City Hall to Cressida Dick. The Metropolitan police Commissioner was unceremoniously deposed last month by Sadiq Khan after five scandal-filled years in post. Following a protracted dispute over her exit package, the Home Secretary has today confirmed that Dick will be leaving her job in April months before her replacement is named. Priti Patel added that Dick’s deputy Sir Stephen House will temporarily cover as head of the force until a permanent replacement can be found. Who is Sir Stephen, you ask? Well House was the first head of Police Scotland upon its 2012 merger until, that is, his career was brought to

Cindy Yu

Can the UK become energy independent?

15 min listen

During the tail end of his Europe trip, President Biden stated of Vladimir Putin ‘for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ This was quickly walked back by his staff saying that the US had no plans for regime change in Russia. But with the potential of the Russia Ukraine situation turning into long-term conflict, the UK needs to adjust its priorities, particularly when it comes to energy. Whether that future is in wind, nuclear, or fracking. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Steerpike

Second Tory minister ambushed by cake

Partygate is back in the news after a month of headlines about Ukraine. The Met Police has begun interviewing key witnesses, with more than 100 questionnaires distributed to unlucky staff in Whitehall and No. 10. Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and even the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case have been told to submit evidence for the Met’s investigation: if they are found to have broken the law, they could be issued with a fixed penalty notice.  Good luck using that ‘soft on crime’ line on Sir Keir at the next election. Steerpike wonders how each unlucky recipient will justify their shenanigans on their police form. Hopefully, they’ll do better than the defence mustered by Tory

Katy Balls

How much trouble is Rishi Sunak in?

When Rishi Sunak unveiled his Spring Statement last week, he was clear both publicly and privately that it marked a turning point: from now on, tax cuts will be prioritised over public spending. It was the Chancellor’s chance to chart a path back to a smaller state, which he later described to Tory MPs as a ‘clear conservative plan’. Yet a few days on as Sunak continues to face criticism over the measures he did – and didn’t – announce, pressure for higher spending is once again growing.  Over the weekend, Sunak found himself on the receiving end of a number of hostile briefings from cabinet colleagues and allies of Boris Johnson. Sunak’s personal ratings

Germany’s progressives have a Putin problem

Eighty-nine years ago this week, the German Social Democrats in the Reichstag cast the only votes opposing Adolf Hitler’s dictatorial power grab, the Enabling Act. Today’s SPD members often cite that moment as the proudest in their party’s 146-year history. With a memory like that, there is something awkward about the current SPD Chancellor’s position. Olaf Scholz is now having to come to terms with decades of SPD appeasement towards the dictator in Moscow. Before Putin’s invasion, Russian doves could be found across the German political spectrum, but Scholz’s now-ruling SPD has an especially long and developed history of Kremlin cosiness. The party has been at the centre of German

Steerpike

Tony Benn’s heirs storm the City

It is now just six weeks until the first post-partygate test for Boris Johnson’s Tories, with campaigning for the local elections already well underway. Labour under Keir Starmer are feeling confident: ahead in the polls, they know that the cost-of-living crisis will begin to eat away at the respite afforded to Johnson by Ukraine. Indeed there are even fears that the Prime Minister’s own backyard, Hillingdon council, will go red for the first time in nearly 25 years. An early portent of what could be to come was provided on Thursday when England’s most exclusive electorate went to the polls. Elections were held for the Court of Common Council, the main decision-making body of

Sunday shows round-up: Regime change ‘up to the Russian people’

Nadhim Zahawi – Regime change is Russia ‘is up to the Russian people’ President Biden’s visit to Poland yesterday has caused more than a few ripples in the international community. Referring to Vladimir Putin, Biden declared ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power’. In the BBC studios this morning, Sophie Raworth spoke to the Education Secretary about these remarks, asking if they represented a wider escalation of the war in Ukraine: Strip search of Child Q was ‘appalling’ Turning to matters closer to home, Raworth raised the case of Child Q, the pseudonym given to a 15-year-old black schoolgirl who was strip searched by police at her school

Freddy Gray

Could Biden gaffe us into world war three?

