All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Labour’s long-awaited approach to stopping the Channel boats is so pusillanimous that it ought to be a political gamechanger for the Conservatives. But it probably won’t be. As Sir Keir Starmer outlines in various newspapers today, an administration led by him will abandon the Rwanda removals plan and get rid of the Illegal Migration Act
If a little tyrant theatre is your goal, then rumbling across the border in an armoured train decked out like a palace (if your palace was decorated in the 1970s) is hard to beat. As North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin met at the Vostochny spaceport, the Bond villain vibes were strong
It is almost three years to the day since Ursula von der Leyen gave her inaugural State of the Union address in Brussels. The newly elected President of the European Commission touched on many subjects on September 16, 2020, among which was the migrant crisis, ‘an issue that has been discussed long enough’. It was
Like the little boy who pointed out that the emperor was naked, veteran US politician Mitt Romney has just voiced an uncomfortable truth that everyone knows, but few wish to utter: America is being run by men who are too old for office. At 76, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and presidential contender is
Tonight the House of Lords has blocked the government’s plan to relax restrictions on water pollution to encourage housebuilding. Ministers wanted to remove EU-era ‘nutrient neutrality rules’ so as to enable 100,000 new homes to be built by 2030. But the government was defeated by 203 votes to 156 over the issue. Three Conservative peers
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At PMQs, neither Labour nor the Tories wanted to commit to keeping the state pension triple lock. Have the two parties, awkwardly and unofficially, reached a consensus on dropping the promise? Max Jeffery speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Heale.
So. Farewell then. Tobias Ellwood. For more than three years, the Bournemouth East has run the Defence Select Committee with the tact of Alan Partridge and the foresight of Michael Fish. But today his luck finally ran out after committing a gaffe too far. Ellwood’s now-infamous Taliban video proved too much even for some of
An odd affair, PMQs. Few blows were landed, no blood was spilled. The party leaders tussled over a handful of fifth-order issues. Sir Keir Starmer suggested that the escaped terror suspect Daniel Khalife should have been held as a Category A prisoner. Rishi Sunak scolded the great barrister for not knowing that unconvicted suspects are
Whatever else down the centuries, at least the Scots always had their sense of humour. But now, in Humza Yousaf’s Scotland, even that seems to be under threat. For BBC Scotland has now pulled satirical cartoons of politicians from social media, following criticism from members of Yousaf’s government. The broadcaster has now announced it is
The closure of 400 Wilko stores – at the cost of 12,500 jobs – spells more misery for the high street. Wilko joins a pantheon of big brand names who have been forced to shut their doors since the pandemic. We have seen the loss of Debenhams, the Arcadia Group (which owned Dorothy Perkins, Topshop and Topman), Victoria’s Secret, Paperchase, Oasis and Warehouse, Made.com and
Has cancel culture finally met its match? Have the new blacklisters who hasten to erase anyone who gives voice to a view that displeases them finally had their comeuppance? The roaring success of Róisín Murphy’s new album, Hit Parade, suggests it’s possible. The digital inquisitors tried to silence the queen of new disco over her
Will Rishi Sunak commit to the pensions triple lock in the next Conservative manifesto? That’s going to be one of the big questions of the autumn, not least because the Prime Minister won’t answer it. He didn’t do so today when quizzed on it by the SNP’s Stephen Flynn and Labour MPs – but at
Rye Lane in south London’s Peckham is a lively place day and night, but yesterday evening the atmosphere was distinctly ugly. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside a store to protest about a shopkeeper’s treatment of a customer, who was accused of theft. A viral video, filmed inside Peckham Hair and Cosmetics on Monday, shows why
The public mockery of Harry Maguire, the hapless Manchester United and England defender, has moved from being a bit of a joke to something a little more troubling, sinister even. The abuse, ridicule and attention he gets is way over the top, and increasingly resembles a publicly-sanctioned collective humiliation of one player. The unfortunate Maguire
I doubt whether many people will feel a pang of sympathy for Bernard Looney, former chief executive of BP who has just resigned over his failure to fully disclosure historic relationships with fellow employees. Perhaps he should have resigned last year when he declared proudly that high oil prices had turned BP into a ‘cash
Teacher recruitment levels are in crisis, and have been for some time. Only half the number of secondary teachers needed for this academic year have actually been recruited, according to figures obtained by the National Education Union (NEU) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT). Teacher vacancies have doubled since the start of the pandemic, while one in
The Róisín Murphy row rumbles on. The Irish singer suffered a pile-on last month after she criticised puberty blockers and declared that ‘Big pharma [was] laughing all the way to the bank.’ She swiftly apologised but naturally, that wasn’t enough for the pitchfork-wielding mobs on social media. Traditional outlets piled in too, with the Guardian
