Politics Archives

Tuesday

24 February 2026

The NHS myth is cracking

Despite soaking up more than £200 billion of taxpayers’ money per year, the NHS and health policy more widely are two areas which have gone ignored. Since the coalition government’s half-baked reforms, Britain’s approach to health policy can be summarised as: give the NHS money and hope for the best. This approach is running out of road. Over the last few years, the NHS has faced unprecedented pressure. A combination of bad winters and the shocks of the pandemic have left it in a poor state, with high waiting lists and demoralised staff. Clearly something isn’t working. The current government has continued where the Tories left off, papering over the

Damian Thompson

How Russia is waging Holy War in Ukraine

32 min listen

On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dr Yuri Stoyanov – of SOAS university in London – joins Damian Thompson to reflect on the religious dimensions of the war once again. The theological gulf between Russia and Ukraine is perhaps comparable to the political one and, for now, seems insurmountable, with the war increasingly being framed in some spheres as a ‘Holy War’. You have to stretch back to the First World War to find a war within Christendom framed in these terms, but what effect is this having on the family of Orthodox churches across Europe and the Middle East? And how can we better understand

Tim Shipman

Peter Mandelson haunts Labour

13 min listen

Overnight, Peter Mandelson has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has not commented publicly in recent weeks, though he has previously denied any wrongdoing. How long will this row continue to haunt Labour? With more documents due to be released relating to his appointment as US ambassador, can the party contain the damage — or is this just the beginning? Elsewhere, Keir Starmer has made an unexpected visit to Gorton and Denton. Is this a show of confidence — or a last-ditch attempt to shore up support? Tim Shipman and John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair, join Megan McElroy

David Shipley

Reform’s plan for mass deportations

After Zia Yusuf’s announcement that Reform would create a ‘UK Deportation Command’ (UKDC), much of the media leapt to make comparisons with ICE in America. The Guardian described it as an ‘ICE-style deportation plan’, the Independent an ‘ICE-style UK border agency’, and even the Mail stated that ‘Reform is planning to create a British version of Trump’s ICE unit’. I spoke to Yusuf this morning, who was quick to dismiss these comparisons, telling me that ‘I have never wanted to create a British ICE’, and that ‘the reason why the media want to immediate call it a British ICE is that they want to take advantage of the very negative

Terry Barnes

Why Australia wants Andrew out of the line of succession

‘Australians don’t want a bar of this bloke, frankly.’ That’s what Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said today after calling for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to be banished from the line of succession to the throne. It’s not just in Britain that there’s public and media pressure for parliamentary action to remove Andrew’s succession rights It’s no exaggeration to say that Australians are revolted by the abundant evidence of Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with the disgraced financier and paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Their picture of him is an unpleasant and unsavoury man, undeserving of public sympathy. The latest revelations from the Epstein files, which led to last week’s arrest of the disgraced former prince, have not

Cristina Odone

Is there a simpler answer to the special needs crisis?

The Jesuits had it all wrong. They famously insisted: ‘Give me a boy at seven and I will give you a man.’ Schooling could change everything. Today, neuroscientists, educationalists and psychologists know that the clay is set much, much, earlier. Whether boy or girl, the brain and its neural pathways will be formed by the time the child is into their third year. This is even more true of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send): early detection of speech defects or cognitive failures can often reduce, and sometimes altogether erase, developmental issues. If the government really wants to address Send issues, there is a better alternative In the

Monday

23 February 2026

Lauren McEvatt, Dominic Grieve and David Lidington

Does parliament know how to legislate?

Tomorrow the Welsh Senedd votes on whether to give legislative consent to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. We write not to reopen the debate about the principles or ethics of assisted suicide. We write because the Bill’s treatment of Wales is a constitutional and legislative failure serious enough that it deserves to be named clearly, by people with the legal and political experience to do so. You do not need to be a supporter of devolution to find what follows troubling. You need only believe that when parliament creates institutions with defined responsibilities, it should legislate coherently with that fact. This Bill does not. Health is fully

Michael Simmons

Peter Mandelson arrested by Met Police

Peter Mandelson, our short-lived ambassador to the US, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. In a statement to journalists, the Met Police said: Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and has been taken to a London police station for interview. This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas. Moments before the Met’s statement, Mandelson was photographed being led out of his house by police. The move comes days after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, also under suspicion of misconduct in public office. The accusations

Freddy Gray

What fresh hell in Mexico?

34 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute to discuss the explosion of violence in Mexico over the weekend following the killing of ‘El Mencho’ – a cartel kingpin. Melissa explains what led to the killing of El Mencho, how the government and cartels are connected and what this means for America following ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour MP's 'dark shit' jibe

If you didn’t laugh at this Labour government, you would cry. The Anti-Corruption Minister has resigned over corruption; the Homelessness Minister quit over making people homeless. The Police Transport Minister went after being accused of lying to the police – while the Housing Secretary did not pay £40,000 tax on her house. Now – get this – the minister for inquiries is… the subject of an inquiry! Yes, that’s right: somehow Josh Simons is still clinging on at the Cabinet Office. The now-MP was formerly the head of the Labour Together think tank when it commissioned a 2023 report into the background of journalists reporting on them. Simons’ claims about

Tim Shipman

SEND plans: 'cost-cutting or reform'?

10 min listen

Bridget Phillipson has unveiled Labour’s long-awaited overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities system – a £4 billion reform designed to rein in spiralling costs and bring order to what MPs across the House describe as a broken model. Ministers insist this is reform, not retrenchment – but with councils under intense financial pressure and families fearful of losing hard-won support, Labour backbenchers are watching closely. Is this a genuine attempt to fix an unsustainable system, or just a cost-cutting exercise? Tim Shipman speaks to Isabel Hardman. Produced by Megan McElroy and Oscar Edmondson.

