All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Can Sajid Javid really say, as he did this afternoon in the Commons, that the government is taking action to ensure ‘that no families have to go through the same pain’ experienced by those affected by the biggest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS? The Ockenden inquiry into the maternity services at the
Covid is ancient history. And Ukraine has ceased to dominate PMQs. Today, ideological warfare between the parties broke out again. The old politics is back. Sir Keir Starmer accused the Chancellor of fibbing during last week’s bogus budget. Tax hikes had been camouflaged as tax cuts. Boris denied this and praised his Chancellor for delivering
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Despite the fines issued yesterday, Keir Starmer’s attacks at Prime Minister’s Questions today failed to land on Boris Johnson. In part, this was down to the Prime Minister’s ‘remarkably pugnacious’ attitude, according to James Forsyth on this episode. What’s more, it seems that Conservative MPs are happy to allow partygate to take a back seat
Russian forces have reportedly been ordered to watch last year’s state-funded propaganda film Sky. The Kremlin-funded drama follows the lives of Russian airmen in Syria, where an estimated 18,000 people are believed to have died in Moscow’s bombings. With jets soaring through the sky and explosive special effects, it tells the story of Oleg Peshkov, a pilot shot
Westminster has its first openly transgender Member of Parliament. In the early hours of this morning, Jamie Wallis, Conservative MP for Bridgend, announced: ‘I’m trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be.’ ‘I’ve been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I’ve felt this way since I was a very young child,’ Wallis added. ‘I had no
Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions ran pretty much as expected. The session opened with Boris Johnson very pointedly congratulating his Conservative colleague Jamie Wallis, who has just come out as the UK’s first openly trans MP. Johnson said: ‘I stand with you and will give you the support that you need to live freely as yourself.’
Prince Philip’s memorial service yesterday was an affecting occasion. The hymns, including Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer and Britten’s Te Deum In C were well chosen, and the Dean of Windsor’s well-judged sermon acknowledged both the Duke of Edinburgh’s sincere but never pious religious faith and his energetic, at times abrasive personality. The Dean
The private motor car is, of course, an environmental vandal which needs to be driven out of our towns and cities for the good of the planet and for the benefit of residents who are being killed by traffic fumes. We know this because we keep being told by some of those on the left
On the same day that Tory MPs gathered for an all-parliamentary team-bonding dinner to boost morale, Scotland Yard announced that 20 fixed penalty notices will be issued in the first batch of fines for Covid-breaches in 10 Downing Street. The timing wasn’t exactly encouraging given the dinner was planned as a way to help mend ties between
Clap for carers now feels like ancient history. Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest since 1997, according to a new study out today. The British Social Attitudes Survey finds overall satisfaction with the health service at just 36 per cent, a record-breaking fall of 17 points since 2020. People often relate to
Susan Aitken, we meet again. The worst council leader in Britain is back in the news. What, pray, is it this time? Has Aitken finally fixed the rats which ran riot before COP26? Are Glasgow’s finances now back in order? Will the 500 taxi trips on expenses be refunded now? Good God, no. For Aitken
The resignations of Lords Reed and Hodge from Hong Kong’s highest court is not much of a surprise, except perhaps to those who did not realise that serving British judges still administered justice in the territory. Their decision to quit follows soon after the Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, decided to withdraw government support for the continued
Jamie Wallis has had an eventful time at Westminster since joining the Commons two-and-a-half years ago. Within weeks of being elected, Wallis faced accusations of being the co-owner of a ‘sugar daddy’ dating website. Then last year, Wallis was arrested on suspicion of driving while unfit after a collided with a lamppost in Llanblethian, Vale of Glamorgan. Now the
While Russia has agreed to pull back its troops from Kyiv, the signs of a wider breakthrough in peace talks are far from promising. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba insists that his country will not trade ‘people, land, or sovereignty’; and the US state department believes Russia too is unlikely to make compromises. Yet while striking a
Is Israel in the midst of another wave of terrorist violence? Five Israelis were killed in a terrorist incident on Tuesday evening. The attack struck the adjacent cities of Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan; one shooter has so far been identified, a second person has been arrested and the security services reportedly suspect a third
Russia has signalled that, a month into a war that it expected to take a few days, it would begin scaling back its military activities around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Moscow’s deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, said that the move was designed to increase mutual trust between Russia and Ukraine. The real reason, if indeed
Since the spring statement last week, Rishi Sunak has been dealing with complaints from all sides: the right have been arguing he should have been bolder with tax cuts, the left insists more support is needed to help people with the rising costs. With the Office for Budget Responsibility projecting the biggest fall in living