America’s wacky Libertarian party, which sadly never gets anywhere in presidential elections, has just filed a petition to put Democratic President Joe Biden, 80, and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, under ‘conservatorship’. The Libertarians claim that America’s ‘geriatric elites’ are evidently unfit for public office and need, for everyone’s sake, to have all decision-making
Did GDP fall in July because of the wet weather? That’s the argument being made this morning, as the Office for National Statistics reveals that the economy contracted by 0.5 per cent in July, after having grown 0.5 per cent in (warm and sunny) June. Services output, production output and construction sectors all fell, by 0.5 per
Former Tory leaders are queuing up to take a pop at the government’s response to the Westminster spy story. Liz Truss has labelled China the ‘largest threat’ to ‘democracy and freedom’ after it emerged that a parliamentary researcher had been arrested on suspicion of spying for the Chinese government. Iain Duncan Smith suggested that ‘the
Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, would have people believe she is made in the mould of Barbara Castle, the radical Labour minister, now seen as one of the most significant women politicians of the 20th century. When Rayner was challenged on the BBC’s Today programme that she was more often viewed as a deputy leader
Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Tuesday that House Republicans will move ahead with an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Questions about the business dealings of the president’s son Hunter have been raised since the Trump presidency, with a lot of speculation about whether Joe or other Biden family members benefited from his work. A rock-solid
Perfidious Albion is, we are told, at it again. In the course of a wide-ranging and often quite surreal speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Vladimir Putin accused Britain of being behind attempted nuclear terrorism, rhetorically asking whether the government was ‘trying to provoke us into retaliating against Ukrainian atomic power stations’ or
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Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to keeping the pensions triple lock in the next Conservative manifesto. What’s behind his equivocation? And, if the triple lock is ditched, will Labour follow suit? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews.
Today marks a year since Sir Mark Rowley became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. When Rowley took over, his predecessor Cressida Dick had been pushed out of office, the force had been placed into ‘special measures’ for the first time in its 200-year history, and public trust had cratered following the conviction of police officers for some
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has vowed to report the government to the UN workers’ rights watchdog over its controversial strikes bill, but how seriously can we take this threat? The TUC’s leader, Paul Nowak, certainly sounds like a man on a mission: earlier this year, Nowak claimed the legislation was ‘almost certainly illegal’, a
‘Mad’. ‘Disgusting.’ These are the words Rory Stewart, the great centrist king over the water, uses to describe Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to expel Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour party. He goes on: ‘Jeremy Corbyn, whatever you think of him, is a major figure who represents a very significant part of Labour history and heritage.’
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This week Freddy Gray speaks to politics lecturer and writer Damon Linker about the ongoing investigations into Hunter Biden. With Trump facing his own criminal charges, will stories about potential Biden corruption muddy the waters for voters?
Will we learn the lessons of Daniel Khalife? It depends what those lessons are. If they revolve solely around prison placement decisions, security protocols, and risk assessments for inmates assigned to work details, then perhaps we will. These sorts of lessons are appealing. They appear to address the immediate causes of the absconsion. They make
The name’s Lammy, David Lammy. With Labour cruising in the polls, all signs point to the Shadow Foreign Secretary taking over at King Charles Street. And along with Chevening and 1 Carlton Gardens, comes responsibility for the Secret Intelligence Service and the nation’s overseas spooks. So Mr S was surprised upon tuning into LBC last
It’s just a few weeks left until Nadine Dorries’ successor is chosen by the good people of Mid-Bedfordshire. But the MP-turned-columnist shows no sign of going quietly, using her perch in the Mail to direct her ire at her onetime Tory colleagues. Today’s offering was another classic example. Headlined ‘I’ve seen how easy it is
Will the pensions triple lock survive the election? That’s the question being asked in Westminster after Rishi Sunak refused to commit to keeping it in the next Conservative manifesto. In a press huddle with hacks on his trip back from India, the Prime Minister said: ‘I’m not going to get into our manifesto now but
There is no problem in Scottish society for which the SNP will not try to apportion at least some of the blame to ‘Westminster’. The brave Scottish nationalist does his best in the face of endless obstacles placed in his way by malign unionist forces. But only independence will allow him the freedom to address