All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
14 min listen
Keir Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin has revealed that the PM has removed a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from No 10. The portrait was originally commissioned by Gordon Brown. Why has he bothered to get rid of it? Elsewhere, the government has more plans for health, and select committees have some surprising new candidates. Megan McElroy
Pray for Windsor. From today, Extinction Rebellion is descending on Windsor Home Park for ‘three days of creative, peaceful action to propose democratic renewal’. It sounds like a mini festival – offering a mix of politics, camping and amateur dramatics. There will be a ‘Massembly’, in which the assembled extreme greens will discuss and vote on how
To the new Labour government, where the spotlight is on Jess Phillips and her rather extraordinary revelation. It transpires that in a recent ‘in conversation’ event, Phillips rather overshared – admitting to skipping a choc-a-bloc NHS queue because of, er, how she voted on a Gaza ceasefire. When that became a secret hack to better
Employees will have the right to ask their employers to compress their hours into four days a week rather than five, but employers will not be forced to agree. Just what is the point of the government’s latest employment reform, as proposed by Baroness Smith of Malvern, the minister for skills? Surely employees already have
A gendarme was killed in France on Monday evening when a driver ran him over at a routine roadside checkpoint in Provence. The driver of the BMW was an intoxicated 39-year-old from Cape Verde who during his time in France has racked up a lengthy criminal record including ten convictions, two for drunk driving. On Wednesday the
Another day, another Sue Gray-related drama. Now Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff has come under fire over yet another prospective government appointment. It transpires that Gray is reportedly in favour of making Daniel Gieve, a senior civil servant who worked alongside her at the Cabinet Office, Starmer’s principal private secretary – a top job
The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with worse, possibly much worse, to come for the rest of us further north. Millions of people have been told to flee their homes in the face of what officials are calling one of the strongest storms ever
Shock quickly turned to anger in Germany when a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested for the brutal knife attack in the city of Solingen last weekend. Three people were murdered and eight more injured by a man who had no right to be in Germany. Politicians from the coalition government reacted with a flurry of
CNN was the lucky winner of the first sit-down media interview with Vice President Kamala Harris since she was pushed to the top of the ticket nearly 40 days ago and, well, it didn’t go great. It was not a particularly long interview. Dana Bash confirmed nothing was cut, but we still got only about
It’s a curious political world. Few who voted Labour last month actually wanted Labour policies, or for that matter had more than the haziest idea what they were. Now the Labour leadership is returning the compliment. It is increasingly obvious that it has neither much idea what electors want, nor any great desire to provide
Anyone surprised by leaked documents showing smoking may soon be banned in beer gardens, small parks, outdoor restaurants, open-air spaces at nightclubs and outside football stadiums hasn’t been paying attention. For a start, the UK has been on the slippery slope towards tobacco prohibition for nearly two decades: Tony Blair banned smoking outdoors, Theresa May
19 min listen
Keir Starmer has confirmed that the government is looking at plans to revive Sunak’s smoking ban legislation. They may go even further – reports suggest they will seek to extend the current indoor ban for hospitality venues, to outdoor places such as pub gardens. What’s the rationale behind this, and where could it lead? How
So much for building upon the legacy of the nation’s greatest ever sportsman. There will be no tennis balls hit at a proposed £20 million sports centre close to Andy Murray’s hometown of Dunblane, after the cancellation of the tennis star’s project this week. More than a decade of wrangling, planning system headaches and complaints
Keir Starmer wasted no time on entering 10 Downing Street in appointing his cabinet that same day. But taking longer are the junior ministerial posts – some still vacant – and the appointment of special advisers. Such aides often get a bad rep around Westminster, thanks, in part to the mythology of The Thick Of
When Rishi Sunak announced his plan to create a ‘smoke-free generation’ at conference, some of his own MPs were bemused. It wasn’t just the policy but the timing – were the Tory grassroots the right audience? In truth, Sunak had been in a rush to make the announcement because he feared (and some of his