What do you remember about Tim Farron’s time as Lib Dem leader? Was it the position he created for his party on a hard Brexit? Or what he had to say about gay sex? He quit the leadership in June 2017, saying he had concluded that ‘remaining faithful to Christ’ was incompatible with being a
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Partygate is back in the news with fines being issued by the Metropolitan Police to twenty individuals. But this is not the end of the matter, this is only the first batch of fines and the full Sue Grey report is still to come. Is this scandal still enough to bring down the Prime Minister
Labour has been indulging in a ritual bout of moralising over the Tories’ Russian connections. Having first tried to exploit the issue of wealthy British Russians donating to the party, now the opposition has turned its guns on a new target instead. Step forward ‘friend of the stars’ Evgeny Lebedev, the bearded proprietor of the Evening Standard
The significance of today’s announcement by the Met Police that 20 individuals who unlawfully attended parties in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office will be fined is that it confirms the Prime Minister misled the House of Commons on 8 December. On that date he told Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader: What we don’t know, of course,
The $5.79 trillion budget plan Joe Biden submitted to Congress yesterday was more notable for what it didn’t include, rather than what it did. There were no line items on the environment or education – key pillars of his ‘Build Back Better’ agenda – but it did call for a new minimum tax requiring ‘billionaires’
Russia is now 33 days into a war it expected would last 72 hours. Given the relative failure of the invasion, it is surprising anyone in the Russian security establishment has much time to spare for side projects. Yet, yesterday’s news that the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was poisoned during informal peace negotiations with the
Whatever his myriad faults and foibles, Boris Johnson has the one essential quality that Napoleon demanded of his generals: luck. A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister was on the point of being dethroned by his own MPs. Today, thanks to two men, Vladimir Putin and Rishi Sunak, he strides the stage again, basking in
The tank columns are stalled; one or two towns captured from the Ukrainians have been retaken. Russia’s war effort has been going nowhere fast for the past fortnight – unless you count the constant pounding and destruction of apartment blocks a form of progress. But then is the economic war being waged against Russia making
As the Met begins dishing out fines for partygate, the new regime in No. 10 is focusing on the future. Boris Johnson’s Oxford chum Guto Harri was brought in at the beginning of last month to steady the ship as Director of Communications. His early interventions proved a little unorthodox: giving an interview on his appointment, retweeting
Goris, Armenia ‘Where we deploy our own troops within our own borders is nobody’s business but our own,’ Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said a few months ago, as tens of thousands of Russian soldier gathered close to the border with Ukraine. ‘They pose no threat to anybody.’ Now, with Russia’s brutal invasion of the
Partygate is back in the news as Downing Street braces itself for a bumpy few weeks. This morning, Scotland Yard has announced that twenty fixed penalty notices will be issued for breaches of Covid rules in No. 10 as part of the first stage of the findings of the Metropolitan Police investigation: The investigation into allegations
There is important precedent for a small, determined, patriotic army saving a nation from falling under the sway of Russia. And that precedent is the 105-day Winter War in 1939-40 between Finland and the Soviet Union, the precursor to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The courage of the Finns inflicted huge losses on their fearsome adversary, as
When Jesus College in the University of Cambridge set up a committee looking for ‘legacies of slavery’, they found what appeared to be the perfect culprit: Tobias Rustat. A cavalier and courtier, Rustat made benefactions to the university library and Jesus College. Important enough to merit an article in the ‘Dictionary of National Biography’, Rustat
A faded mural on the streets of Coventry is meant to represent an unbreakable bond between itself and Russia. Volgograd twinned with Coventry in 1944, becoming the first city in the world to pair with a foreign counterpart. The mural was called ‘Volgograd Place’ and encapsulated the enduring friendship between East and West which had survived
After unveiling his spring statement on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak found himself under attack from all sides: his personal approval ratings dived amid a media backlash and criticism from his own side. So, the Chancellor’s appearance this afternoon before the Treasury Select Committee on paper made for a painful session. Over the course of several hours, the
There’s a mutiny underway in Westminster. After years of revelations about the conditions of Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province, momentum is building behind plans to stop the government buying health goods made in the region. On Wednesday, MPs will vote on an amendment to the health and social care bill, tabled by former Tory
Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t want to talk about penises. He’s going to have to do it anyway, and he’s not going to be alone. The Labour leader was interviewed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari on Monday, becoming the latest journalist to test Starmer on questions of sex and gender. Ferrari asked, can a woman have a