All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
When it rains for the Labour lot, it pours. It has emerged that Sir Keir Starmer’s party has become so unpopular among its own base that it has lost more than one in 10 members since the general election – and in recent months has seen one member quit every 10 minutes. Dear oh dear…
The government’s decision to demolish the remaining hulk of the Grenfell Tower, announced on Wednesday evening by Angela Rayner at a meeting of victims’ families and survivors, has inevitably attracted mixed views and controversy. Grenfell United – an amalgamation of groups representing survivors and the bereaved families of Grenfell – immediately issued a statement, saying there had
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this. It is hard when analysing the new Conservative party immigration policy not to be put in mind of this ancient political joke. Despite having led us all not to expect firm policy announcements for a couple of years, Kemi Badenoch’s party has just
Kemi Badenoch has finally announced a policy. Ahead of the Labour government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill being debated in Parliament next week, the Tory leader has unveiled her party’s latest offering on immigration. The Conservatives say immigrants should only be allowed to apply for British citizenship after 15 years of being in the
Roy Keane, one of Ireland’s most famous sons, famously tried to live by the motto, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. As Ireland still struggles to cope with the aftermath of Storm Eowyn, it has become abundantly clear that the Irish government failed to pay heed to Keane’s sage advice. Storm Eowyn (named by the UK
Well, well, well. It seems the Good Law Project, founded by Jolyon Maugham of fox-killing infamy, may be rather struggling to find supporters. Who’d have thunk it? The do-gooder group is eager to fill its vacancy for the prestigious position of EU Campaign lead – but it would appear it can’t seem takers for the
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When Netanyahu visited the White House, Donald Trump said in a press conference that the US could take over the Gaza Strip and suggested the permanent resettlement of its 1.8 million residents to neighbouring Arab countries. It has sparked global condemnation raising questions about where the Gaza citizens could be resettled to, and how this
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, Israelis and Americans have been living in two parallel worlds. Israel’s began with the hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, which has seen Israeli captives finally released by Hamas after nearly 500 days. Israelis have witnessed the grotesque spectacle that Hamas made of the hostages, forcing them to perform in front of
‘The US will take over the Gaza Strip – and we will do a job with it, too’, Donald Trump has said. He also stated that the US would ‘own’ it. Some aspects of his proposal make sense. For instance, he said that an increased US role would involve dismantling unexploded bombs and clearing out
Sweden has suffered its worst mass shooting in living memory. On Tuesday, a 35-year-old gunman went to a community college in the central city of Örebro armed with a firearm. After changing into combat fatigues in one of the school toilets, he launched an attack that left 11 people (including himself) dead and several more
Well, well, well. It transpires that four MPs suspended by Sir Keir Starmer for rebelling over the two child benefit cap have now had the whip restored by the Labour party. Today’s move comes a fortnight after John McDonnell took to LBC to urge Starmer to row back on the decision, telling journalists that ‘we’ve
Genuinely, a historic day at PMQs. The plates are shifting. Labour whips spotted that Nigel Farage’s name was on the order paper so they got a house-trained pipsqueak, John Slinger, to give Sir Keir Starmer a chance to launch a pre-emptive strike. Slinger was called first and he asked about Farage’s remark that Reform is
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Trump has blown the Overton window wide open. In a press conference yesterday alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president outlined his intention to ‘take over the Gaza Strip’, displacing 1.8 million Palestinians in the process. His plan – if you can call it that – is to build ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’. Many
Uh oh. There’s trouble in paradise as it appears the relationship between Sir Keir Starmer and Navin Ramgoolam is becoming a little strained. After the Mauritian PM told his MPs yesterday that Starmer had offered up a new and improved deal on the Chagos archipelago, the Labour leader was forced to fend off questions about
This is Keir Starmer’s worst week in politics since last week. With the Chagos deal eliciting criticism in cabinet, the PM is now under pressure over claims he potentially broke lockdown rules. Expectations were therefore low at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. But with his back against the wall, Starmer produced a performance that left the
To Westminster, where Prime Minister’s Questions is in full swing. Sir Keir Starmer has delivered yet another tutorial in how to bat away difficult questions – on everything from his reported Chagos deal to concerns about Labour backing a new North Sea oil field to the rather curious matter of the Labour leader’s vocal coach.
