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Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Trump’s Gaza plan is nothing but a mirage

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

What sets Sweden’s school shooting apart

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

Steerpike

Starmer snubs left-wing rebels as only four readmitted

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

James Heale

Should Starmer stand up to Trump?

14 min listen

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

Steerpike

Starmer hits out at Mauritian PM over Chagos comments

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

James Heale

Kemi let Keir off the hook on Chagos

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

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer ducks PMQ on Covid rule-breaking

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.

Ross Clark

Why should the NHS employ any diversity officers?

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

Steerpike

Labour MPs form anti-Reform pressure group

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

Wes Streeting’s war on NHS diversity doesn’t go far enough

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

Meghan Markle’s tone-deaf wildfire video is hard to stomach

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

Steerpike

Watch: Kay Burley retires from Sky on air

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

Can our justice system handle cases like Lucy Letby’s?

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

The real problem with CCHQ 

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

The audacity of Trump’s Gaza plan

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

Why Trump hates USAID so much

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

Trump’s popularity among Brits is rising

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

Reform in ‘poll’ position

13 min listen

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

Steerpike

Eleven lowlights from the assisted dying evidence session

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

Revealed: ONS blames Ring doorbells for dodgy jobs data

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

Steerpike

Burnham’s night czar eviscerates Reeves

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

What Trump’s tariff ‘opening salvo’ will teach him

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

Ian Williams

Trump’s tariff war with China is just getting started

Over the weekend, Donald Trump described his sweeping 10 per cent tariffs against Chinese goods as an ‘opening salvo’. Within minutes of them taking effect at midnight last night, Beijing retaliated with targeted tariffs of its own against US coal, liquified natural gas (LNG), farm equipment and cars. It also announced export controls on a

James Heale

Will Starmer choose Brussels or Trump?

Europe or America – the eternal British dilemma. Keir Starmer made clear he rejects such a binary approach in his Guildhall speech in December. But with Donald Trump threatening tariffs on the European Union, Labour’s attempts to ‘reset’ the European relationship face an almighty challenge. Yet that hasn’t deterred Nick Thomas-Symonds – Starmer’s trusted lieutenant

Starmer may come to regret his EU defence pact

Sir Keir Starmer has been on another overseas visit. On his 18th trip in seven months as prime minister, he travelled to Brussels yesterday to talk to European Union leaders about defence and security, an area on which he is keen to expand cooperation. His mission was both practical and symbolic: he is pursuing a

James Heale

Angela Rayner to create Islamophobia council

Today’s Telegraph splash could have been designed in a laboratory to trigger Tory tempers. After months of deliberation, the paper reports that Angela Rayner’s department now plans to create a council on Islamophobia. This will draw up an official government definition for anti-Muslim discrimination and provide advice to ministers on how best to tackle it.

Ross Clark

Asda and the absurdity of ‘work of equal value’ 

At last, some news of an industry in Britain that is flourishing. Unfortunately, it is one that is helping to suppress growth in every other sector of the economy. I am sure that the lawyers who have brought a case involving 60,000 female workers at Asda think they have won a famous victory after an

Katy Balls

Reform tops a YouGov poll for the first time

There’s reason for cheer at Reform HQ this morning: Nigel Farage’s party is leading Labour in a YouGov voting intention poll for the first time. According to the poll, Reform UK leads on 25 points with Labour in second place on 24 per cent and the Conservatives in third on 21 per cent. Meanwhile, the