To Downing Street, where it appears the new Prime Minister isn’t having the most pleasant of premierships. Sir Keir Starmer has been in the top job for less than two months – and yet he’s already facing a cronyism row that doesn’t appear to be disappearing. Despite the resignation of Labour donor Ian Corfield from
Keir Starmer’s government appears to have softened its stance on oil and gas. Back in June 2023, the Labour leader told an audience in Edinburgh that there would be no new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Instead, a Labour government would pursue green energy all the way, slashing our bills (it
It is hard to think of anyone in aviation history who has done more to degrade the passenger experience of air travel than the man who has run Ryanair for the last 30 years. So forgive me if I’m not rushing to listen to Michael O’Leary’s thoughts on how to improve it. Being allowed a
Well, well, well. It seems Sir Keir Starmer wasn’t exaggerating about his ‘change’ agenda. It now transpires that the new Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to redecorate parts of No. 10 – and has reportedly gone so far as to remove a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street. Talk about a Labour
The longer it continues in office, the more reactionary and beholden to vested interests this government turns out to be. So far it has surrendered to the establishment on immigration, on the EU, and on higher education (blocking any awkward notions of making administrators respect free speech). Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, now appears to
It looks like there could be bad news again for smokers ahead of the return of parliament in September. Already Starmer’s stubbers have committed to resurrecting the last government’s pledge to ban smoking completely for those born after 2009, as part of a phased roll-out which would see ordinary members of the public ID’d at
Is Lord Mandelson being ‘lined up’ as the UK’s next ambassador in Washington? The news that the Labour party’s arch-Blairite and one-time spin-doctor extraordinaire may be in the running for what is seen as the UK’s top diplomatic job has generated an immediate and impassioned reaction, much of it hostile. Some of this is because Mandelson is viewed as
16 min listen
Keir Starmer has been in Germany today visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz, before heading to Paris to meet President Macron. This is part of his plan to ‘reset’ relations with Europe – but how close does he want to get to the EU? And, given Brexit wounds are still raw, what’s achievable? James Heale is joined
It is back to the drawing board for Emma Raducanu after her embarrassing first-round defeat at the US Open. Raducanu crashed out of the tournament, losing by two sets to one, to Sofia Kenin, a player ranked outside the top 50. A tearful Raducanu admitted after the match that her preparation for the tournament was wrong and that
First, a little story. About three years ago I was given an eccentric but fun assignment between Covid lockdowns – I had to eat my way around the coast of East Anglia. On my gluttonous travels I met an extremely senior retired judge – whose wife now owns a posh boutique hotel in Suffolk. As
Britain’s prisons are full: over the August Bank Holiday weekend, there were fewer than 100 men’s prison places remaining. The number of spaces has now risen slightly but the crisis remains: our prisons are running out of space. This will have serious consequences – and it isn’t good enough for Keir Starmer to keep blaming
It must be the worst kept secret in the country. At almost every opportunity, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, keep telling us that the Budget in October will have to be ‘very painful’, that ‘taxes will have to rise’ and that the ‘broadest shoulders will have to bear the
Whether one is a Leaver or a Remainer, for most Britons Brexit has not worked out the way they wanted. The blame for the imbroglio can be shared between Westminster and Brussels. Keir Starmer has stated his intention to ‘turn a corner’ on Brexit and he launches that mission today in Berlin when he meets
Britain will not be rejoining the EU, the single market nor the customs union – that ship has sailed, and all we seek now is a closer relationship with the EU. So Keir Starmer assures those who feel a little suspicious about his multiple meetings with Olaf Scholz in the weeks since becoming Prime Minister,
For a great many, their job is their vocation. It’s not just what they do for a living, it’s a key part of defining who they are as a person. These people love what they do and, if the need is there, willingly work over and above their standard working days to ensure that a
Higher-than-expected public sector pay deals, social security reform and the SNP’s freeze on council tax have all contributed to putting pressure on the Scottish government’s budget, according to a new report from Scotland’s fiscal watchdog. In a statement accompanying its latest fiscal report, the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) seems keen to remind Scots that the Scottish government bears most of