Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Freddy Gray

What will Trump 2.0 do to the economy?

24 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Christopher Butler who is executive director at Americans for Tax Reform to discuss what Trump’s trade policy might look like in a second term. Should economists be worried about a 10 per cent tariff?

Lisa Haseldine

Olaf Scholz unveils Germany’s deportation plans

‘Anyone who threatens our freedom and disturbs our peace should be afraid.’ That was Olaf Scholz’s message today as he stood up in the Bundestag to announce that foreigners who commit serious crimes in Germany are no longer welcome in the country – even if they are refugees or asylum seekers.  The Chancellor announced that

Sunak’s crime crackdown won’t pay off for the Tories

The Tories are pledging to reshape our homicide laws if they win re-election. There could, as in many US states, be first-degree murder for intentional killing, second-degree murder for manslaughter because of diminished responsibility or death arising from a deliberate wrong. Rishi Sunak is also promising to get tough on domestic abuse, with a minimum

Katy Balls

Has there been a CCHQ candidates stitch up?

14 min listen

Conservative grassroots are up in arms over the installment of Tory party chairman, Richard Holden, as the candidate for Basildon and Billericay, a safe seat. The local association was given a shortlist of one by CCHQ. Katy Balls talks to James Heale and commentator and Conservative peer, Paul Goodman. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Ian Acheson

Tougher sentences won’t stop women being killed

Manifestos come and go but women continue to be murdered by men they know in grotesquely high numbers. According to the Times, the Conservatives are set to crack down on femicide in their manifesto, with the minimum sentence for murders that take place in the home raised from 15 to 25 years. Will this make any difference?

King Charles’s deeply moving D-Day speeches

Eighty years ago, in the run up to D-Day, King George VI and his Prime Minister Winston Churchill were caught up in an unseemly private squabble. Both men wished to accompany the combined Allied forces into battle, knowing that – as long as the initiative succeeded – it would be an unparalleled public relations coup.

Steerpike

Labour candidate’s D-Day blunder

It’s been a long hard slog for Keir Starmer and his team as they work to prove that he leads a Changed Labour party (honest). But in a bid to prove his patriotism, has one Starmtrooper now taken it too far? Mr S has previously been impressed with Keir Cozens, the well-connected candidate for Great

Steerpike

Scottish Tory leader ousts unwell colleague as candidate

Back to Scotland, where some rather strange events are unfolding. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives Douglas Ross — who most recently was the MP for Moray, alongside being MSP for the Highlands and Islands — this morning brought media from across the country together for an emergency announcement. After months of pledging to step

James Heale

Why Tory MPs are angry with their chairman

Today is the deadline for Conservative candidates to be selected – and one man made it just under the wire. Richard Holden, the party chairman, was last night selected for the constituency of Basildon and Billericay after an acrimonious selection process. Under party rules, if a seat is vacant within 48 hours of the nomination

Steerpike

Tories take £5 million from racism row donor

Oh dear. As election campaigns ramp up, the Tories have found themselves in another spot of trouble. It transpires today that the Conservatives accepted another £5 million donation from donor Frank Hester — the Yorkshire businessman who back in March was condemned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his ‘wrong’ and ‘racist’ remarks about Labour

Isabel Hardman

Labour is breaking one of the last taboos in politics

Labour has decided to lean into the £2,000 tax hike claim by the Tories, and turn it into a row about lying. Keir Starmer yesterday accused Rishi Sunak of ‘lying’, saying: ‘That’s why the choice at the next election is starker now than it was yesterday. It’s a choice between chaos and confusion, the sort of thing

Have the Tories done enough for veterans?

The Conservative party is returning to defence and security for another election pitch and has unveiled a series of measures to support armed forces veterans. The proposals include a Veterans’ Bill enshrining rights, cheaper railcards for former service personnel and tax allowances for those who employ them. Taken with a plan to introduce a form

The astonishing achievement of D-Day

Today we are commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day – ‘Operation OVERLORD’ – with fitting ceremony and reverence, though, some polls suggest, without much understanding. Some confusion in the public mind about the precise meaning and importance of the Normandy landings is surely understandable. D-Day itself, 6 June, however vital, was the culmination of a long

