All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
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The fallout from Lord Mandelson’s sacking continues. All eyes are now on Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – could he take the fall for Mandelson’s appointment? As Whitehall editor of the Sunday Times Gabriel Pogrund tells James Heale and Lucy Dunn, Mandelson and McSweeney’s relationship stretches back to New Labour. But, Pogrund warns,
George Abaraonye was elected in June to be the Oxford Union president for Hilary term 2026. He is a PPE student at University College and was the Union’s director of press when he became president-elect. The Oxford Student reported that he ran independently ‘under the #RESET slate and endorsed by the #HOPE slate’. He has certainly
To the US, where the FBI has been searching for Charlie Kirk’s shooter, after the 31-year-old was tragically killed while speaking at an Utah Valley University event. The Trump ally was a firm advocate of free speech and debate, and his death has shocked supporters across the world. The FBI has given a statement this
As with so many political assassinations across the Atlantic – the Kennedys, Martin Luther King –Charlie Kirk’s killer is likely to be some deranged individual, a lone wolf driven by fevered delusions, perhaps, or a sick, mentally ill person. His murder, though, is anything but mundane. Kirk was not just another talking head; he was
The bloody ideological instability of the United States – demonstrated this week by the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk – has a root cause that is not widely discussed, except in shallow and polemical ways. The nation of the United States was built on a faultline It is theopolitics. That means the relationship of religion
What do Ireland and Spain have in common? This week, the answer is Jews. On Monday, Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, came out with a truly bonkers – bonkers shocking, that is, rather than bonkers amusing – statement while announcing sanctions against Israel. Sánchez was angry that he couldn’t nuke the Jews (sorry, Israel): “Spain, as you
Lord Peter Mandelson is to the “Third Way” what Roger Stone is to populism – an alte kameraden from the freewheeling early days. A pinstriped broker and fixer. Whatever ultimately comes of the association with Jeffrey Epstein that has just cost him his job as ambassador to the United States, that such a figure was ever appointed
Robert Jenrick has had a good summer. Back in June, the shadow justice secretary caused a social media stir when he clipped a video of himself confronting Tube passengers walking through barriers. The minute-long piece – in which one fare dodger threatens the Tory MP with a knife – received millions of views and helped
Keir Starmer should be thankful for Lord Mandelson. Were it not for scandal over the Mandelson’s connections with Jeffrey Epstein, more people might have noticed an even greater disgrace this morning. The Prime Minister’s promise of ‘growth, growth, growth’ has ploughed spectacularly into the ground. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports today that there
Happy Friday, one and all. It is a big day in the House of Lords as peers gear up to scrutinise Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill. A potentially record-breaking 191 peers have put their names to speak, with many expressing concern about the legal, political and moral consequences of the Bill. Among those scheduled to
How things change. Five years ago few electors cared about the UK’s membership of the ECHR. Today that same convention, with its baneful effect on our ability to police our borders and keep out undesirables, is fast taking centre stage and becoming Concern Number One with burgeoning numbers of voters: voters who, as the government
The Ginger Pimpernel – as the world will probably not be calling the Duke of Sussex – has popped up once again. It was widely assumed that, after his surprisingly successful quasi-royal visit to Britain this week, he would be returning to Montecito and his family, but he has wrongfooted everyone by instead hopping over
Angela Rayner’s failure to get proper tax advice on her house in Hove could be one of those ‘butterfly effect’ moments, where a seemingly trivial incident (like the flap of a butterfly’s wings) sets off a chain of events with precipitous consequences. It could well lead to Keir Starmer’s removal as Labour leader. This is
There is a unique, and bitter, flavour to the corruption of the men of the 1990s. Peter Mandelson – who was yesterday sacked as UK ambassador to Washington – Tony Blair, and the former German and US leaders Gerhard Schroeder and Bill Clinton came from the left, and offered a hard but plausible message to their
Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was shot dead while taking questions at Utah Valley University. Kate Andrews speaks to eyewitness and reporter Eva Terry about the chaos on campus, the reaction across America, and what comes next.
Oh dear. It’s not just in Westminster that Keir Starmer’s party is having trouble. Welsh Labour are also having a meltdown as they prepare to face their next electoral test. The Caerphilly by-election – called after the tragic death of Hefin David – has kicked off in earnest, ahead of polling day on 23 October.
