All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
If Natalie Elphicke’s defection had much of an effect on the mood of Tory MPs at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, it was largely to leave them looking a bit baffled. Their former colleague was not a clear candidate to cross the floor to Labour. Labour MPs looked a bit confused too, in fairness, having previously
Shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions today, Labour dropped a bombshell. Natalie Elphicke, one of the most hawkish Tory MPs on migration, has defected to Sir Keir Starmer’s party. Elphicke, who has sat for Dover and Deal since 2019, said in a statement that she was switching parties because of how much the political landscape had
The Green party has no problem getting attention these days – but it’s for all the wrong reasons. A second Green councillor is now being investigated by the party for using ‘inflammatory rhetoric’ about the Israel-Gaza conflict in the Middle East. When will they learn? Alexi Dimond was re-elected in last week’s local elections to
The personal details of members of the UK’s armed forces appear to have been the latest target of China’s prolific cyber spies, with the Ministry of Defence’s payroll system containing the names, bank details and some addresses of up to 272,000 people on its books targeted by hackers. The government though is directing its fury
Queues that stretch for hours. Technology that doesn’t work. And a system so poorly designed that this isn’t the first time it’s broken down. There appears to be a perfectly innocent explanation for the failure of the passport e-gate system across the UK’s airports last night – a ‘system network issue’ – despite the wilder
Why did Stormy Daniels testify in court yesterday about her allegedly sexual encounter with Donald Trump? Anybody who has followed the Donald Trump story in recent years will have already heard most of Stormy’s account of her interactions with him. Daniels has a sense of humour. Like many others, she enjoys mocking Trump in public.
Another day, another BBC slip-up. This time the much-lauded public service broadcaster has been dragged back into the spotlight after an independent review found it hadn’t been reporting fully on immigration — because it feared being labelled either ‘racist’ or ‘woke’. Oh dear… The 75-page report, carried out by Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory
Last year was the year the scales tipped in the global job market. Layoffs in consulting and investment banking that started in early 2023 have continued to mount, and yet the wider jobs market has remained relatively resilient. Demand for engineers and healthcare professionals is reportedly increasing. Blue collar workers in industries such as mining,
Prince Harry’s occasional visits to Britain are regarded by many with the sense of unease that most people reserve for unexpected tax bills, visits from distant relatives and Jehovah’s Witnesses turning up on the doorstep on Sunday mornings. It would seem that his father feels rather similar about the prospect of seeing his errant son,
Conventional wisdom has it that Britain faces an awkward dilemma on legal immigration: either we cut migrant numbers to keep faith with voters (more than 60 per cent of whom say immigration has been too high over the last decade), or we keep the economy growing by allowing net migration to continue at levels well
Much has been made in recent weeks, and especially in recent days, about the degrees of ignorance often displayed by those protesting for the people of Gaza and Palestine. To put it pithily, many don’t seem to know from which river and to which sea they chant about with such passion. Such ignorance has prompted
It’s been a while since the Commons has had so much anger in it as it did during the urgent question on Gaza. The anxiety and criticism of Israel in Rafah wasn’t confined to the usual group of opposition MPs, but came from across the House. The anger wasn’t just directed at Israel, but at
Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star and director who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, took the stand in Donald Trump’s ‘hush-money’ trial in Manhattan today, vividly describing the sexual encounter between them in 2006. Unlike with previous witnesses, where Trump has seemed tired or disengaged, the former president paid close attention to Daniels’s testimony,
What comes around goes around. John Swinney has this afternoon become Scotland’s seventh First Minister after being appointed, unopposed, as SNP leader on Monday. It was a coronation event like no other – where Swinney was threatened by a contest from a rank and file activist within his own party after hapless Humza Yousaf paved
It’s all but certain that the UK’s exit from recession will be confirmed at the end of this week. Preliminary Q1 data, released on Friday, is expected to how slow and steady growth in the first three months of the year. It is also very likely that inflation will return to the government target of
Rachel Reeves may have been getting attention for her accusation that the government is ‘gaslighting’ the public over the state of the economy, but this afternoon she ended up being accused of spreading fake news. The ‘gaslighting’ line came from a speech in the City of London this morning, after which Reeves then popped up
With Labour on course to win the next election, it’s worth asking again: why is it the only major political party in the UK never to have had a female leader? There still hasn’t been a satisfactory answer. Indeed, considering the enthusiasm for the Church of Transubstantiation within its ranks – Labour has more of
Blaming Brexit for everything has become a kind of tic among the great and good. Like the buck-passing politicians who used to blame everything on Brussels, the cultural elites have taken to blaming all manner of ills on the British people’s revolt against the EU back in 2016. Economic stagnation? Brexit! Covid deaths? Brexit! Poor
These days it seems there’s little you can’t blame on Brexit. From low ratings to school bullying, Britain’s departure from the European Union has served as a wonderful catch-all, consequence-free excuse for various individuals and institutions to explain their shortcomings. A vintage example of this was offered today by Rufus Wainwright, the Canadian-American singer-songwriter. His latest production ‘Opening
A grassroots campaign group called ‘The Muslim Vote’ is aiming to capitalise on the success of pro-Gaza candidates at the local election by issuing a set of 18 ‘demands’ of Keir Starmer. The organisation seeks to ‘punish’ MPs who fail to back a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. It says that Labour must ‘return the
Amidst the golden splendour of the Kremlin’s Hall of the Order of St Andrew, Vladimir Putin was once again inaugurated as president of Russia this morning. But while today’s event was in many ways a carbon copy of the ceremony that has taken place five times now since 2000, it marks a significant watershed in the history
UK university courses on race and colonialism are facing the axe due to cuts. ‘There’s not very much about race and colonialism on the curriculum to start with,’ fumed Professor Hakim Adi at the report, which revealed that Kent university’s anthropology course and a music programme at Oxford Brookes is under threat. Adi, a former
There is, as Ecclesiastes reminded us, a time for war and a time for peace. In its 76-year history, Israel has rarely selected the time for war, almost always reinforcing its position and responding in self-defence to Arab attacks. The invasion of Rafah will be another such tragic chapter in the tragic history of the
Since coming to office in December, Javier Milei has won right-wing fans across the world for his bombastic rhetoric and fervent championing of libertarian ideas. Among them is Liz Truss, who sees Milei as very much an ideological ally. In a recent interview to promote her book, she was asked by GB News to name
Try as he might Emmanuel Macron and his party are unable to arrest the popularity of the National Rally. A month out from the European elections, the latest poll has their principal candidate, Jordan Bardella, on 32 points, double the score of Macron’s representative, Valerie Hayer. The latest head of state with dubious ethics to
Accepting the leadership of the SNP on Monday, John Swinney said his political priority as Scotland’s seventh First Minister would be the eradication of child poverty. If he is sincere in his desire to achieve this ambition, then Scotland’s economic growth – just 0.2 per cent last year – needs be a great deal better.
Oh dear. The Green party is in hot water after it emerged that one of its newly-elected councillors labelled a rabbi a ‘creep’ and a ‘kind of animal’. The party is under fire for failing to suspend Mothin Ali, who was elected to Leeds city council in last week’s elections, after the new councillor was
Gordon Brown is a historian by education, so he might just appreciate the fickleness of posterity. Over a decade at the Treasury from 1997 to 2007, he did many things that he might believe should be widely remembered. Yet few, if any, of his decisions live as clearly in memory as ‘Gordon Brown sold the gold’.
A day after it seemed that a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel was all but dead, the terror group has issued a surprise statement announcing that it has accepted the deal offered by Egypt and Qatar. Optimism, though, would be premature at this point. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under considerable public