Keir Starmer and the truth about the Camden cadre

Since 1997, every new government has been defined by an inner-London postcode. Remember the David Cameron era ‘Notting Hill set?’ Tony Blair’s ‘Granita summit’ in 1994 with Gordon Brown and the frequently elicited mockery about the ‘Islington elite?’ Even Liz Truss lasted just long enough for a headline or two about her ‘Greenwich gang,’ which

How a dead French poet helped the Allies to victory on D-Day

D Day, 6 June, 1944, saw put into action one of the most unlikely alliances in the history of warfare: that between the largest military invasion of all time, and French poetry. The episode in question concerned the role played by a poem by Paul Verlaine in that momentous event: an episode immortalised in the

Steerpike

Watch: minister squirms on rising tax burden

Oh dear. As the Conservative £2,000 tax claim continues to implode, poor Bim Afolami has been sent out on the airwaves to prop up his party. Only Sky News aren’t taking his defence quite as well as he might have hoped.  ‘How much has tax gone up under the Conservatives over the last parliament term,

Is Stephen Flynn’s seat really at risk from Labour?

In public, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is all humility. Starmer might currently be heading towards a general election landslide victory but the line is consistent: The party’s taking nothing for granted. Privately? Well, one of two of the party’s candidates and strategists might concede they expect things to go rather well for them on

Vaughan Gething’s impressive failure

Vaughan Gething, First Minister of Wales, has managed to achieve the remarkable feat of losing a no confidence vote – just 77 days into his leadership. Defeat was inevitable after two of his Labour colleagues in the Welsh Senedd called in sick. During an often heated debate, Gething at one point appeared visibly emotional and had

Stephen Daisley

Farage’s milkshake attack and the perils of progressivism

Much worse than the fact of a banana milkshake being chucked over Nigel Farage is the inevitable discourse it has occasioned. This has mostly involved progressives finding it very funny and others trying desperately, and unsuccessfully, to reason with them. This is as good a time as any to reiterate a point I hope to

Lisa Haseldine

The European elections will test the AfD’s strength

As Olaf Scholz gathers alongside other European leaders on the beaches of Northern France tomorrow to commemorate 80 years since the allied invasion of Normandy, the German Chancellor may have another D-Day in mind. Tomorrow morning, the polls open across the continent for the European parliamentary elections.  Over the coming three days, voters in each

Will Netanyahu declare war on Hezbollah?

The war in Gaza is perceived internationally as a limited affair, pitting Israel against the Islamist Hamas organisation within the confines of a narrow strip of territory on the Mediterranean coast. This view has long been reductive. A number of other fronts are active as a result of the outbreak of war in Gaza. And

James Heale

Reform’s Farage poll bounce spells trouble for the Tories

‘I’m back’. Nigel Farage’s two-word tweet on Monday heralded the return of one of Westminster’s great celebrities. Barely 48 hours later, we are already seeing the impact that he is making in the polls. A YouGov survey published this afternoon suggests Reform are now on 17 per cent of the vote – just two points

Katy Balls

Who won the first leaders’ debate?

17 min listen

Last night, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer went head-to-head in the first TV debate of the campaign. They clashed on a variety of topics, including housing, the NHS, and immigration. But who came out on top? Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Megan McElroy.

The Nigel Farage milkshaking is no laughing matter

Emerging from a pub after his campaign launch in Clacton yesterday afternoon, Nigel Farage was milkshaked. A 25-year-old woman has been charged with assault by beating and criminal damage. The incident has, quite rightly, been widely condemned. Farage’s Conservative opponent in Clacton, Giles Watling, tweeted that ‘every candidate has the right to campaign without fear of violence or intimidation’. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper

Alex Salmond’s Alba party isn’t serious about the general election

In the second-floor room of a building on Tufton Street, Scotland’s former first minister Alex Salmond delivered a press conference this afternoon to London journalists. An untouched tray of biscuits sat on a coffee table at the back, while the rest of the space was rather merch-light thanks to forgetful organisers not transporting more materials

Can Begona Gomez get a fair trial in Spain?

Begona Gomez, the wife of Spain’s Socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez, has received a court summons for 5 July, in connection with a corruption probe into her business activities. The summons follows the launch of a preliminary investigation into Gomez back in April, and relates to ‘the alleged offences of corruption in the private sector and influence

Freddy Gray

What’s the matter with America’s media?

28 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Ben Smith and Nayeema Raza from the Mixed Signals podcast. They discuss the state of American media, whether the US has any appetite for public service broadcasting, and whether America is too cynical about the press.