I can’t remember when I last wrote anything as reckless, but the last week has been a good one for Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives, perhaps the best since she won the leadership last November. After months of ineffectual performances (not least the week before when Badenoch missed an open goal on Angela Rayner’s stamp
‘Oh, Mandy Well, you kissed me And stopped me from shaking And I need you today Oh, Mandy’ So sang Barry Manilow. I can imagine at one point, looking into his bathroom mirror, in the early days of his leadership, so did Sir Keir Starmer. Today, however, the government needed Mandy like a hole in
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Another week, another departure. Conservative MP Neil O’Brien – who serves in the shadow cabinet as minister for policy renewal and development – was granted an urgent question in Parliament this morning, to question the government about Peter Mandelson. Then the news broke that Lord Mandelson had been sacked by Keir Starmer following further disclosures
A day is a long time in politics. On Wednesday Keir Starmer said during PMQs he had full confidence in the UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Mandelson, despite concerns about his relationship with American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Less than 24 hours later, Mandelson has got the sack. Life comes at you fast, eh? While the
When even green energy tycoons are telling him to embrace the North Sea oil and gas industries, Ed Miliband really is beginning to look somewhat isolated. Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity and a Labour donor (as well as a former donor to Just Stop Oil, no less), has made an extraordinary intervention today, suggesting that
It’s not been a quiet news week. From Israel’s strikes in Qatar to Russian drones appearing in Polish airspace to the increasing scrutiny of Donald Trump over Jeffrey Epstein – and the sacking of UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson over his links to the paedophile – there’s been no let up. In the
It is a worker’s cooperative. It promotes sustainability, emphasises its social responsibility, invests in its people, and, of course, has an attractive range of home accessories in every shade of beige you could possibly imagine. If the government is looking for a company that symbolises the kind of economy that Labour is trying to champion
Peter Mandelson has been sacked as British Ambassador to the United States after further revelations emerged about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Prime Minister Keir Starmer dismissed Mandelson less than 24 hours after insisting: ‘I have confidence in him’. Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told the House of Commons this morning that Mandelson was
The King received a man at Clarence House yesterday afternoon who has a justifiable right to be aggrieved with the ill treatment that has been meted over to him over the years. He has been unfairly discriminated against for reasons that are not his fault, and he has dealt with the opprobrium that has been
Emily Thornberry has this morning dropped out of the race to be Labour’s new deputy leader. The one-time shadow foreign secretary was the first to signal that she wanted the job, using an interview on the BBC on Sunday to politely fillet Keir Starmer’s government. But, in a race dominated by identity politics, she was
He was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Freedom’. A one-word rallying cry emblazoned in black across his chest. It was his core belief: that liberty, especially the liberty to speak, is preferable to tyranny. Then, following the crack of gunfire, that word was stained red with blood. We’ve heard of blood being spilt for freedom:
There were over 500 arrests and numerous violent incidents across France on Wednesday but the far-left failed to bring the country to a standstill. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, thanked the ‘responsiveness’ of the police and rejoiced that the ‘blockaders did not block France’. Most of the demonstrators I saw were students and
Charlie Kirk was not storming a government building. He was not brandishing a weapon. He was not even shouting. He was on stage, mid-sentence, addressing a university audience at a speaking event. Then he was shot in the neck. And now he is dead. No civilised society can survive a situation in which public speech
In May, Charlie Kirk, who was killed on Wednesday from a gunshot wound, visited the United Kingdom to debate the students of Oxford and Cambridge. The Spectator asked him to write about the experience. The result was this well-observed, funny and now strangely prophetic-sounding piece about the condition of England. Charlie Kirk believed in free
Charlie Kirk was shot on stage yesterday, speaking at a campus event at Utah Valley University. The Turning Point USA co-founder was announced dead by the President of the United States. ‘The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of
Did Iryna Zarutska’s life matter? Judging by the delayed, sheepish media coverage of her killing in North Carolina last month, it seems not. Apparently the violent death of this young, beautiful refugee to the United States was a non-event, undeserving of the liberal rage and tsunami of pained thinkpieces that tend to follow other senseless