Joanna Williams

Labour’s special educational needs reforms don’t add up

Does Bridget Phillipson think that every child has learning difficulties? The government’s long-overdue overhaul of provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has now been unveiled, revealing a deeply troubling vision of schools. Today’s big announcement about SEND reform reveals Labour’s impoverished vision for schools Announced this morning is an additional £4 billion of funding, spread over three years, to support SEND pupils in mainstream schools. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, was quick off the blocks in condemning this amount as ‘barely a drop in the bucket of the investment necessary to drive real improvement in schools.’ Indeed, sums of around £20,000-£40,000 a

Steerpike

Watch: Martin Lewis confronts Kemi Badenoch

Oh dear. It seems that Martin Lewis, the self-styled ‘Money Saving Expert’, has come a bit of a cropper in his attempts to prove that he is the smartest one in the room. Kemi Badenoch was out on the airwaves this morning, promoting the Tories’ plan to cut the interest on student loans. But Lewis leapt at the chance to intervene, ambushing her on the sofa of Good Morning Britain. Classy, eh? The exchange came about after host Ed Balls challenged Badenoch on whether the Tory plan would help only former students in the highest-paying jobs. After she insisted this was not the case, Lewis began shouting from off-set before

Sam Leith

Does Andrew make the case for republicanism?

So: is the game up? Looking at the former Prince Andrew’s slumped posture, corpse-grey face and thousand-yard stare in the snatched photographs of him leaving police custody, you might be tempted to think so. He looked like Ebenezer Scrooge confronted by the Ghost of Christmas Future. The future certainly doesn’t hold anything very uplifting for this wretched, silly specimen – but will he take the monarchy with him? The Firm gets away with being secretive in all sorts of ways – not least around money. That must change There are two separate cases here, I think. One is: does the former Prince’s disgrace present a rational case for the abolition of the monarchy? The other is: does it create such a foul

Mark Galeotti

No, Zelensky: World War Three hasn’t started

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says that World War Three has already started. Speaking to the BBC on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion, it’s understandable why he would want to take this line, but he’s wrong. What is striking about Putin is the lack of a messianic ideology On an emotional level, Zelensky has seen millions of his citizens flee within and out of his country, its cities and infrastructure shattered, and Vladimir Putin’s propagandists denounce him variously as a Nazi apologist, drug addict and western puppet. Of course he will frame this in the most apocalyptic of terms. More to the point, Ukraine is now

Lois McLatchie Miller

Can Reform really make Britain Christian again?

Lent has barely begun, yet on the right of British politics the resurrection has already arrived. God, it seems, is back on the ballot. In the great schism of parties beginning with “re”, Rupert Lowe has launched his bid to “Restore Britain”, positioning himself as the more muscular alternative to Nigel Farage’s Reform. Restore promises to go further and faster – particularly on immigration and cultural decay – and faith has been placed front and centre. On launch day last week, Lowe declared: “Britain is a Christian country, and under a Restore Britain Government – it will remain a Christian country.” Reform swiftly discovered its own ecclesiastical zeal Not to be outdone, Reform swiftly discovered its

Patrick West

How Britain learnt to turn a blind eye to shariah

The more excitable and less well-educated elements of the liberal left are forever apt to observe that politics today resemble those of the 1930s, being prone to denounce a development or policy they disdain as being ‘just like Nazi Germany’. To be fair, they have a point. It’s not just the street brawls we’ve seen in Manchester and Lyon over the last week, between hard left and hard right youths, that should arouse such unnerving comparisons. It’s also because we are living in an age of appeasement. And this time it’s the liberal left who are doing the appeasing. This was a textbook case of appeasement: not a tactical retreat

Jonathan Sacerdoti

What’s wrong with Zionism, Hugh Laurie?

The question arose within hours of a death that should have remained a matter of grief. On 16 February, Dana Eden, co-creator and producer of the Israeli espionage series Tehran, was found dead in her hotel room at the Gatsby Athens. She was 52. Greek police are investigating and are treating the death as a possible suicide. Eden had been in Greece filming the programme’s fourth series. Tehran, first released in 2020, follows a Mossad hacker-agent sent to sabotage an Iranian nuclear facility, only to become trapped inside the country. Filmed partly in Greece and other locations standing in for Tehran, the series became an international success after its acquisition

Sunday

22 February 2026

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: Boris says troops should be sent to Ukraine

Boris Johnson: Britain should send troops to Ukraine now In an interview with the BBC, former prime minister Boris Johnson expressed regret that western allies have not given more decisive military and financial support to Ukraine, to bring the conflict to an end. Laura Kuenssberg, asked Johnson what specific action he would call for. Johnson said the West needed to ‘flip a switch in Putin’s brain’, so that he believes the outcome of the war will be a ‘free, sovereign, independent, westward facing Ukraine’. The former prime minister called for increased military and financial assistance, impounding Putin’s ‘shadow fleet’, and for non-combat British ‘boots on the ground’ in Ukraine. Johnson

Aria Schrecker

The generation that may never marry

Friends is still the most streamed show in the UK. Gen Z is relaxing to a sitcom that was set, roughly, when their parents met. The show mostly shows a world where dating is much like it is today. Of course, the apps do not exist yet, but hook-up culture is alive and well, there are several gay characters and pornography is pervasive. To the statistically uninformed, the universe that Friends is set in is very similar to ours. But in terms of marriage, the world has changed a lot since the 1990s. Most of the characters in Friends end up married or expecting to marry. Even most of the