Wes Streeting is offended by NHS staff promoting ‘anti-whiteness’ – as should any taxpayer who has not succumbed to the racist ideology of critical race theory. A social media post from a counselling psychologist with the East London NHS Foundation Trust sought an assistant on a year-long placement, describing herself as someone ‘who integrates anti
Sir Keir Starmer’s party may have only been in power for seven months but in that time the Prime Minister has seen his favourability ratings plummet while trust in his government declines. As the Labour lot fret about their waning popularity, Reform UK is enjoying a surge in support – with two recent polls, by
When America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. Luckily for us, we have Wes Streeting on hand with the tissues. Within days of Donald Trump signing an executive order putting a stop to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes across the US government, our own Health Secretary has diagnosed the NHS as suffering from a similarly bad
The recent fires in California have had many tragic effects. Many have lost their homes, possessions and livelihoods, and it has been a stark reminder that even the wealthy and privileged are not immune from a truly awful, life-changing event. Regrettably, however, the disaster has attracted a small but vocal number of people who ostensibly
Who knew that America First had such global ambitions? Who knew that, when Donald Trump promised ‘mass deportations’, he also might have been thinking about using America’s might to extract Palestinian people out of Gaza to give them a ‘lasting home’ in Jordan or Egypt? Donald Trump promised ‘peace through strength’ on the campaign trail.
So. Farewell then Kay Burley. After 36 years, the Sky star has announced she is retiring from the channel. In a two-minute monologue at the end of this morning’s programme, Burley reflected on her career in broadcast journalism, covering stories ranging from the death of Princess Diana and the Concorde air disaster to London winning
More migrants have illegally crossed the English Channel since 1 January than in any previous year for this period. So far in 2025, 1,344 migrants were detected crossing the Channel in small boats between 1 January and 4 February, beating the previous record of 1,339 in 2022. The figures published by Border Force – and tracked daily
Could Lucy Letby, the UK’s most notorious child-murderer, be innocent? The question has rumbled on ever since her convictions for the killing or attempted killing of 14 babies while a neo-natal nurse at Chester Hospital. It is a question that was given more substance this week by a panel of specialists, whose evidence forms the
When Kemi Badenoch’s leadership got off to a less-than-inspiring start, her defenders made a reasonable case that she needed more time. The Conservative and Unionist party had just suffered one of the most catastrophic routs in its long history; it would take more than a few months to right the ship. But as month has
Some moments in history demand recognition, not just for their weight in the present but for the seismic shifts they herald. The Trump-Netanyahu press conference was one such moment – not a perfunctory diplomatic exercise, nor a routine reaffirmation of alliance, but an unambiguous declaration of intent. It was a disruption of long-entrenched, failed orthodoxies and
The Trump administration’s takedown of federal spending has begun in earnest with the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), an independent government agency that has been funding healthcare, pro-democracy and civil society programmes around the world since 1961. ‘We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,’ Elon Musk boasted on
Back in July 2019, Donald Trump called Boris Johnson ‘Britain Trump’, before adding ‘that’s probably a good thing, they like me over there’. Awkwardly for Johnson at the time, this was certainly not the case for the majority of Brits, even among those who backed Boris. In 2019, 7 in 10 thought Donald Trump had
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It’s happened. Reform are now ahead of Labour, according to a voting intention poll by YouGov. Reform leads the landmark poll with 25 points, with Labour languishing all the way down in second place on 24 points. Meanwhile, the Conservatives place third on 21 per cent, the Liberal Democrats are on 14 per cent and
To Westminster, where last week Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying bill began the evidence session of committee stage. But rather than provide much needed clarification about the scope of suicide bill, the three days of evidence sessions instead threw up even more questions about the safety of the legislation. After paying careful attention to the hours
Is Sir Keir Starmer determined to make himself more unpopular with the British public? The news of his latest Chagos offer is hardly likely to endear the Prime Minister to his critics – not least given the Labour leader has reportedly offered the Mauritians yet more money and ‘complete sovereignty’ of an island containing a
What caused the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to lose faith in its own jobs figures? After the pandemic, the ONS asked for the ‘national statistic’ quality mark to be taken off its estimates of whether Brits are working when response rates to its labour force survey collapsed. Fewer and fewer people were willing to
Oh dear. It’s a day ending in ‘y’ – so that means more bad news for Rachel Reeves. Today, the flack comes from an unlikely quarter: someone you might think was actually on her side. Sacha Lord, who quit last week after more than six years as Andy Burnham’s night-time economy advisor, has today decided
Mexico and Canada have been given a last-minute reprieve from Donald Trump’s tariffs. China has offered only the most half-hearted response to them. At this rate, even the European Union may be off the hook. Equity markets have rallied strongly as the trade war which seems about to crash the global economy appears to have