Jawad Iqbal is a broadcaster and ex-television news executive. Jawad is a former Visiting Senior Fellow in the Institute of Global Affairs at the LSE
The best that can be said about Lord Mandelson’s change of heart over Donald Trump is that it shows how much he wants to be the next British ambassador to Washington. He is expected to be confirmed in the role shortly. Even so, Mandelson was taking no chances in an interview he gave to Fox
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, comes across as something of a political nerd, determined to bankrupt the country with his distinctive brand of net zero zealotry. Miliband has devised the answer to this image problem. He is looking to hire a vanity photographer – at considerable public expense – despite previously criticising politicians who did
Rishi Sunak (remember him?) is back in the public eye. The former prime minister has landed new jobs at Oxford and Stanford universities. The roles are his first since returning to the backbenches last year following the crushing Tory defeat at the general election in July. His time in Downing Street doesn’t look as bad
Sir Keir Starmer was explicit in his response to the Southport attack: Britain faces a new terror threat from “loners, misfits (and) young men in their bedroom(s)” radicalised by online violence. There is to be a public inquiry into the state failures that allowed Axel Rudakubana to murder three young girls in Southport in one
What a pig’s ear the government is making of its response to the grooming gangs scandal. Ministers have spent weeks resisting growing calls for a new and comprehensive national inquiry, insisting that this would take too long and get in the way of implementing measures to help victims. Now there’s been a change of heart, of
Some of football’s greatest names have been knighted for their achievements in the game. Sir Alf Ramsey received his gong for leading England to World Cup victory in 1966, an achievement unrivalled to this day. Sir Alex Ferguson became a footballing knight for turning Manchester United into serial winners of the Premier League. This exclusive
What exactly do the authorities hope to learn that they do not already know from the safeguarding review now underway into the violent death of 10-year old Sara Sharif? The omens are not good. Her father, Urfan Sharif, and her step-mother, Beinash Batool, subjected Sara to years of abuse Sharif, whose father and stepmother were found
Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host country for the 2034 World Cup tournament. It has been an open secret for some time that the Saudis would be given the nod. In the event, it turned out to be the easiest of contests, with no opponent and no actual vote – and all courtesy of
Trying to predict what comes next in Syria after the toppling of dictator Bashar al-Assad is a fool’s errand. It is hard not to be moved by the jubilant scenes in Damascus but we have been here before: Assad’s downfall evokes images and memories of far too many other recent uprisings in the region. The
The suits who run football in this country can always be relied upon to make a pig’s ear of things. The latest example of their capacity to cock up matters is the farce over this week’s return of the rainbow laces campaign in the Premier League. This campaign, now in its eleventh year, is an
The Commonwealth – whose 56 nations are meeting in the Pacific island nation of Samoa – looks set to defy Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer by putting slavery reparations on the agenda. The leaders of some Caribbean countries insist it is ‘only a matter of time’ until Britain bows to demands of handing over billions
What has become of Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former Downing Street chief of staff, who was rather unceremoniously removed from her official duties earlier this month? At the time of her defenestration, there was much soothing talk about how she was moving to an important new role as Keir Starmer’s envoy on a new
The Commonwealth is outdated, pointless and increasingly irrelevant. What better time to point this out than on the day when this historical oddity – born out of the ashes of the British empire – begins its biennial shindig? The 27th meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government summit gets underway in the Pacific island of
Do our new Labour rulers ever pause to think about how something they say or do might look to others? Do they consider, even for a nanosecond, how their behaviour in office or in private stacks up with the public positions they take, or how all this might look to ordinary voters outside the confines
Thomas Tuchel, the former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager, has emerged as the favourite to succeed Gareth Southgate as England manager. The Times reports that he could be unveiled later this week. It is believed that negotiations could proceed quickly, bringing to an end the FA’s search for a successor to Southgate, who quit after
The alleged involvement of agents of a foreign government in the murder of a citizen is a crime that violates national sovereignty and the established norms of international relations. Put simply, no government can ignore or overlook such actions. This is the reasoning behind Canada’s momentous decision to expel a group of Indian diplomats and
Here’s a question: what do crazy rich Indians want more than anything? The answer appears to be luxury watches, and the more the merrier. From January to July of this year, Swiss watch exports to India were up 20 per cent compared with the same period in 2023, and up more than 41 per cent
The appearance on our television screens of one Hamish Falconer, the newly-elected Labour MP for Lincoln, tells us much more about Keir Starmer’s government than meets the eye. Falconer is not exactly a household name, but has already been elevated to the role of junior minister in the Foreign Office. He is an ex-pupil of
It might be best described as the war for Keir Starmer’s ear in Downing Street, a battle to the bitter end between two of the Prime Minister’s most senior advisers. There was, in reality, only going to be one winner, and so it has come to pass. Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief adviser and architect
Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, has finally put an end to Whitehall’s worst-kept secret by formally announcing that he will quit at the end of the year. It means the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer can finally appoint his own man or woman in the role of the country’s most senior civil servant. Case is