‘I want your point of view, Joe,’ Barack Obama once told his vice-president Joe Biden. ‘I just want it in ten-minute increments, not 60-minute increments.’ Obama understood Biden’s biggest flaw – his mouth runs away with him. He’s a verbal firebomb always threatening to go off. Last night, oops Biden did it again. As he rounded off his fiery speech in Poland against Vladimir Putin and autocracy, he concluded: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ The onset of senility had reduced the dangerousness of Biden’s loquacity The White House, in what is now a familiar routine, issued a quick clarification. The President was not demanding ‘regime change’

James Forsyth

White House backtracks on Biden’s claim that Putin can’t stay in power

In his speech in Warsaw today, Joe Biden said of Vladimir Putin: ‘For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.’ This comes after Biden condemned Putin as a war criminal and ‘a butcher’. So, what did Biden mean by this? At first blush, it looks like a call for either a palace coup or a popular uprising in Russia – the two ways that Putin could be ousted from power. But the White House has been quick to downplay the remark, telling US reporters: ‘The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in

Katy Balls

Are Rishi’s No. 10 dreams dashed?

24 min listen

For the last two years, Rishi Sunak has appeared the frontrunner in any future Tory leadership election. But has his spring statement and damaged his standing within his party and among the public? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about Rishi Sunak’s future and Britain’s economic forecast.

Why Russian tactics won’t win the war

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, the war has settled into a largely attritional struggle – and the picture is very different across the various fronts. Russian forces have been forced on to the defensive in many areas. The Russian ministry of defence has announced that the ‘first phase’ of the invasion is over, to be replaced with a more limited focus on Donbas in the east of Ukraine. The reason for this is simple: Ukrainian forces have not only stopped the Russian advances around Kyiv in the north and Mykolaiv in the south-west but have begun to regain towns and cut key Russian supply routes. In the

Patrick O'Flynn

Has Rishi been rumbled?

Poor Rishi Sunak. Within two months the Chancellor has gone from someone confident enough to publicly rebuke the Prime Minister over his choice of words to someone who merely seeks to ape them. ‘I wouldn’t have said it,’ Sunak grandly told a press conference at the start of February when asked about Boris Johnson’s jibe that Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile. That intervention came just minutes after Johnson had suffered the resignation of his policy chief Munira Mirza, whose husband is a close friend of Sunak’s. Events were on such a trajectory that much of Westminster, possibly including Sunak himself, expected him to be ushering in yet

Stephen Daisley

A letter won’t educate Afghan girls

Well, that’ll show ‘em. Liz Truss has released a joint statement with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring themselves ‘united in our condemnation of the Taliban’s decision not to reopen secondary schools to Afghan girls’. Also united are the EU high representative and the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Norway. The authorities in Afghanistan issued an order earlier this week suspending the planned return to school of female pupils, citing the need for a decision on uniforms for girls that are compliant with ‘Sharia law and Afghan tradition’. Team Euro-America: World Police say the Taliban’s U-turn ‘contradicted its public assurances to the Afghan people and to

James Forsyth

Will inflation bring back austerity?

The return of inflation has changed politics, I say in the Times today . Until recently, it was possible to argue that the government should borrow to slashes taxes, or to cover almost any additional spending. It was so cheap to do so that it was almost rude not to, the argument went. Inflation was also dismissed as a dog that hadn’t barked since the early 1990s. Johnson was relaxed, while last September Liz Truss thought that – if necessary – borrowing would be a better way to pay for the government’s social care policy than raising National Insurance. But debt payments are now expected to quadruple. They will absorb an extra £96 billion between

Steerpike

Zarah Sultana sweats her seat

Ping! An email lands in Steerpike’s inbox. ‘Will you join me?’ reads the email line. Gosh. Who was this damsel in distress, this online agoniser in search of aid? Step forward none other than Mr S’s favourite student politician, Zarah Sultana. It seems that Coventry’s answer to Citizen Smith is in a bit of a jam, as the ring light-loving leftie apparently needs good comrades to come and help save her seat.  Back in 2017, Coventry South was a solid Labour constituency, re-electing veteran Jim Cunningham with a handsome majority of 7,947 votes. Two years on and the candidacy of Sultana saw that fall to a wafer-thin 401, as the